The Boston Celtics have made moves to place themselves as the number one threat to LeBron James and The Cleveland Cavaliers in the eastern conference. However, another team is rising in the east and has built a contender to take over when LeBron’s reign of terror ends. We know the NBA is home to some of the best young talent in the world in the terms of basketball. Some of that talent resides in Milwaukee, where Bucks has put together a nucleus of young players who can go on and dominate the eastern in the next few season.
Are the young Bucks enough to knock off the king and the Cleveland Cavaliers now?
The Bucks are fresh off a season where they went 42-40 and clinched the six seed in the eastern conference. During this season we saw the rise of point guard Small Forward Giannis Antetokoumpo. In the 2016-17 regular season, Giannis averaged 22 Points Per Game, and 8 rebounds while also leading his team in every statistical category. He became the 2016-17 Most Improved Player of the year.
The Bucks also got improvement from Jabari Parker who had a career year last season averaging 20 points per game before going down with injuries. The Greek Freak and Jabari are both 22-years-old and are joined by other core pieces such as Thon Maker, Kris Middleton, and Malcolm Brogdon.
It is clear that the Bucks have the blueprint to become champions, maybe even a dynasty and Giannis ascension into stardom shows that this Bucks team may be a contender in the east.
There are many factors that go into the Bucks taking down LeBron James and ending his 9 straight NBA Finals run.
Lebron's old age
LeBron James is turning 35 in the next three years.
He has also posted 27.Points per game grabbing 7.3 rebounds and getting 7.0 assist while shooting over 40% from the field for a career average. LeBron, when he needs to has shown dominance these last few seasons and is still considered the best player in the world. He can easily still put up those numbers, but he has also shown regression in scoring and on the defensive end.
Being left on all NBA defense teams for the last three seasons may be a sign of LeBron entering his twilight years. LeBron is not immune to father time, and only a few true NBA all-time greats stay productive past the age 35. It is a stretch to believe that a post 35 LeBron James is still can produce as he was at the age of 28 or 22. We even saw Michael Jordan retire at 35 so it safe to assume that we may be seeing the beginning of the decline of LeBron James.
Eastern Conference
Many people have come and challenged the king's throne in the East. The 11 Chicago Bulls with MVP Derrick Rose, The Big 3 Boston Celtics from 2012, The Self Combusting yet dangerous Indiana Pacers, The sixty win Atlanta Hawks, the Toronto Raptors and last year the Boston Celtics.
All of these teams have tried to take the crown from LeBron James and failed at the hands of his greatness. Though those teams had all stars, future Hall of Famers, they lacked the player to match up against LeBron James. Giannis is the player who can rebound, pass and defend a little like LeBron. Also, Giannis is a star who can potentially be a top 5 player in our league. We are finally starting to see Giannis enter his prime and LeBron James has never faced up against another top 5 talent in the Eastern Conference Finals.
Everything is blowing up
The Cleveland Cavaliers are self-combusting, and The Bucks are a match-up nightmare for the Boston Celtics. This off season we saw Paul George get traded to The Oklahoma City Thunder, Jimmy Butler get traded to the Wolves, and Paul Millsap sign with the Nuggets.
Three consistent pillars of the eastern conference who’s have become rebuilding teams after failing to build around their all stars and have failed to stop LeBron. The Cleveland Cavaliers are also dealing with their off the court drama with Kyrie Irving potentially leaving by trade, and we can see the cracks in the Cleveland Cavaliers expanding from the defensive issues from last season. Also, We see to forget that Bucks can go toe to with Milwaukee. They both have youth on the wing and excellent floor spacing, but Milwaukee Defensive is the difference in a potential Bucks/Celtics match up.
Overall, we haven't seen Milwaukee rise to that level of greatness grasping the brass ring and becoming a title contender competing with the likes of the Warriors and Cavaliers but, they are young core and emerging have superstars in Parker and Giannis anything is possible.
