NBA Playoffs: Ranking Cavs Possible Finals Foes

Mar 3, 2015; Cleveland, OH, USA; Cleveland Cavaliers head coach David Blatt (left) and assistant

sit on the bench in the fourth quarter against the Boston Celtics at Quicken Loans Arena. Mandatory Credit: David Richard-USA TODAY Sports

Things are going very well for the Cleveland Cavaliers as we slowly approach the NBA Playoffs. The team is dominating since getting LeBron James back from injury and acquiring Timofey Mozgov, Iman Shumpert and J.R. Smith. Head Coach David Blatt has found a rotation that is working for him and Shawn Marion could return before the end of the regular season to help bolster the team even more.

We covered in the past how likely we believed in any of the teams in the East being able to beat the Cavs in a 7 game series. You can check that article out here. Now we want to look forward to possible NBA Finals opponents should the Cavaliers make it all the way. While the East has some interesting teams that could put up a good fight with the Cavs, the West has a bunch of highly talented squads that could make life difficult for the Cavaliers.

So we went about ranking them, not just based only on their talent but also on how much trouble their team specifically could give the Cavs. We will take a look at how they can give Cleveland trouble, where the Cavaliers may have an edge and what we would expect an NBA Finals series between the two teams to look like.

The West currently has 9 teams vying for 8 spots. So we will look at all 9 teams, starting with the team we rank as the easiest opponent for the Cavs going to the most difficult. We expect some disagreement and look forward to the conversation that follows.

Next: New Orleans Pelicans