LeBron James is still the king of the Eastern Conference, and his Cleveland Cavaliers will (hopefully) be in their fourth straight NBA Finals this season.
According to ESPN’s BPI (Basketball Power Index), the Boston Celtics, not the Cleveland Cavaliers, have the best chance to make the Finals from the Eastern Conference. Their index takes into consideration an array of different details from the strength of schedule to the location of the game and just about everything between.
The one thing that the BPI lacks is reasoning. It takes only facts, just numbers and crunches them into a system to define every NBA team. It probably also has Isaiah Thomas’ injury play a huge factor in the Cavaliers’ scoring. LeBron James defies numbers. He defies the odds. Throughout his career, we’ve seen him prove people wrong, just like when he was down 3-1 to the Golden State Warriors in the 2016 NBA Finals.
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James is now entering his 15th season. He has made to the Finals in his last seven seasons, including three straight with the Cleveland Cavaliers. James is still at the pinnacle of his career. Last season, he averaged career-highs in both rebounds and assists at 8.6 and 8.7 respectively. This upcoming season probably won’t be any different.
The Boston Celtics did improve, but they still shouldn’t be rated about the Cavaliers. The Celtics, according to ESPN’s recent NBA Rank, added the No. 20 and No. 25 players in Gordan Hayward and Kyrie Irving. ESPN ranked LeBron James as the league’s top player, so having the No. 1 and 26 player (Kevin Love) along with several others in the top 100 and still not being better than their Eastern Conference rival seems a bit off. The Celtics improved, but so did the Cavaliers.
Until LeBron takes a step down, there won’t be an Eastern Conference team to truly rival him. I do think that the Celtics could put up an intriguing battle in the Eastern Conference, but it’s still a Cavs-Warriors series.
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People can predict the downfall of the Cavaliers, but until the postseason dawns on us and the games take place, there will be no changing my mind that LBJ is the King of the East.