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Cavs’ title team disrespected in FanSided’s ranking of NBA champs

By Robbie DiPaola

Photo by Garrett Ellwood/NBAE via Getty Images
Photo by Garrett Ellwood/NBAE via Getty Images /
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Let me start by saying when it comes to ranking teams and putting lists together, they are all subjective, and it is how that particular person or publication feels, and here’s what I believe in regards to the Cleveland Cavaliers’ championship winning squad.

With that being said, I will not beat around the bush. The 2015-2016 Cleveland Cavaliers being ranked as the 31st-best all-time NBA championship team by the FanSided Staff is a slap in the face.

The article brings up the same arguments we have all heard from the start. Yes, there were players on the Golden State Warriors, most notably Stephen Curry and Andre Iguodala, that were less than 100%.

But guess what?

This same list that wants to take into account these injuries for the Warriors ranks the 2015 Golden State championship team 17-best all-time in the NBA.

Why do I bring that up?

Well if we want to play the injury game, the Warriors did not play a team that entire postseason who had their starting point guard (h/t Rappler.com’s JR Isaga).

The New Orleans Pelicans (Jrue Holiday), the Memphis Grizzlies (Mike Conley), the Houston Rockets (Patrick Beverley), and the Cleveland Cavaliers (Kyrie Irving) all were missing a vital part of their starting lineup that year in the postseason against Golden State, yet somehow that Warriors team in 2015 ranks No.17, which is 14 slots ahead of where the Cavs are ranked.

If you remember back to 2015 as well, Kyrie was having a solid performance in his first NBA Finals game when he went down with that awful knee injury.

If Irving remains healthy, there is an argument to make for the Cavaliers possibly winning that series, but I digress.

While Curry was dealing with injuries in 2016, he was still out there. In my book, if you are healthy enough to play, then there is little room to use injuries as an excuse.

Also, the argument of the Draymond Green suspension in Game 5 of 2016 holds little weight with me because his suspension came in Game 5, with the Warriors holding a commanding 3-1 lead.

Yes, that Game 5 win is what propelled Cleveland to ultimately win the NBA Finals, but Green was still on the floor for the final two games, and in the Game 7 classic, Green put up 32 points (including six-of-eight from three-point range, per Basketball Reference), 15 rebounds and nine assists.

So while the Warriors missed Green in Game 5, his presence on the floor in Game 6 and 7 could have been enough to finish off Cleveland in 2016.

If I am putting together an all-time list, some factors for me that would push the Cavaliers championship up in the rankings for me would be the fact it was their first title in franchise history, and getting that championship, they had to take down a 73-win juggernaut.

Cleveland also made history that year, as they were the first-ever NBA team to come back from a 3-1 series deficit in the Finals. Plus, while we still make “Warriors blew a 3-1 series lead” jokes, enough credit still is not given to the Cavaliers for what they did in Games 5-7.

In that Game 5, James and Irving reportedly became the first teammates to score at least 40 points each in an NBA Finals game.

By no means am I saying the 2016 Cavaliers championship team should be ranked No. 1, but with what I listed above, I firmly believe they deserve a top 10-15 rating when it comes to ranking all of the NBA championship teams ever.

What makes these FanSided Staff rankings even more head-scratching to me is the fact that the Warriors two championships post-2016 are ranked in the TOP FIVE!

Now I will start by saying those two Warriors championship teams with Kevin Durant are both all-time great teams, and there is no denying that.

That 2016-17 Golden State team was simply untouchable in the postseason, going 16-1 and their lone loss came at the hands of the Cavaliers in Game 4 of the Finals in Cleveland, where the Cavs scored 86 first-half points and for the game shot 24-45 (53.3%) from beyond the arc (per Basketball Reference).

That 2017 Warriors title team ranks as one of the best NBA championship teams ever. The one I take more issue with is the 2018 Warriors championship team.

The Cleveland Cavaliers, while they had LeBron James, virtually had no chance to take down the Warriors. Thanks to an other-worldly performance by James (51 points, eight rebounds, eight assists, 59.4% shooting, per ESPN) Cleveland was in a position to take Game 1, but fell apart in overtime and never recovered.

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The Warriors’ toughest challenge in 2018 was the Houston Rockets in the Western Conference Finals, where they came back from down 3-2 to advance to the Finals. Speaking on the injury argument so many like to use, Chris Paul missed the final two games of that series last year.

Overall, the biggest argument I would make on the Cavaliers’ behalf is that their path to the title in 2016, was tougher than any of the Warriors’ three championship-winning trips (not including this season).

The Warriors never beat a 73-win team, and while they did come back from down 3-1 against the Oklahoma City Thunder in 2016 in the Western Conference Finals and came back against Houston in 2018, they primarily faced little adversity outside of that.

In the end, I do not want to take away from anything the Warriors have accomplished in recent years because they are indeed a dominant team on a historic run.

Former Cavs GM highlights how LeBron's East exit swung open door for Raps. dark. Next

This article is to highlight how great of an accomplishment the Cavaliers pulled off in 2016, because sometimes I get the feeling that those in the media try to downplay and make excuses to take away from Cleveland’s lone major sports title since 1964.