Ty's 2017-2018 NBA Preview: Playoffs and Award Predictions

With the 2017-18 NBA season kicking off tonight, god am I excited, I have one final preseason piece for everyone. As I promised yesterday, today I have all of my predictions. This will include my playoff teams from each conference, plus the playoff teams if they went with the 16 best records, the conference finals, the NBA finals, and all the award winners, including finals MVP. Anyway, lets get to it.

First off, I want to do the playoff teams from each conference. I will write them in order, counting from 1-8. I'll start with the East because it is so much easier than the West. The East is a joke. It was so damn easy to pick the 8 teams. So, I have Cleveland, Boston, Washington, Milwaukee, Toronto, Miami, Charlotte and Detroit ever so slightly over the 76ers. I have no faith in Detroit, I believe they were in the 20's in my countdown, but they are a better bet for the playoffs, in my opinion, this year than Philadelphia. But, it doesn't really matter. It is going to be Cleveland going to the finals. They will face either Boston or Washington in the East finals, but do not count out Milwaukee. I really feel like Giannis Antentekoumpo can will this team to some playoff wins, and I would not be totally shocked if the Bucks make the East finals. But, again, Cleveland will win the East with relative ease. They may have gotten older, but they have a better roster than any other team in the East, and they still have LeBron James. All that dude does is go to finals, and sometimes win them.

As far as the West, the 4 teams at the top were easy, but then it gets really difficult. There are about 7 teams vying for the 4 final spots in the West. As far as the seeds go, I have Golden State, OKC, Houston, San Antonio, Denver, Minnesota, New Orleans and Portland. This leaves out Memphis and the Clippers. Both teams have the talent to get to the playoffs, but I see too many things getting in their way. Memphis has no one outside of Mike Conley Jr and Marc Gasol. The Clippers best players are bound to get hurt. Danilo Gallinari is already hurt. Blake Griffin will get hurt. Patrick Beverly is bound to miss time. It always happens to the Clippers, so I do not see that changing at all this year. And while I think the Utah Jazz will play great defense, and really push for a playoff spot, the West is too good and they will miss out barely. As frustrating as it is to write, the Warriors will easily get to the Finals for a fourth straight time. They may go undefeated again on their way back to the Finals. As far as their Western Conference Finals opponent, I have them facing OKC. I am not too sure why, maybe I just want the Thunder to face KD, but I feel like, once the Thunder's big three figure it out, they are going to be very, very good. Chris Paul and James Harden will choke, they always do. The Spurs do not have enough behind Kawhi and LaMarcus Aldridge to really push. And the four other teams, the Warriors would dominate.

So we will have the inevitable Cleveland-Golden State finals for the fourth straight year. The funny thing too, even with my top 16 teams, which I will get to in a moment, I'd still have the Cavs and Warriors in the Finals. As far as just getting the top 16 teams in the playoffs, leaving the conferences and division winners and all that nonsense out, just flat out taking the 16 teams with the best records, I'd have, in order, Golden State, Boston, OKC, Houston, San Antonio, Cleveland, Washington, Denver, Minnesota, Milwaukee, Toronto, Miami, New Orleans, Portland, Utah and Charlotte. So, that gives 9 West teams and 7 East teams. I really struggled with figuring out who the 16th seed would have been. I went with Charlotte, but I really thought long and hard about the Clippers, again, I remembered their poor health and lack of any kind of solid guards, and Memphis, but I remembered they only have 2 great players, and a bunch of mediocre role players. But again, even with Cleveland being the team with the 6th best record, they would still face off with Golden State in the Finals. Both outcomes reveal the same result for me.

So, as far as the champ, it is the Warriors. They are going to easily win the Finals once again. They are too good and too loaded. They could even take some injuries to key guys, and they'd still walk to the title. The Warriors are too god damn good to be beaten. If they do not win the Finals I'd be shocked. They are that great. In fact, I think the Warriors will win 70 plus games during the season, and go undefeated in the playoffs and completely sweep their way to a title. The Warriors will be your 2018 NBA champs.

As far as award winners goes, lets start with the smaller ones first. For sixth man of the year, I'll go with Tristan Thompson. He has totally embraced his move to the bench, and I think he is going to be great off the bench for the Cavs. He is a perfect energy guy, and I think he will destroy second unit centers. I suppose 6th man of the year is probably the "smallest" award the NBA has. Now for the "big" ones. For coach of the year I have Jason Kidd. I love what the Bucks have going, and much to my surprise, a lot of that has to do with Kidd's direction. He has turned himself into a solid NBA coach, and with the way the Bucks are rising, I see Kidd getting another award to add to his trophy case. For rookie of the year I have Dennis Smith Jr. I love everything that Smith Jr has going for him. He is hyper athletic, he has great teammates, he will run the pick and roll to perfection with guys like Nerlens Noel and Dirk Nowitzki, and he is going to put up gaudy numbers because he will given the keys to the Mavericks offense. He is in an ideal situation for a rookie, and he has something to prove after "dropping" to 9th in the draft. For defensive player of the year I have Rudy Gobert. There is no better rim protector in the NBA, and he will be the best defender on one of the best defensive teams in the NBA. For Finals MVP I have Steph Curry finally getting his. He has won 2 regular season MVP's and 2 titles, but he hasn't gotten that Finals MVP yet. That changes this year. It is his turn after Andre Iguodala winning the first, and KD winning last year. And the final, and most important award, the regular season MVP, I have Kevin Durant. He is going to go off this year, and with a full season, a title and a finals MVP under his belt, he is going to win his second regular season MVP. I was going to go with LeBron, but I just feel like KD is going to tear the league apart this year. Hopefully this doesn't spell doom for him, seeing as David Johnson and Deondre Francois, my preseason NFL MVP and preseason Heisman winner, both went down with season ending injuries in week one of the NFL and college football seasons. I don't think anything bad will happen to KD though. He has suffered through enough injuries.

Anyway, I am so excited to watch the NBA kick off tonight. This is my favorite time of the year because now I have college football, the NFL and now, the NBA. There will always be some kind of sports event that I love on during almost every day of the week. What a great time to be a sports fan. Enjoy the NBA season everyone, and thanks for reading my preseason countdown and picks. I'm sure I'll have many pieces during and after the season, but this is how I see everything just a few hours before the actual season tips off. I cannot wait.

Ty

Ty is the Pop Culture editor for SeedSing, the other host of the X Millennial Man Podcast, and the greatest basketball writer on the internet. 

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We Need to Talk About the NFL National Anthem Protests

There was a ton of things that happened in the sports world this weekend, and I will cover it all this week. But today, I have to talk about the biggest thing, and that was the mass protests prior to kickoffs at all the NFL games this weekend.

I LOVED all the protests that happened. When that moron came out and called Colin Kapernick a "son of a bitch" at a rally in Alabama, that was one of the lowest marks in American history. This golfing oaf goes to one of the most racist states in America, holds a rally, which is insane, and calls out an African American that was using his free speech better than most. I thought that was going to set all social media ablaze, but after Steph Curry said that he wouldn't visit the White House, after KD and Andre Iguodala had already said the same, that dip shit says some of the most childish shit I have ever heard. He "rescinded" the invite before it was even given out, and he took to Twitter to do it.

First off, cancel this douchebag's Twitter account. People have been thrown off Twitter for much, much less. All this orange piece of human garbage does is incite hate on your website. Suspend his account. And like a child that has been told that a friend of his or hers is not coming to party and says, "I didn't want them here anyway", that is exactly what this asshole, racist blob of flesh did. He is the mean guy or girl from high school. He is the frat boy that gets upset when he gets rejected and talks behind that person's back. He is the guy at your job that NO ONE wants to hang out with. He is THE WORST.

I was so happy to see all the love and support that Steph Curry got from athletes and all other people across the world. Everyone was stomping on the monster that presides, when he isn't golfing or staying at one of his tacky ass hotels, in the White House. A lot of athletes came to Curry's defense, but LeBron's was the best. He called him a "bum", and said, "it was an honor to come to the White House until you got there". He dunked all over that hateful piece of trash. It was glorious.

After the big time backlash for pulling the invite, later in the day, the UNC men's basketball team that won the tournament last year also declined their invite. Woo Hoo! Again, I was thrilled. This horrible person in office craves the support and attention from athletes, and they are spitting in his face, and I couldn't be happier. The Pittsburgh Penguins had to be the one downer, saying they'd go to the White House, but then I remembered that hockey is stupid and filled with idiotic white guys. No one cares about hockey or NASCAR or any white trash sport. The fact that the NFL, NBA and now even the MLB are coming out against this "administration" is truly great. With all the Steph Curry and LeBron James and the NBA making statements saying that they will not only accept, but stand behind people that protest, I was very happy.

Then the whole "son of a bitch" stuff came back up. After that failed business man attacked Curry and James, again on Twitter, he said some BS about any player that "kneels during the anthem should be suspended or fired", I was so stoked to see the response. I had to work yesterday, but I was able to follow all the anthem protests via my phone, and boy were they plentiful. The Ravens and Jags started off the day with the majority of the players kneeling during the anthem. We were off to a great start. Then, the Steelers upped the ante, by all of the players, excluding one veteran, staying in the locker room for the anthem. From there on out, it was a sea of players sitting, kneeling or locking arms. Hardly anyone had their hands on their hearts during the anthem. Again, I was so happy to see these millionaires taking a big, big stand. Even guys like Tom Brady and Aaron Rodgers participated in the protests. This was great. After a ton of NFL players took to Twitter to bad mouth the guy Russia got to be "president", they took to the field and showed their solidarity for each other, and protested this hateful and hurtful "government". Hell, even Robert Kraft, Shad Khan and Rex Ryan came out and chastised this oaf, and they all supported him.

As I stepped back and watched and was thrilled at what I was seeing, I did have a few things that crept into my mind that I wished had happened in addition to the mass protests. I wanted every NFL player to kneel. I'm fine with the locking of arms, and I love the sitting down, but I wished every single player took a knee. That would have been awesome. I was also upset at ESPN for giving Rex Ryan a lane to talk abut someone that he supported, but they tried to drag Jemele Hill's name through the mud for saying the same things on her personal Twitter account. They can't just pick and choose when they want someone to do what they say. And a little part of me wanted all the teams to protest like the Steelers. That would have been amazing. But all in all, I was very happy with what I saw yesterday from the NFL, for the most part. People always say, "don't mix sports and politics", but now is the perfect time to do this. Sports figures are more famous than ever, and they hold a ton of weight with younger generations. I love that they are showing young kids that it is okay to rebel against what most of the country considers a hurtful, hateful, racist, homophobic and Islamophobic "government". I've been incredibly embarrassed to be an American for 8 months now, but with these athletes, owners and commissioners coming to the support of their players yesterday, it was a step in the right direction.

Lets keep it up. Lets keep fighting. With good people making good choices and fighting for the right things, we can be better. Hell, we could even return to some kind of normalcy if we keep fighting the injustices that the current "government" keeps trying to push on us. Lets keep getting our voice out there. Keep protesting and keep fighting.

Ty

Ty is the Pop Culture editor for SeedSing and the other host of the X Millennial Man Podcast. For the very first time in his entire sports writing life, he is on the same side as Roger Goodell. Trump is so bad that he made Ty and Goodell agree on something.

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It Would Be Nice to Have a Competitive NBA Finals

Because Ty is the most boss of all internet writers he refuses to stop creating awesome content, even when he is on a family vacation. His loquaciousness will be blunted while he enjoys his undisclosed tropical getaway. Each piece will be some quick thoughts on some current things going on, nothing political of course.

Today, I have some quick thoughts on the first 2 games of the NBA Finals. So far, Golden State has dominated. In game one, they were all over the Cavs and they could not be stopped. They scored at will, and after the first quarter, basically, it was pretty clear that the Warriors were going to win going away. The first quarter was great though. It was fantastic basketball, with the best players in the game, currently, playing their best. LeBron was awesome, as always. Kyrie looked great in bursts. Steph looked like Steph from 2 years ago. KD was on a whole other level from everyone else that night though. He looked unstoppable, reigning threes and dunking the ball with authority any time the lane was open, which was often. The Cavs tried to play the Warriors game, and by the third quarter, they were tired and they looked beat. LeBron can only do so much, and his only teammate that helped even a little bit was Kyrie. Love rebounded a ton, but only scored about 15 points. Tristan Thompson, JR Smith, Kyle Korver, Iman Shumpert, they were all useless. They might as well not even suited up.

I figured, much like everyone else, that the Cavs would come out with a better game plan in game 2, and they did, but only for the first half. The game was a ton of fun for 24 minutes. LeBron was attacking the rim, Kyrie was going to the rim as well. They were both going hard and either getting lay ups or getting fouled and going to the free throw line. Kevin Love was on fire too. He was making all his open jumpers, he was rebounding like he did when he was in Minnesota and he looked halfway decent on defense, which is all you can really ask of him. Golden State was just as good. Better, actually. KD quietly scored 17 in the first half, and was an absolute monster on defense. Draymond was in early foul trouble, but that didn't stop him from making crisp passes, guarding multiple positions and starting fast breaks. Klay Thompson looked to be getting out of his slump, making a lot more shots than he has all of the 2017 playoffs. Most importantly, Steph was otherworldly. He was matching LeBron's layups with threes, or free throws. He wasn't hitting the three like he usually does, and he was a bit careless with the ball, but he shot 10 free throws in the first quarter, and when he did hang on to the ball, he was dropping dimes. The Warriors led by 3 at the half. Both teams looked really good, and the Cavs looked like they may have figured something out on defense. 

Then the second half happened. The Cavs, once again unable to play Tristan Thompson at all, tried to play small and fast, and the Warriors destroyed them. They had almost 40 points in the third, taking an almost 20 point lead into the fourth. Steph was dominant. KD started to hit threes and blocked any shot that came near him. Klay was hitting jumpers again. David West was even contributing, as was Zaza Pachulia. The scariest thing about their third quarter, Draymond barely played and the Warriors still gained an enormous lead.

The Cavs need to make a big change. They were in this same spot last year, but Steph was hurt, Klay was starting to go cold and they did not have KD, they had Harrison Barnes. This looks a whole lot different. Two games in, two blow outs, and I don't know what the Cavs can do to even it up, or even win one game for that matter. LeBron is playing out of his mind, but it just doesn't seem to matter, and he has not been good on defense. The Cavs can't play small because that is what the Warriors want, and they can't play their bigs together, so I don't know what the solution is. I'm still a bit hopeful that this series can get better. I know I picked a sweep, but come on, the Cavs have LeBron. But after 2 games, the Warriors have looked absolutely dominant, and I do not know what the Cavs can do. LeBron is playing great, Kyrie and Love have both had really good games, and the Warriors have still blown them out in the first 2 games.

We will see what happens Wednesday night back in Cleveland. A win by the Cavs can completely turn this series around, but I do not know if that will happen. The Cavs have played pretty decent, the Warriors are just a far superior team. LeBron cannot do it all alone, and the Warriors have 4 of the top 15 players in the game, 2 of which are top 5 players, and they look unbeatable right now. We will see if something changes in a few days, or if the Warriors are going to cruise to a title.

Ty

Ty is the Pop Culture editor for SeedSing, the other host of the X Millennial Man Podcast, and the greatest basketball writer on the internet. 

Follow Ty on instagram and twitter.

SeedSing is funded by a group of awesome people. Join them by donating to SeedSing.

Was the 2017 NBA All Star Weekend Worth a Watch?

Next year the game should be played on the blacktop of any local school

Last weekend was NBA All Star weekend. This is a three day period that I very much look forward to. I love all the extra stuff that the NBA does leading up to the All Star game on Sunday night. I watch it all. I watch the skills competition, the celebrity game, the three point contest, the rising stars game and the dunk contest. I usually find it all very, very enjoyable. In fact, I wrote last year around this time that I thought that the dunk contest was back after the show that Zach Lavine and Aaron Gordon put on, even though some think that Gordon got robbed, I personally do not. For the most part, last year's skills competition, three point contest, dunk contest, I found it all very exciting. I was very hopeful that this year would be the same.

Unfortunately, All Star weekend was a pretty big let down this year. It was quite dull in fact. The rising stars game was fun, I do have to say. It was cool to see the World rising stars play the US rising stars. I like that format since the NBA is a global phenomenon. Jamal Murray looked every bit as good as people said he was leading up to the draft and Johnathan Simmons is an inspiration to guys that may not think they have a shot at the NBA, but if they put in the work, they can make it. Other than those 2, Nikola Jokic and Karl Anthony Towns were the only other standouts.

The celebrity game prior to that was a complete dud. Winn Butler from Arcade Fire takes it way, way too seriously. Master P was an absolute nightmare. Go watch the "highlights". The famous NBA impersonator, his name escapes me now, is a really good player, but he was trying way too hard to capitalize on his 15 minutes of fame. The only true highlight, and what saved the game, was the 7 year old child with a rare disease coming on the court, showing some sick dribbling skills and draining his only shot attempt. That kid and that moment was great. He should have been the MVP of the game, not only for the shot, but for the whole weekend. This kid was so funny and so much fun to watch allAll Star weekend long.

Then, we went to Saturday night. I recorded all of the competition stuff because I did not want to watch commercials so I could fully enjoy each event. They started off with the skills competition, and unfortunately, that was the "best" part of the night. I like the new setup of "Bigs" versus "Littles". It's pretty cool to see these big guys, each 6'9 or taller, going up against guards who are wonderful at the skills they put in the event. I was certain that Isaiah Thomas was going to win. He did great in the first two rounds, breezing by the completion, but when he went up against Gordon Hayward, he could not knock down the three and Hayward made one on his fourth try. Kristaps Porzingis, as far as "Bigs" went, looked pretty impressive. He was dribbling by the cones easily, putting the pass through the net with no problem, making the layup and dribbling down court for the pull up three. He breezed by all the "Bigs", and faced Hayward for the title. Again, Porzingis eased his way to victory, draining a pull up three with ease. It was an okay start to the night.

But, it got worse from there.

The three point contest was next, and I was hoping for Klay Thompson to do something like he did last season, but he did not even make it out of the opening round. In fact, most of the shooters looked a bit off all night. Shots were either short or very long. On some racks guys would find a rhythm but on the next rack, they'd brick 4 of the 5 shots. Wes Matthews and CJ McCollum did not do well. As I said, Klay was bounced before the second round. The only 2 who did any good were Kyrie Irving and Eric Gordon, and that is who made it to the finals. They had a decent final, it went to a 60 second overtime, and Gordon came out on top. But, I think it was partly due to the fact that Irving got tired and knew he needed to save himself for the All Star game on Sunday night. There were no amazing numbers put up by any contestant and the final, even with an overtime, was pretty bland.

The dunk contest was next, and this was a flaming bag of garbage. First off, no Zach Lavine. He said he wasn't going to do it before he got injured, but man did the dunk contest need him. At least we had Aaron Gordon, and his first attempt, with the drone, could have been amazing. But, Gordon looked like he was tired, and he just did not have it in him to do anything coming close to what he did last year. It took him four attempts on the first try with the drone before he finally put one dunk through the hoop. By then though, he already looked defeated. Glenn Robinson III had a pretty good first round dunk, dunking over 2 people backwards, but they gave him a perfect 50. No way was that dunk a 50. DeAndre Jordan should not have been in this contest. Seven footers never really do anything great in dunk contests. They are so big and do not have to have the amazing vertical that shorter guys have to do these amazing dunks. Jordan dunked over a DJ booth, but it was not that interesting, or that hard for a pro, for that matter. He was scored accordingly. Then there was the unknown Derrick Jones Jr. All week leading up to this contest people talked about what a leaper he is, and how he was going to replace Lavine no problem. Well, his leaping ability is nothing to shake your head at. In fact, I was very impressed at how high he can jump. But, the problem, he kept missing dunks. It took him 4 attempts to put one through in the first round. This contest hearkened back to the days of Nate Robinson, who I believe one time attempted like 25 dunks before putting one in, and that is not a good thing. By the time a dunker is on his third or fourth try, as a viewer, I check out. It is not impressive to me anymore. Derrick Jones Jr eventually put down a sweet windmill off a pass off the side of the backboard that he also put between his legs, but other than that, the contest was a total waste. Glenn Robinson III won, but it was basically by default due to all the misses Derrick Jones Jr had in the final round. This dunk contest stunk. It was real bad. I knew last year's would be hard to follow up, but this was a nightmare. It was boring and pointless.

Finally, we had the All Star game on Sunday night. The game went exactly as I expected. The dunks were so much better in the game than they were in the dunk contest. Giannis Antentekoumpo threw down thunderous dunk after thunderous dunk. Anthony Davis was hammering home alley oops. LeBron was putting on a show. Steph Curry got in a few dunks. John Wall was going hard with his left hand. Any dunk in the game was better than any dunk in the dunk contest. But, a lot of dunks were missed too. That was kind of a bummer.

No defense was played, but I definitely thought that was going to happen. People that are complaining about the lack of defense are the same people that would complain if these guys went out and tried as if the All Star game is not a glorified exhibition. They are the same people that praise guys like Pete Rose when he runs over a catcher in the MLB All Star game. They are all old, curmudgeon sports writers that claim the game is not competitive and needs to be changed. It does not. The people tuning in want to see a million points. I was hopeful that at least one of the teams would eclipse 200 points. I do not expect the players to go 100 percent on defense and I expect the players to let these guys get off crazy dunks and shoot open shots. I say again, it is an exhibition game. I do not want players to hurt themselves trying too hard in the All Star game. I was completely fine with all the points and broken records and lack of defense. None of that stuff bothered me. I think it is great that Anthony Davis shattered Wilt Chamberlin's scoring total in the All Star game. I loved seeing him go for 52, in his home arena. I loved his array of dunks. I do not care that he took 39 shots. The people complaining about that need to let it go. It was known that everyone on the West was going to defer to Davis. I also loved seeing Russell Westbrook go for 40 plus, KD getting a triple double, LeBron putting on a dunk show, everything Giannis did. I thought it was a very entertaining All Star game, and the second best thing from the weekend, behind only the 7 year old kid.

2017 in New Orleans was a very inconsistent All Star weekend. There were 2 good things, the game itself and the kid, but everything else I thought was pretty rough. I wonder if this will lead to some changes. I guess we will have to wait until next year to find out. 

Ty

Ty is the Pop Culture editor for SeedSing and the other host of the X Millennial Man Podcast. He will maybe give the NFL Pro Bowl another shot if a team can score over 200 points. Just don't get in Kirk Cousins way. Follow Ty on instagram and twitter.

SeedSing is funded by a group of awesome people. Join them by donating to SeedSing.

Ty Tells You Who Will Win the NBA Finals and All the Other Awards

Lots of game balls to give out

I finished my 10 day NBA preseason countdown yesterday, so today, I will give you my finals prediction, award predictions and some surprises, be they good or bad, that I think will happen this upcoming season.

Let's start with the finals.

I don't see how this is not part three of Cavs-Warriors. They are both the superior teams in their respective conferences. They have no real challengers. Some will say the Cavs will be pushed by the Raptors, Celtics or Pacers. The Raptors are perpetual underachievers. The Celtics don't have a super star, ball dominant, get you the tough points when you need them type of guy. The Pacers have no one that can defend both LeBron and Kyrie Irving. The Cavs are just so much better than any team in the East. The Warriors have no one, and I mean no one, that should slow them down one bit. They have the 3 of the 4 best players in the league in their starting five. They have scorers and playmakers all over the floor. As far as the Spurs being a threat, Kawhi Leonard can only guard one of those guys. The Clippers can't stop a pick and roll to save their lives, and the Warriors own them. OKC lost KD, and Westbrook will not be able to beat them alone, even though he will certainly try. The Trailblazers are just not on their level. The Warriors have such an easy path, it's ridiculous.

As stated, we will have a third straight rematch. The Warriors should win this title in no less than 5 games. LeBron will get one, he always does, but the Warriors are absolutely stacked, and anything less than a title would be deemed a disappointment. They will try and talk down the high expectations, but with a team like this, they should be huge, huge favorites.

As far as MVP goes, I mean, LeBron should probably win every year, but he won't this season, unless he wants to. All he has to do is try and play hard every night, and he could walk away with it. But, he has a ton of mileage on his legs, so I don't think he will play as many games this year that would be needed to win the MVP. As far as other contenders, Steph and KD and Klay will all cancel each other out. Those three on the same team will be lethal, but none will separate themselves as MVP. James Harden will score a ton, but he will play no defense, so that will not get him many votes. Russell Westbrook may put up ridiculous numbers, but he will play out of control a lot, shoot too many shots and that will cost him the MVP. He will be fun to watch, but I bet very infuriating at times as well. All these guys are great, but I think that Kawhi Leonard will take the next step and win the MVP this year. The Spurs are now his team, I think he will take that next step offensively and he is the best defender in the league. It may sound crazy, but I think Kawhi is going to become that superstar that we all expect him to be.

Coach of the year is going to go to Tom Thibodeau, unless the T'Wolves fall flat on their faces. Everyone has already penciled him in, so the award is his to lose. The T'Wolves have looked really good in the preseason, and if they finish above .500, he is a shoe in for the award.

I think Kawhi Leonard will double down and not only win the MVP, but also defensive player of the year. As I have said too much the past two days, he is the best defender, hands down, in the NBA. There is no equal.

Rookie of the year is going to go to Kris Dunn. He will usurp Ricky Rubio as the starter in Minnesota, and he looks ready to play right now. I do like Buddy Hield, he will score a ton, Joel Embiid, he has looked unstoppable in preseason and Brandon Ingram will get looks, but he is too skinny and needs to toughen up. But, Dunn will pass all these guys and play important minutes on a team that could possibly push for the playoffs, and he will play well.

As far as some surprises, I think OKC will struggle, but still get in the playoffs. Losing a player like KD is going to hurt a hell of a lot more than they are letting on. Westbrook will play like a man on fire, but he needs help from guys that haven't had this much on their plates in their NBA careers. The Celtics will be the third best team in the East. A lot of people have them as the surefire 2 seed, behind the Cavs, but I think the Pacers will snatch that 2 seed from them. The Pacers have scoring all over the floor, and with Nate McMillan as their new head coach, they will run up and down the court and score tons of points, while playing high level defense. The dunk contest won't be as good as last year, but it is starting to become must watch TV for NBA fans again. The dunk contest was in the toilet for almost a decade, but last year was one of, if not the, best dunk contests ever. I also love that Vince Carter is saying that he might enter this year. I'd love that.

And one last thing, the NBA is so watered down, I would suggest to everyone out there, only watch the Cavs, Spurs and Warriors, as well as your team. There is no point, if you are not a fan of either of these teams, to watch a midseason game between the Nets and Hornets. Neither of those teams will make any difference in the final outcome, so who cares. There are only 3 really good teams, then the rest. Get ready for a third straight rematch, and a lot of the same stuff we have seen for the last few years.

That's it for the NBA. Thanks for reading, and tomorrow, I will have my NCAA men's basketball preview. I will also have my "Eric Andre Show" and "Bar Rescue" recaps next week for everyone, I have just been hyper focused on basketball, since the season is right around the corner. It's very exciting.

Ty

Ty is the Pop Culture editor for SeedSing and the other host of the X Millennial Man Podcast. The NBA may be watered down, but Ty believes in drinking plenty of water. Make sure you get the good stuff. The Warriors would be like the Fiji of bottled water. Follow Ty on instagram and twitter.

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Ty Tells You How each NBA Team can Win the Title: Spurs, Cavaliers, and Warriors

Before I get to my final 3 teams on my NBA countdown, I have to address something Rockets GM Daryl Morey said on the Ringer's "NBA Show" from yesterday. He said, and I am not making this up, that "James Harden is the best passing 2 guard of all time".

Is he out of his god damn mind!? I mean, I understand backing your franchise player, but come on, does he not have a television, or is he blind?! I have never once seen Harden make a clean, crisp pass to an open teammate. He either holds the ball for 20 seconds, then shoots it, drives to the basket to try and draw the foul, or jacks up a contested three. That is blasphemous, and shows how out of touch Daryl Morey truly is.

Had to get that off my chest.

Anyway, the final three teams today. The cream of the crop. I think you all can glean who I have. It's pretty obvious, because these are the only three teams that have a real shot at the title. It may only be 2 of these teams, but I have three teams left. GM's, coaches and talking heads on sports shows will say that the gap is closing, and other teams, i.e., the Celtics and Pacers and T'Wolves are coming, but they are blowing smoke. There are only three real teams in this league, and it's been that way for the past three seasons. On with the countdown.

At number 3, I have the San Antonio Spurs. Yeah, Tim Duncan is retired, he is an all time great and surefire first ballot hall of famer, and yes, Boris Diaw is gone, but as long as Greg Poppovich is the head coach, the Spurs will be perennial contenders. I love Tim Duncan, he was so much better than any player from his generation, but lets be honest, he was on his last legs a few years ago. He was still putting up numbers, despite playing on one leg, but he was older and his time had come. I actually like the Pau Gasol signing. He will fill in just nice in Duncan's spot. He will probably put up better offensive numbers, and his legs aren't gone yet. It was a good decision on both parts. Manu and Tony Parker are still plugging along. Manu is definitely a few steps slower, doesn't attack like he used to and misses more than he makes, but he is still a threat, somehow. He does the little things this team needs him to do. Tony Parker seems so much older than he actually is, but he still has that killer floater and runs the offense very well, but he is a total liability on defense. That's of no matter though, because the Spurs have the best defender in the game in Kawhi Leonard. He is absolutely lock down on defense on all opponents best players. He is the only guy that I have ever seen totally shut down LeBron. His offensive game has gotten so much better every year. He is becoming a true star, he just needs to accept that. I know that LaMarcus Aldridge's name has come up in trade rumors recently, but I don't think he is gong anywhere. He fit in very well with this team last year, and I like him on this team. He is a great inside out forward/center, and he has become a better defender. Danny Green is still there, and he is still a great defensive player and a good three point shooter. They have Kevin Martin now, and he is an excellent three point shooter and instant offense off the bench. They signed David Lee, who isn't that good anymore, but he was once an all star. Johnathan Simmons is going to get extended playing time this year, and I think he is going to break out. He looked good in minimal minutes last year, and I think he will look even better playing more and more. Kyle Anderson and Patty Mills are both excellent bench players that know their roles. Look, as long as Poppovich is there, the Spurs will win upwards of 55-59 games and be a perennial contender.

So Ty, how will the Spurs win the title? The Spurs can win the title if Leonard takes that next step offensively and dominates both ends of the floor. They also need Aldridge to step up the defense a bit and Gasol to play and score more than Duncan did last year. This could all happen. People are sleeping on the Spurs, and that is never a good thing.

At number 2, I have the defending champs, the Cleveland Cavaliers. Some may say they should be number one, but they didn't sign KD. They do have the best payer in the league in LeBron. He proved that in the finals last year. LeBron is so much better than everyone else in the league, its not even fair. He does it all and can impose his will whenever and wherever he wants. LeBron is an all time great NBA player. As long as he is there, he will make the Cavs the team to beat in the East. Kyrie Irving, while being a mediocre defender, is a wizard with the ball, and was on fire throughout the playoffs last year. He is a deadly scorer, and pairing him and LeBron, on the offensive end of the floor, is dangerous for opponents. Irving could legitimately challenge for the MVP this year. Kevin Love, who looked like a shell of himself at times last year, seemed to figure out his role for this team in the finals. They don't need him to be the T'Wolves version, they need him to get double figures in rebounds, throw excellent outlet passes and score 12-15 points a night. As I said, he seemed to finally figure it out in the finals. Tristan Thompson played some incredible defense in the finals last year, now he just has to do that for the whole season. He is a great rebounder as well. He and Love should grab every board if they are in the area. JR Smith just re signed, and he knows exactly what to do on this team. He is an okay defender and an excellent offensive player. He hit some huge shots last year. Iman Shumpert has fallen off a bit. He is not the defender or shooter he was when he got traded there, but he is a fine bench player. Channing Frye will stretch the floor, and he can play a little defense too. Their rookie, Kay Felder, is a huge step up from Matthew Dellavedova. He is super fast and can get a ton of buckets. Chris Andersen is an okay signing, but I don't love it as much as others. He is an okay player, but they already have 2 guys that do what he does, except they are way better than he is. Richard Jefferson, James Jones and Mike Dunleavy Jr are all about a million years old, and I don't think they will play all that much. This Cavs team is good, they are the defending champs. They could easily win 60 games if they want to, and they will definitely be the one seed in the East.

So Ty, how will the Cavaliers win the title? The Cavs can win the title if they do exactly what they did last year. They need to slow the game down, let LeBron run the show, let Kyrie Irving slash and shoot and let Love and Thompson do the dirty work. They can also get help from officials, as game 4 of the finals showed last year, so they are more than capable of winning back to back titles.

And then there was one.

My number one team is the Golden State Warriors. I mean, who else could it be? They signed KD this offseason. They added another devastating shooter to an already devastating shooting team. How on Earth is any team going to beat these guys in a series? They have threats all over the court. And, I don't want to hear about, well their bench has been ripped to shreds to get KD. Who cares, they got KD. They also still have a decent bench anyway. I'll get to that in a minute. This back court is incredible. It's like nothing I have ever seen before. Steph Curry is the 2 time MVP, the best shooter I've ever seen and cannot be stopped, unless the refs get involved, see the finals last year. Klay Thompson is the second best shooter that I have ever seen. He gets the ball and has a quick release, and more times than not, the shot goes in. He is also this team's best defender, and he is really good at defense. And now, they have KD. He is probably the third best shooter in the game right now, and he is on the same team with the best and second best shooter. He also totally stepped up his defense last year. He needs to stop with these little side comments, and he better get used to people booing him and rooting against him, but he is still an excellent player. The Warriors back court has the last 3 MVP winners. I don't know how any team is going to stop these guys from scoring at will. Then, they have the best swiss army guy in Draymond Green. He needs to quit kicking guys in the groin, and stop talking trash, but he is really good on this team. He isn't their best player, not by a mile, but he is their most important. He is the key to this team and he is their toughness. He is also the only guy that showed up in game 7 last year. Andre Iguodala, two seasons removed from being finals MVP, is still on this team, and he is still good. He is a good shooter, another very good defender and a great veteran on this team. Shaun Livingston is still coming off the bench, and anywhere else, I think he would be a starter. He is a really good player. They don't have any dominant big men, but was Bogut ever dominant? No. Anderson Varejo, ZaZa Pachulia and JaVale McGee will split time, and they are all fine, even if McGee has had some crazy stuff happen to him in the NBA. David West signed on, and he is still ultra tough, can shoot the jumper and, like Iguodala, a great veteran. Even James Michael McAdoo got some run last year, and he looked okay. This team is absolutely loaded. They will be impossible to stop. I know people are trying to temper expectations, but I'm going the exact opposite direction. If this team doesn't win at least 70 games, and the title, it should be deemed a failure. They are just too good, loaded with too many scorers and have one of the better coaches in the NBA. No team with 2 of the best shooters ever has ever added a third, lethal scorer. This signing was unheard of. It definitely watered down the league, but the Warriors are going to be fun to watch, and also, root against. They were the lovable underdogs 2 years ago, but now, they are the hunted. They are the bad guys. They are the team that everyone outside of the Bay Area wants to lose. They will be the most scrutinized team by a wide margin this year. Hopefully those guys have thick skin, because a lot of people will be hating on them all season.

So Ty, why will the Warriors win the title? The Warriors should win the title simply because of this collection of shooters. There has never been a team like this put together before. They will be unguardable. I know it's just the preseason, but they have already been putting up ridiculous shooting numbers. As I have already stated many times, they should expect nothing less than a title this year, and they should have little to no resistance from anyone, not even LeBron and the Cavs.

That's my countdown. Tomorrow I will have predictions for the title, I think you all know where I'm leaning, as well as awards predictions and some surprises that will happen. And on Friday, I will have a NCAA basketball preview. Come back for those in the next couple of days. Thanks for the eyeballs.

Ty

Ty is the Pop Culture editor for SeedSing and the other host of the X Millennial Man Podcast. He wanted to say that the Warriors were going to win at least 80 games, but the head editor made him lower the expectations. Follow Ty on instagram and twitter.

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NBA Free Agency Separates the Man from the Role Player

No matter the number of superstars, there is still only one ball

With the news that Kevin Durant has signed with the Golden State Warriors, that sound you are hearing is the NBA, and their super stars dying a slow, painful death. This all started back in 2008 when the Celtics signed Kevin Garnett and traded for Ray Allen to pair the two of them with Paul Pierce. Sure, it seemed cool and they had their "big three", but something about that whole deal irked me. I didn't like that Garnett, who is one of my all time favorite players, basically threw in the towel and decided that it would be best to team up with two all stars so he could win a title. They did just that, in 2008, and went to another finals the next season.

But, this whole idea of "super teams" and having a "big three", really took off in 2010 with LeBron James and his decision to join Dwayne Wade and Chris Bosh and go play for the Heat. This was a cop out in every sense of the word. LeBron knew that he wasn't going to win a title on his first go around with the Cavs. Their roster was too old, or they weren't playoff ready. He knew, if he wanted to win the title, he would have to team up with some other star players. When LeBron, Wade and Bosh played together, they played great, but my distaste for where the NBA was headed really came to a head. I mean, of course the Heat were going to contend every year because they had 3 of the 15 best players in the NBA in their starting 5. This took all the drama out of the games. We all knew that the Heat would be the 1 or the 2 seed and cruise through the east and make the finals, it was a foregone conclusion. There was no need to watch the regular season or the first couple of rounds in the playoffs, we knew the outcome. The Heat were great with their "big three". They made the finals four times, and won 2 of them, but I was growing weary of all the "power" teams. After LeBron's decision, every big time free agent or team was looking to get their own "big three", thus watering down the game even more.

The super team did not always have immediate success like the Celtics or Heat. While Kobe was still playing, the Lakers went out and traded for Dwight Howard and Steve Nash. That blew up in their face, but they still made the playoffs with their "big three". When Chris Paul got traded to the Clippers, they had him, Blake Griffin and an emerging player in DeAndre Jordan. They haven't panned out like they hoped, but they still contend every year. Two years ago when LeBron returned to Cleveland, it was under the stipulation that they would trade Andrew Wiggins for Kevin Love, thus giving LeBron another "big three" in him, Love and Kyrie Irving. Last off season, the Spurs went out and fooled everyone when they were able to land LaMarcus Aldridge. The Spurs have never star chased, but they needed an apparent to Tim Duncan, who I think I read that he is going to retire, so instead of drafting his replacement, they went out and got a proven commodity. The Spurs had their version of a "big four", with Duncan, Aldridge, Tony Parker and Kawhi Leonard. Cleveland did win the title in their second year, and we are still waiting to see where the Spurs go.

You may have noticed, I have only mentioned 5 total teams so far. That's because these are the only title contending teams that have been around since the idea of teaming up stars started 8 years ago. Well, now with Kevin Durant's decision to leave the Thunder, make that 6 teams I will mention. The Warriors, who won 73 games last season, made the finals for a second straight year, would have won if not for LeBron's complaining, have Steph Curry and Klay Thompson, also have Draymond Green, they now have Kevin Durant, for at least one season. This feels like a weak, cop out move from the guy that was my favorite player in the NBA. Durant was the first option, for the most part, on a very good Thunder team. He played with Russell Westbrook, a top guard in the league. He played with one of the better centers in the NBA in Steven Adams. They went out and got Victor Oladipo, who I think will thrive in their offense. The Thunder were/could still be a very competitive team. But, Durant decided that wasn't good enough for him. He chose to be the third, sometimes fourth option on the Warriors. Durant will not be the guy with the ball in his hands when it comes to the final seconds of the important games. The Warriors will go with Curry first, Thompson second, and Draymond Green, in certain situations, will be their third option. Then, it will be Durant's turn. I hope he is okay with that. Hell, maybe that's what he wants at this point in his career. I don't mind him chasing rings, but he will not be the most important, or the second most important player on the Warriors. The fans will not be cheering loudest for him either. Those fans in the Bay Area will always love Steph way more than they will ever love Durant.

This move just stinks of what the NBA is becoming. None of the star players want a challenge anymore. These guys get beat by someone, but instead of getting better in the off season, so they can beat them, they just figure, I'll just join them. There is no competitive spirit in the NBA anymore. And that is because the new stars have been told how great they are their whole life. They've never had to face adversity, and at the first sign of it, they get scared and get out of the situation. The NBA is dying a slow and painful death with these "super teams", and I never thought that Durant would join one. I guess he is not the killer he tries to appear to be on the court. Also, if the Warriors don't win at least 70 games and the finals, with ease, this season, it should deemed a failed season. It would be preposterous if they don't breeze their way to a title.

Finally, I have changed my allegiance from the Thunder and Kevin Durant to the Timberwolves and Andrew Wiggins, maybe Karl Anthony-Towns. The Timberwolves and those two young players have gained a new fan today. Go T'Wolves!

Ty  

Ty is the Pop Culture editor for SeedSing and the other host of the X Millennial Man Podcast. He has been a longtime Timberwolves fan, dating all the way back to the summer of 2016. Follow Ty on twitter @tykulik. 

The Shoe Wars are Over and Nike is the Winner

Do not forget the champion athletes that wear this brand

My topic today is a bit off the beaten path. I'm going to talk about the supposed "shoe war" going on between Under Armor and Nike. Under Armor seems to think that they have put a stranglehold on the top names in sports over other companies like Nike, Adidas and other companies that sell sporting apparel. Under Armor does have some big name clients, but my whole idea that I'm going to pose today is, much like how players wearing Under Armor, these guys are finishing second to the athletes wearing other companies products, mainly Nike.

First off, the three biggest names that Under Armor has on their payroll right now are Cam Newton, Steph Curry and Bryce Harper. These three guys are world class athletes. They are some of the, if not the, best players in their particular sport. Cam Newton has changed what the idea of a quarterback in the NFL can do athletically these days. Bryce Harper may be the most feared hitter since Barry Bonds. And Steph Curry, he has a title, he is the first unanimous MVP, he is the best shooter I have ever seen and he has transcending what people think about shooters in the NBA all time. I'm sure Under Armor has other decent athletes that wear their stuff, but these three are, by far, the most noticeable and most impressive. But, the recent problem with the guys that Under Armor pays millions upon millions of dollars, they are finishing second to players that wear either Nike or Adidas. Even in the college game, Nike is still winning.

Let's look at the pro guys first. Cam Newton was the first Under Armor guy that caught my eye. Like I said, he plays quarterback like no one else I have ever watched, and he has a ton of fun doing it. He is big, fast and has a rocket arm. He took a very under manned team all the way to the Super Bowl this past season. The Panthers were even favored and Cam Newton's fancy Under Armor cleats were all over my TV screen prior to the Super Bowl. Then, the game happened, and an Adidas man made Cam Newton's life brutal for 60 minutes. Von Miller, who is an Adidas client, pressured, hit and caused Cam Newton to rush throws and make mistakes all game. He was clearly the superior player. His cleats even looked like he was taking a shot at Cam Newton's very loud and brash type cleats. Von Miller was awesome and he made Adidas look cool for one night. That night just happened to be the Super Bowl. The Broncos, and their middle linebacker, with his Adidas cleats, completely shut down Cam Newton and his Under Armor shoes that night. That was a big blow to Under Armor.

Then, they recently signed Bryce Harper to a massive deal. He is getting tons of money from that company to shill their products. Well, Harper is a tremendous talent that has already won an MVP, but what exactly has his team, the Washington Nationals, accomplished of any significance on the baseball field. Yeah, they had a 90 plus win season a few years back, but the Cardinals beat them in the early round of the MLB playoffs. Last year, with all the expectations in the world, they fell flat on their face. And now, yeah they are in first place in their division, but I still don't trust them. I trust the Mets so much more than I do the Nationals. And, while Harper may be the best player currently in baseball, guys like Andrew McCutchen, Mike Trout and Harper's teammate, Max Scherzer, all wear Nike. Those guys are very, very good baseball players, and in McCutchen has had much more recent postseason success than Bryce Harper has had. Once again, Under Armor finishes second, or maybe even third, because some big time guys, guys like Miguel Cabrera and Robinson Cano, sport New Balance gear.

Then, there is Steph Curry. Curry is a once in a lifetime NBA player. He is the best shooter, maybe ever. He is a two time MVP. He has a title. Curry is awesome. I'm a very big Steph Curry fan. But, he got destroyed in the most recent playoffs by all Nike guys. In the western conference finals, two Nike guys, Kevin Durant and Russell Westbrook, went at Curry with no regard. Westbrook wanted to destroy him every night, and he did in a couple of those games. Durant was never flustered or bummed when he had Curry on defense or when Curry had him on defense. Both Durant and Westbrook constantly attacked him. The Thunder were so very close to beating him too. Then, in the finals, two Nike guys completely out shadowed Curry and Under Armor. LeBron James and Kyrie Irving looked so, so much better in these finals than Curry did. They were better, stronger, faster and made more shots. Under Armor got completely demoralized by Nike in the finals. After watching game 7, young kids that are logo obsessed would much rather get the new LeBron's or Kyrie Irving's shoes. No one wants those new Steph Curry, white, old man shoes. Nike crushed Under Armor in the NBA all throughout the playoffs.

Even in college, Nike is king. The only halfway decent team that I know of that wears Under Armor is Auburn, and they haven't been good in about 5 seasons. The last two championship games have had 4 Nike schools. Two years ago, in the first college football playoff, both Ohio State and Oregon wear Nike. Nike's headquarters is in Oregon in fact. Last season, both Alabama and Clemson wear Nike. I'm sure someone out there will say that I forgot Notre Dame, they signed a big contract with Under Armor, but I didn't, they are exactly what I expect out of an Under Armor client. They are decent enough to lose big time games. Hell, even after a horrid 7 year Adidas experience, Michigan is back on the Nike team, and I'm thrilled about it. Even in college basketball, all the big time teams are Nike teams. Kentucky, Duke, North Carolina, Villanova, Georgetown, Michigan State, among many other "blue bloods", they are all Nike.

Nike is a far superior product. They made sleeker, cooler and just flat out better products than any other sporting apparel. Under Armor and Adidas may have some big time names, but Nike has winners. I'll take winners over names anytime. Long live Nike.

Ty

Ty is the Pop Culture editor for SeedSing and the other host of the X Millennial Man Podcast. He likes to write under a "Just Do It" banner with "I Believe I Can Fly" playing in the background. That is how dedicated he is. Follow Ty on twitter @tykulik.

Why we got the the Cleveland Cavaliers and the NBA Finals so Very Wrong

The season ended not quite how we predicted

The NBA finals ended last night. There is no more real basketball to be played from now until late September. Both football and basketball are done, so this is the most dead period of sports that you can find right now. I'm counting down the days until college football starts. Baseball does not intrigue me, and everything else, Olympics included, bore me. With that being said, I will recount game 7 from the finals last night.

I, much like most writers, picked the Warriors to win. I picked them in 6 games. That, obviously did not happen. First things first, game 7 was phenomenal last night. For the most part, this series has been blow outs, and it has been not so great basketball. There were great individual performances, but the games, they were not that good. Game 7 changed that. I had no skin in the game last night, but my heart was beating fast and I watched every single second of that game with bated breath last night. It was a true back and forth. The Cavs would take a 5 or 6 point lead, then the Warriors would counter with a run and lead by 5 or 6 themselves. The game was decided by the stars as well. Sure, JR Smith made some big shots and Andre Iguodala did his thing on defense, but it was LeBron James and Kyrie Irving coming up big for Cleveland and it was Draymond Green, who was spectacular last night, and Curry and Thompson, although they both shot poorly. But, the stars made the difference. That's how I like my finals. Game 7 was everything I wanted this whole series to be, all the way down to Irving hitting that 3 with less than 1 minute left in the game.

Secondly, this series should have been over in 5 games. This is my "the NBA rigged this series" portion of my blog. Draymond Green did not deserved to be suspended for game 5. Yeah, he swiped at LeBron's man zone, and he did so much worse in the western finals against OKC, but it wasn't until LeBron bitched and moaned to the media and David Silver that they decided to suspend Green. I don't think it was the swipe, hell, I would have done something much worse than punch at a guy and call him names if he stepped over me on a basketball court, than it was the fact that the Cavs were down 3-1, the finals were getting record ratings, and LeBron used his stardom to get his way. David Silver, ESPN and ABC all wanted this series to go 7, if possible, and suspending Green did just that. The Warriors couldn't close it out in 5 because they couldn't stop James and Irving from getting in the paint and the Cavs pulled away. They then destroyed the Warriors in game 6, setting up last night's great game. Had Draymond not been suspended, the Warriors would have easily closed it out in game 5, but LeBron, the Cavs, and everyone in the media got their way and the series played on. Also, Steph Curry fouling out of game 6 was atrocious. In fact, the entire officiating crew in games 5, 6 and last night were as bad as the 2002 Lakers-Kings series. They were giving everything to Cleveland and nothing to Golden State. Curry hadn't fouled out of a game since college, but he somehow fouled out of a finals game. That is very, very fishy. The NBA has always had this shady cloud over it, but these last three games really made it almost too clear to me that the NBA may be as fixed as pro boxing and pro wrestling. It is becoming way too fascinated with the stars and they get so much better treatment from the refs than anyone else. It's disturbing.

Okay, got that off my chest.

Third, the Warriors did choke, but Cleveland also figured something out after Draymond got suspended. I won't say the Warriors lost the series, the Cavs definitely won. In game 5, they stayed big for most of the game, a la what the Thunder did. This rendered the Warriors rebounding useless. They had no one to block out Kevin Love or Tristan Thompson or even a guy like Richard Jefferson. The Cavs got so many second chance points and shots and that is how you beat the Warriors. They had no answer, especially after Andrew Bogut went down for the series. This was a smart move and it helped the Cavs win the title. Even last night, Love and Thompson seemed to grab every single rebound. They held the Warriors to one shot the majority of the night.  The Cavs also slowed the pace of the game to a snail. They held and held and held the ball in their half court set. They didn't seem to get into their set play until there were only 5 or 6 seconds left on the shot clock. This is another way to beat the fast paced Warriors. Make them play defense for all 24 seconds and it will slow their offense down because their players will get tired. Another smart move.

Which brings me to my fourth point. Steph Curry and Klay Thompson, for the most part, did not show up in these finals. They both shot terribly from three. They were missing wide open three point shots that they had made all season long. It wasn't like the Cavs were playing lock down defense. Quite the opposite was happening. They would get held up on screens and leave shooter wide open, the Warriors just were not making their shots. Curry also got exposed as a very mediocre defender in the finals. He couldn't stay with Irving, he was too small and lean for LeBron, too short to guard JR Smith and when he had someone else, like Iman Shumpert, that guy screened and forced Curry to guard and he did not come through. And what on Earth happened to Harrison Barnes? He was so, so bad in the finals. He missed every shot he took it seemed. The Cavs would leave him wide open for corner threes, the easiest three and a shot he made all season, and he would brick it pretty much every time. This was supposed to be his coming out party. He was supposed to get a max contract from someone after the finals. He was going to be the man for another team next season if he left the Warriors. Now, I wouldn't even consider giving him anything close to a max contract. Not only was his offense atrocious, but he was man handled by pretty much everyone he guarded during the finals. Barnes had the worst possible finals that a free agent could have. He was worse in this series than Kevin Love and Iman Shumpert were, and they were both terrible. 

Then we have Kyrie Irving. Wow, was he great. He scored at will. He shot a very high percentage. No one on Golden State could stop him. He was just as important to this title win as LeBron was. Yeah, LeBron had a triple double last night, but without Irving in the third quarter and that three he hit in the fourth, no way does Cleveland win the title. Kyrie Irving was absolutely spectacular and he is rising very fast up the best players in the league chart right now. What an incredible performance he had.

Finally, LeBron. I have dogged him the whole season and during the playoffs. I still think he is a prima donna, a whiner and I'm fed up with his constant complaining to officials, but he did what he promised he would do for Cleveland. He delivered a title. He was great in games 5 and 6. He had a triple double last night. He was not good on defense, Draymond put up 30 plus on him last night, but he ran this team and they won because of his effort. This is, by far, the most impressive thing he has done in his very impressive career.

Congrats Cleveland. You guys won the title and proved a whole lot of people wrong in doing so. I'm very curious to see how this team looks next year, but for now, enjoy your victory, you guys earned it....with a little help from David Silver and the refs.

Ty

Ty is the Pop Culture editor for SeedSing and the other host of the X Millennial Man Podcast. He says if Cleveland can get a title this year, then why not the Cubs? Get all of your winners by following Ty on twitter @tykulik.

Ty's Look at the 2016 NBA Finals

The two teams we all thought would be here.

As I did last year, and I will do every year, I'm going to preview and predict the NBA finals. But first,

GOOOOOOOOOOOOD DAMMMMMMMMMMMIT. 

OKC should be playing in these finals, they blew it big time. They had a 3-1 lead, and they should have won game 6, and they had an excellent shot last night, but they went ice cold from the field and they reverted back to blaming each other and playing hero ball. They stopped doing what had worked so well for them throughout the first two rounds and the first four games of the conference finals and blew a huge lead against the Warriors. The Thunder lost, and that is a fact.

Okay, I got that off my chest, now lets get to the preview and my prediction.

We have a rematch from last years finals, but these finals will look very different. Last year, the Cavs were without Kevin Love going into the finals, and they lost Kyrie Irving in game one. This time, the Cavs are at full strength and may make this series very competitive. The Warriors, they are at full strength, but they look tired and this historic season looks to be taking a toll. But, they came back from a huge deficit against OKC, and they look like they may have gotten their mojo back. Klay Thompson and Steph Curry are absolutely on fire right now. The Warriors also have a ton of momentum and home court advantage going into the finals. 

Lets look at the starting lineups first. The Warriors have Curry, Thompson, Harrison Barnes, Andrew Bogut and Draymond Green. The Cavs will put LeBron, Kyrie, Kevin Love, Tristan Thompson and JR Smith out there. LeBron is the best player in the world, but he is older and has played in 6 straight finals. That's a ton of minutes on his body, but he is the best player on the floor. When you look at the other four Warriors starters, when opposed to the other four Cavs starters, I think the Warriors are much better. Case and point, who is going to guard Klay Thompson? The Cavs may try LeBron for a minute or two, but he will not be able to keep up the hustle it will take on defense to stop Thompson because he will be running the offense. So, that leaves guys like Kyrie Irving and JR Smith. Kyrie Irving, while a wizard dribbling the ball and a great shooter, he is a garbage defender and Thompson will destroy him. JR Smith is a better defender, but he is a hot head and he will get angry and start making dumb fouls when Thompson makes a few jumpers on him. Advantage Warriors.

Then there is Steph. No one on the Cavs can guard Steph. That was proven during last years finals. Irving will, once again, get destroyed. JR Smith is too slow. LeBron won't be able to keep up with him. It's a no win situation for the Cavs. Once again, advantage Warriors.

As far as Harrison Barnes goes, I think the Cavs would be best fit putting JR Smith on him and keeping him there. They are pretty much equal, as far as ability on both ends of the floor, and I think that would be a good battle. I would actually give the advantage in this head to head to the Cavs. I think JR Smith has that irrational confidence and Barnes thinks way too much when he plays. Advantage Cavs in that matchup.

In the front court we have Kevin Love guarding either Bogut or Green and then the Cavs will put Tristan Thompson on the other guy. This matchup one hundred percent favors the Warriors. If the Cavs want to put Thompson on Bogut, they will cancel each other out, but Bogut is a good rebounder, just as good as Thompson, and he is a better defender and a much better passer than Thompson. Then, there is the Kevin Love question. He is a great scorer and rebounder, but he is a terrible, god awful defender and he lets his mood affect his play. When he doesn't get touches or shots, he sulks. His defense, once again, is some of the worst in the league. Bogut would eat him alive in the low post and Draymond Green can take him outside, drive on him and he will get in his head. Kevin Love has become a liability and he will not be on this team next year. I'm about 99 percent sure of this. So, while Tristan Thompson may cancel out Bogut, Draymond Green can beat up Kevin Love and out rebound Thompson and Bogut would eat Love alive in the post and cancel out Thompson. Advantage, big time, Warriors.

That leaves us with LeBron. The Warriors starters will be hard pressed to stop him, but they have secret weapon on their bench, who I will get to in a minute. LeBron is a beast and he will get his on this Warriors starting bunch. Just look at last years finals. He is un guardable. Any team that has LeBron has the advantage of having the best player on the floor.

Now, the benches for each team. While it may look like the benches are compatible, they are not. The Warriors bench is so much better, younger, faster and play much better team defense and offense. The secret weapon to guard LeBron that I spoke of on the Warriors bench is Andre Igoudala. He won finals MVP last year for his defensive performance against LeBron. He can bang with him and force him to be a jump shooter, which is exactly what you should want LeBron to do. Igoudala may once again be the X factor in this series. Then the Warriors bring in guys like Shaun Livingston, Leandro Barbosa, Festus Ezeli, Mareese Speights and Anderson Varejo. Each one of these guys brings exactly what they need to for the Warriors in their limited minutes. Livingston is a huge point guard and a decent scorer off the bench. Barbosa is instant offense and a lightning bolt. Ezeli and Speights provide great low post scoring and Ezeli is a pretty decent defender. And Varejo will want to show the team that gave up on him that he is still a good player. The Cavs bench has guys like Matthew Dellavedova, Richard Jefferson, Iman Shumpert and Timofey Mozgov. Mozgov is a non factor. He barely sees the floor anymore, so he doesn't matter. Dellavedova is one of the most overrated bench players in all of the NBA. He is dirty and a much, much worse version of Draymond Green. Dellavedova is garbage. Iman Shumpert is an excellent defender and a decent three point shooter, but he has been hurt all year and he has lost minutes to JR Smith. And that leaves us with Richard Jefferson. I think Richard Jefferson may be one million years old. He won't be able to keep up with anyone on the Warriors and he will be a non factor. The Warriors bench is lights years better. Advantage Warriors, by about a million percent.

That leaves us with coaches. Steve Kerr has been here as a player and a coach, winning multiple titles with the Bulls as a player and winning the title last year as the head coach of the Warriors. He has made this team a juggernaut. Tyron Lue is the "coach" of the Cavs, but I think we all truly know who pulls the strings and makes the decisions for the Cavs and his name is LeBron James. Lue is a figure head. Yeah, the Cavs went on a historic playoff run, but it was against the Pistons, Hawks and Raptors. That is, by no means, a murderers row. The Warriors weren't tested in the first two rounds of the west playoffs, beating the Rockets and Trailblazers, but they were tested by possibly the second best team in basketball in the conference finals, the Thunder. They have been pushed and rose to the occasion, like a champion, and a lot of that comes from the coach. Steve Kerr is a better coach than the two headed monster of Tyron Lue and LeBron James. It's a fact. Advantage Warriors.

I bet everyone assumes that I have the Warriors in a sweep after reading this, but that is not the case. I think this series will be much more competitive than last year. If the Cavs make shots like they have been, it may go seven. But, the Cavs haven't faced a defense this good, not even close, in the playoffs. The Cavs defense is also very mediocre and that will hurt them against the Warriors. The Warriors also have home court advantage and they are historically great. I think the Warriors will win, once again, in 6 games. The Cavs will get two because LeBron will win one on his own and they will out shoot the Warriors in one game, but what it all comes down to, the Warriors are a better team that plays much, much, much better defense. They will find a way to shut down everyone else not named LeBron and the Cavs cannot win that way. The Warriors will cap this 73 win season with another title. I think someone like Curry or Thompson will be named the MVP of the finals, but we could also see Igoudala win again if he locks down LeBron, or Draymond Green if he stops playing dirty and just dominates Kevin Love. The Warriors are a better team and they should win. They have momentum and they have home court.

(ed note:) Warriors in 4. No doubt

Ty

Ty is the Pop Culture editor for SeedSing and the other host of the X Millennial Man Podcast. His wish for next season is a soft spoken, business like, shooter for the OKC Thunder. They need it. Follow Ty on twitter @tykulik.

DeAndre Jordan Does Not Belong on the NBA First Team

DeAndre Jordan should not even be warming the first team's bench

Yesterday the NBA released their all NBA teams. The teams were pretty much what we all expected. The first team had LeBron, Russell Westbrook, Steph Curry, Kawhi Leonard and DeAndre Jordan. The second team had Kevin Durant, Draymond Green, Damien Lillard, Boogie Cousins and Chris Paul. The third, and final team, had Klay Thompson, LaMarcus Aldridge, Paul George, Andre Drummond and Kyle Lowry.

They got it right for the most part.

As far as snubs go, maybe flip Durant and Westbrook, but I don't think it really matters, they are both great and they both deserve a spot. Anthony Davis was hurt, but when he was in there, he was great, and he lost 24 million dollars by not making the team. If Kyle Lowry made all NBA, I think DeMar DeRozan deserved equal consideration. Other than that, they got everything right except for one humongous, glaring, gaping hole on that first team.

How on Earth does a player like DeAndre Jordan make first team all NBA? He shouldn't be on any of these all NBA teams. All he is good for is rebounding and dunking. His defense isn't anywhere near elite. His offense is a joke. His free throw shooting is even worse. His demeanor on the court is garbage. He carries himself so poorly. He isn't even the best player on his team. He isn't even the second best player on his team. When you look at the other first team players, those players were the best players on their team this year, and yes, Westbrook was better all year than Durant, that is a fact. DeAndre Jordan is way behind Chris Paul, and even though he is an abusive man child that whines and complains and blames everything on everyone else and never comes up big when the Clippers need him most, Blake Griffin is still better than DeAndre Jordan. Hell, guys like Paul Pierce, Jamal Crawford, and at times, even Jeff Green were more crucial to the Clippers than DeAndre Jordan.

DeAndre Jordan is a problem for this Clippers team. He cannot be counted on late in games because his low post game is non existent and his free throw shooting is the worst that I have ever seen. He is worse than Drummond. Hell, he is a worse free throw shooter than Rajon Rando, and Rajon Rando is a garbage free throw shooter. His defense is not nearly as threatening as it was a year or two ago. People attacked him way more this year and would score or draw fouls on him more often than him getting a block or altering the shot. And on offense, unless it is a lob from Chris Paul for an alley oop, he is completely useless. He is a poor screener. He rolls away from the rim way too often on pick and rolls. He cannot move in the low post. He can't shoot free throws, so he obviously is no threat to shoot jumpers. When he gets the ball in the high post, he is so quick to give it up for fear of getting fouled, or having the ball stolen from him. He is a problem on this Clippers team when they have to run half court offense.

With all those problems, the people that vote on all NBA put DeAndre Jordan on the first team. What a joke. Why was he even considered? Is it the LA thing? Since the Lakers are a dumpster fire, do the writers, most of whom live in LA, feel like they need to have someone, no matter how crappy they are, from an LA team be on the all NBA first team? That's not fair. With DeAndre Jordan being first team all NBA, I'm surprised these dip shit voters didn't put Kobe Bryant on any of the all NBA teams. Then, to vote DeAndre Jordan over guys like Boogie Cousins, LMA, Andre Drummond, what a crock and slap in their faces. LaMarcus Aldridge completely overhauled his game to fit in with the Spurs, and they were a great regular season team, due to him and Kawhi Leonard. LMA definitely deserved that spot more than Jordan. While Andre Drummond is an equally terrible free throw shooter, he is a much better rebounder, defender, low post threat and teammate than Jordan will ever be. I'd take Andre Drummond 10 times out of 10 before I'd take Jordan if I were starting a team and I had to pic between the two of them for my center spot. Then there's Boogie Cousins. While he may be uncoachable and a very tough player to play with, Cousins is the best center in the NBA. He has all the tools that the old time centers had and he can also run and shoot the way the newer bigs can. Boogie Cousins is a tremendous talent that deserves that first team spot so much more than DeAndre Jordan. Cousins is a better rebounder, defender, and is so far ahead of Jordan on offense, it is almost laughable that he didn't get the first team spot. If I were Boogie Cousins I'd take this very personal and go at DeAndre Jordan every shot I get for the rest of my NBA career. Then there are guys that didn't make any all NBA teams that I would take well before I take Jordan. I'd take Anthony Davis, Steven Adams, Serge Ibaka, Bismak Biyombo, Al Horford, Paul Millsap and many more centers and power forwards before I'd even consider DeAndre Jordan.

The love for Jordan needs to stop and stop now. He is a very marginal NBA center. If he did not have Chris Paul throwing him passes, he may be out of the league, that is how overrated I truly think DeAndre Jordan is. The voters got this one terribly wrong. I don't think anyone could pose an argument that would sway me on this. This is a joke and this proves how useless and pointless all these all NBA teams are. Who in the hell cares, all the fans know who are the best players in the league, and Deandre Jordan is not one of the top five. He isn't even one of the top 25 players in the league. What a crock is truly is that he made first team all NBA. He should be getting rewarded for his mediocre play all season. This was a huge mistake.

Ty

Ty is the Pop Culture editor for SeedSing and the other host of the X Millennial Man Podcast. He looks forward to the day when NBA writers value the players skill more than their geographical location. Follow Ty on twitter @tykulik.

Old NBA Players Need to Let the Warriors Play on the Lawn

Get rid of those peaches and Curry could still hit over 50% of his shots

Tracy McGrady, former NBA allstar, said on a recent episode of ESPN's "The Jump" that, Steph Curry being the first unanimous MVP just shows you how "watered down" the league has become. I've got a lot of problems with that statement.

First off, I love McGrady, the basketball player. He was explosive, athletic, a good jump shooter and one of the few prep to pros that had a very good, perhaps hall of fame career. But, why did he feel the need or urge to say this? Why condemn the greatest shooter of all time? Why do all the retired pros seem to hate this specific Warriors team? It doesn't begin and end with McGrady's criticism, many other hall of famers and legends have been very dismissive of this Warriors team and of Steph Curry. Oscar Robertson, possibly the greatest point guard of all time and the only player to ever average a triple double over a full season, doesn't think that they are as good as we all think they are. He seems to think, that had this team played during his era, they would have been average at best. I love you Oscar Robertson, but come on. This Warriors team is historically great. Scottie Pippen is another hall of famer that has brushed this team to the side, saying, that the 1995-96 Bulls would have swept them out of the playoffs. At least he put them in the playoffs, but a sweep, get out of here. The Warriors would win at least one game because Curry would put in 40 and Thompson would put in another 30 and Draymond is a more athletic version of Dennis Rodman, and he can score. No way a sweep happens. Sure, put Jordan on Curry, he'd have a tough time, but he would still make some shots. And yes, you could put Pippen on Thompson, but he would still find a way to get to the rim and that would open up driving lanes. But, who is going to guard Draymond Green, Andrew Bogut, Shaun Livingston, Andre Iguodala, Harrison Barnes, I mean, this Warriors team is loaded with depth, something the 95-96 Bulls didn't really have . So no, no way would it be a sweep. And Bill Wennington chiming in, echoing what Pippen said, shut your god damn mouth Bill Wennington. You were lucky to even be a part of such a great team. The Bulls could have, and did, see Luc Longley, win with basically anyone playing center. Hell, I could have played center on that Bulls team and they would have still been great. Bill Wennington is a blow hard. Screw him. He isn't 1/10 the player Bogut is, so he can shut the hell up.

Then there is my all time favorite basketball player. A man I adore and have tried to model my rec league game after. A player I have looked up to since I was in the 5th grade, Charles Barkley. He has not had one single nice thing to say about this Warriors team or Steph Curry. He has been anti Warriors since they ran through the playoffs and won a title last season. He said they didn't really earn the title because they didn't have to face anyone that was great or at full strength. I disagree strongly with that. He said that a jump shooting team could never have long term success in the NBA. The numbers clearly prove him wrong. He said that Curry was too little and too oft injured and would have never made it in his day. Well, Curry is lighting the league up now, and when he comes back from injuries, he looks even stronger and better, which I thought was impossible. The only reason he wouldn't have made it in the NBA in the 90's was because of how dirty and aggressive it was. I look back at 90's basketball, which I loved, my Sonics were legit, but it was brutal. There isn't a whole lot of highlights, unless you single out Jordan, unless it is a hard foul or some kind of brawl. The most "important" moments that are shown on highlight reels from the 90's is stuff like the big fight the Knicks and Heat had, when Jeff Van Gundy grabbed hold of Alonzo Mourning's leg. Or when Barkley got into it with any number of big time players. Or when John Stockton would set a screen and knee someone in the crotch. The list could go on and on and on with all the dirty stuff that went down in the NBA in the 90's, so yeah, maybe Barkley is right on Curry getting roughed up during his era. He was also on "PTI" recently and he said the only way that he would put this years Warriors team, the team that won 73 regular season games, in the annals of historically great teams, is if they win the title. That's fair, but he said they would only be the fourth best team of all time. He had the 96 Bulls, the 86 Celtics and some other team I can't remember ahead of this Warriors team. That's insane! They are historically the greatest regular season team of all time, statically too! They won 73 games! That will never happen again! I love you Charles Barkley, but you are wrong on this one.

The Warriors are a really, really great team. Hell, even LeBron James is trying to poke holes in this team because they are the talk of the league and not him. He said Curry deserved the MVP, but then posed the idea that the MVP isn't based on stats, but one players ability to make a team overachieve, as if to say, he obviously thinks he should be the MVP. Get the hell out of here with that nonsense. The older LeBron gets, the more crazy and more entitled and more prima donna he gets. LeBron is one of the greatest players of all time, but he is a spoiled rotten little brat. The attention isn't on him for once, so instead of using that as motivation, he complains to the media about what a real MVP means. What a punk. He is clearly an only child and he has clearly never been pushed aside like this on a basketball court. Get used to it LeBron, the Warriors are younger and better than you and the Cavs and it's going to be this way for a long time.

All this brings me back to McGrady's watered down quote. The league is not watered down. The NBA is as good as it has ever been right now. The games are exciting. The players are exciting. The players are relatable. The NBA is experiencing a huge boom right now and I think the retired players are a bit jealous. LeBron is jealous too. They all want to chime in with their two cents, but the fact remains, we will never know who would win or who could have also been unanimous MVP choices because all these players bitching and moaning are done playing or selfish assholes. The facts are there. The Warriors have the greatest regular season record of all time, no matter what Oscar Robertson, Tracy McGrady, Bill Wennington, Scottie Pippen, Charles Barkley or LeBron James says or thinks. Curry is, and will always be known as, the first ever unanimous MVP. No comments or jealously can take that away from him. The retired players need to let it go and get over it. I'm sick and tired of the whole, "back in my day" crap. Things evolve and change, it's a way of life. You can take it as it is, or you can complain. I choose to admire the Warriors and Steph Curry, it's way more fun.

One last thing, a lot of the retirees complaining about the Warriors and Steph Curry are all time greats, but I haven't heard the GOAT, Michael Jordan,say one bad thing or suggest that his teams would have beaten up this Warriors team. That's the true sign of a champion, he doesn't need to say things, he just does them. I wish these guys would take another lesson from Jordan and keep their mouths shut. One can dream.

Ty

Ty is the Pop Culture editor for SeedSing and the other host of the X Millennial Man Podcast. When he and the head editor play basketball, the game is quite dirty. They are both big, hairy, and sweat a lot. That is the recipe for smelly dirt. Follow Ty on twitter @tykulik.

Mid Season Checkup on Ty's NBA Predictions.

Ty's picks are actually in better shape than the hoop.

Now that we have made it to the All Star break in the NBA, I want to go back and look at my giant, 10 day NBA preview I did before the season and see how it looks now. I did get some things wrong, we all do, and I will address those first, but I feel like I picked the top teams pretty well, with one exception.

So, before I pat myself on the back, let's get to the stuff I was off base on. First of all, I was way off on the New Orleans Pelicans, the Dallas Mavericks, the Portland Trailblazers, the Houston Rockets, the Washington Wizards and the Milwaukee Bucks. In the case of the Pelicans, I thought they'd be much, much better than they've shown this season. Sure, they've suffered a plethora of injuries, but they just don't look like that good of a team right now. I watched them play the OKC Thunder last night and they got blown out. The game wasn't even competitive mid way through the third quarter. Sure, they didn't have Eric Gordon and Tyreke Evans, but they still have Anthony Davis, my preseason MVP and Defensive Player of the Year winner. Davis has looked good, but he was supposed to look great. He was supposed to be the new face of the NBA. He hasn't shown that he is ready to take the next step, but he still has time. This is a lost year for the Pelicans. Too many injuries and a terrible start doomed them. They should blow it up and try to get a decent pick to add next to Davis.

I also thought that the Bucks would be a much better team than they are right now. They haven't really had to deal with any injuries, they just can't play competent defense and they have no go to scorer. Giannis Antentekoumpo has not taken the leap he was expected to take, becoming kind of a nuisance. Jabari Parker has not lived up to the hype that he can be a top tier scorer and he plays no defense whatsoever. The Greg Monroe signing has been an absolute disaster and their back court is mediocre at best. They have looked pretty awful this year. They already had their highlight of their season, when they ended Golden State's perfect start.

The Washington Wizards can't stay healthy and they can't get John Wall any kind of significant help. Wall is a star. He is one of, if not the, top point guard in the NBA, but he has no help at all. Bradley Beal was supposed to be his wingman, but he can't stay healthy and when he is in there, he's been ice cold from the field. Marcin Gortat looks slow and is not scoring like he did a year ago. Nene looks disinterested and I wouldn't be surprised if he gets traded. Otto Porter Jr has been hit or miss and other than those guys, they have very average NBA players. But, it all really boils down to piss poor coaching from Randy Whitman. The fact he still has a job is ridiculous. He is the one wasting John Wall's talent. I feel bad for John Wall because he's a really great basketball player.

The Houston Rockets have been a mess from the start of preseason. James Harden decided he'd rather party than stay in shape. Dwight Howard can't get touches, but he also mopes and complains more than any NBA player I've ever watched. The trade for Ty Lawson, which I loved, has been a complete disaster. And this team, as a whole, plays absolutely no defense. The offense they run is equally terrible. I swear, they tell Harden to dribble for 20 seconds, then either shoot a 3 or try to drive to draw a foul. It's atrocious. They fired their coach after 11 games, but they haven't been any better since letting McHale go. As was reported last night, this is truly "a broken team".

Now, to get away from teams I thought would be good that aren't so good to teams that I expected to take a step back, but are playing much better than I thought. First, the Trailblazers. They traded away 4/5 of their starting lineup and made some interesting offseason moves, but damn it if it isn't kind of working for them. They lost LaMarcus Aldridge, Robin Lopez, Wes Matthews and Nic Batum, but still find themselves in the playoff race. If they do end up making the playoffs, it will be as an eight seed and they will get crushed by Golden State, but I thought there was no way they'd win more than 25 games this year. Damien Lillard really is that good.

The other team that I kind of crapped on, thought they were too old and that they missed out on some key free agency moves, the Dallas Mavericks, have been very competitive. Dirk is still Dirk. He is still getting 18 to 20 points per game and his jump shot is still unguardable. Wes Matthews, their only free agent signing after the DeAndre Jordan fiasco, has been great, coming off a torn ACL. He has actually looked really good, considering his injury. Chandler Parsons has been okay, he just does what he does, and that's enough for this team. But, Deron Williams has been rejuvenated by his move to Dallas. He was done in Brooklyn. His career seemed to be over, but he has played some pretty good basketball since joining the Mavericks, much to mine, and everyone else's surprise. He looks like a decent NBA point guard again. You have also got to give a lot of love to Rick Carlisle for the job he's doing with this team. He is a top of the line NBA coach. .

Now, let's get to the stuff I was on the mark with in my preseason preview. Golden State and San Antonio have been great. Golden State, whom I've written about a couple of times already, has been historically great. They are the most fun to watch NBA team that I've ever seen. Steph Curry is the best player in the NBA, no questions about it, and they also have Klay Thompson, Draymond Green, Harrison Barnes, Andrew Bogut and Andre Igoudala, and I could name a lot more. They are so, so good.

The Spurs are right there as well. The Aldridge signing has been great and Aldridge has taken very easily to playing the "Spurs Way". David West, who they signed for the veterans minimum, has been a great addition as well. Then they still have Kawhi Leonard, Tim Duncan, Tony Parker and Manu Ginobli. I know Ginobli just recently got hurt, but they can plug Patty Mills, Danny Green, or anyone on their bench to take over until Ginobli returns. Sure, they got blown out by the Warriors recently, but the Spurs save their best for the playoffs. I still really like the Spurs to compete for the title this year.

The Oklahoma City Thunder have been pretty good as well, yet no one is really talking about them. They won their 40th game last night and Kevin Durant looks like he is 100 percent back. To go along with Durant, Russell Westbrook is still doing all the great and reckless things he does on the court, but he's found a way for it to help his team this year. Serge Ibaka is still one of the top rim protector and he has increased his range all the way out to the three point line. Steven Adams is the new Bill Laimbeer and the rest of the team knows their place. Andre Roberson is a lock down defender, DJ Augustin and Cameron Payne are strictly there to give Westbrook short breaks. Enes Kanter is instant offense off the bench and Dion Waiters, when he is on, can score in bunches. OKC is lurking and I wouldn't want to play them in the playoffs if I were either San Antonio or Golden State.

In the East, there are two teams and that is it. The Cavs, another team I've written plenty about, is the best team in the East, but they have a problem with their roster and since they fired David Blatt, Tyronn Lue hasn't really set the NBA coaching world on fire. I wouldn't be surprised if they make some moves, trading guys like Kevin Love, Timofey Mozgov and/or Tristan Thompson or Anderson Varajo and bringing in more shooters, but it won't matter, they will still lose in the Finals. LeBron James and Kyrie Irving are great, but then you have guys like JR Smith, Iman Shumpert, Matthew Dellavedova and James Jones that are playing critical minutes in the playoffs. LeBron the GM needs to make better player personnel decisions and sign good NBA players, not his buddies.

The other team from the East that is setting the world on fire completely took me by surprise. I thought the Toronto Raptors would be good, but not this good. DeMr DeRozan and Kyle Lowry are playing All Star level basketball, although Lowry is the only one that made the team. Jonas Valenciunas is becoming that rebounder and low post scorer that they need him to be. Corey Joseph has been awesome since he signed there this offseason, scoring points and playing good defense. DeMarre Carroll, who's been out with an injury, looked just as good as he did last year in Atlanta, playing lock down defense and hitting open shots. The Raptors have been a whole hell of a lot better than I thought they would be, especially after their rough finish in the playoffs last year, and they look like a real threat to the Cavs. I would love if the Raptors faced the Cavs in the East Finals, swept them and then get crushed by either OKC, Golden State or San Antonio. That would be hilarious to me because it would freak out David Silver and make the fans in Cleveland that much more miserable. I really, really like Toronto.

As far as award predictions, Steph Curry is the MVP. I picked Anthony Davis, but it's Curry. Emmanuel Mudiay, my preseason rookie of the year, has been hurt and can't shoot, so I will now go with Karl Anthony Towns. He is a star in the making. Kawhi Leonard is hands down the Defensive Player of the Year and Gregg Popovich has to be coach of the year. You can't give it to Steve Kerr, and Adam Silver doesn't have the cojanes to give it to Luke Walton, so it's Poppovich.

To close it all out, at the All Star break, my finals prediction is going to be Golden State and Cleveland. I know I picked San Antonio and Cleveland, and that could still happen, but Golden State is something special this year. Not only will Golden State repeat, probably sweeping the Cavs out of the Finals, but I think they will break the single season record of wins. In 1996 the Bulls finished 72-10 and I think the Warriors will finish this season at 74-8, besting them by two games. The Warriors are that good and they will finish their historic season with a second straight NBA title.

Ty

Ty is the Pop Culture editor for SeedSing and the other host of the X Millennial Man podcast. He really wanted an all Canada final of the Raptors and the Grizzlies, but then he realized that Memphis is not in Canada. He also realized their are no Grizzlies in Tennessee, no lakes in LA, and definitely no Jazz in Salt Lake City. The NBA is weird. Follow Ty on twitter @tykulik.

The Cavaliers Will Win the East, and Get Destroyed by the West

The Cavs need more practice, and a lot more talent.

Last night the Cleveland Cavaliers got their asses handed to them by the Golden State Warriors 132-98. They gave up 132 points to an NBA team. Sure, they're the defending champions, but still, 132 points is an insane amount. That shouldn't happen to a team that is widely considered to be a championship contender.

Sure, the Cavs are good, they already have 27 or 28 wins and have won something like 12 of their last 14, but I want to focus on those two losses. They were to the Warriors last night and the San Antonio Spurs last Thursday night, the two best teams in the West and the two best teams in the NBA. Sure, they were competitive when they played the Spurs, but the Spurs pulled away from them late in the third quarter. And the Warriors absolutely man handled them last night.

In the post game press conference, LeBron James kept talking about the fact that they're a young team and they haven't experienced a lot of success and they still have a long way to go, but I've heard this song and dance from him before. In fact, I heard all the same stuff last year. I'm at the point now where I call bull shit. They have experienced success, they were in the finals last year and won two games. They are not that young. LeBron has been in the league for 12 years now, Kyrie Irving been around for at least five years and Kevin Love has been in the league for 7 years, I believe, now. The three of them have played in multiple all star games and Love and Irving got their first taste of the playoffs last year. In fact, most of the players on the Cavs have been in the NBA for awhile now. Stop with the young and inexperienced talk. The only player with any clout on the team that is young is Tristan Thompson, and he is not the world beater that LeBron and company have the media believing he is. And winning 50 plus games last year and making the finals, like I said before, equals measured success.

The only thing he said in the press conference that I agreed with was, they have a very, very long way to go. They don't use Kevin Love correctly for one. They've turned him into a three point shooting power forward. His post up game, that was unguardable while he was in Minnesota, is non existent. They don't want him clogging the lane so LeBron and Irving can drive, relegating him to the three point line. Sure, he's a good three point shooter, but he's a much better post player. Love looks lost a lot when the Cavs run their half court offense. Irving is not a point guard. He has phenomenal handles and dribbles the ball up the court, but that's not his game. He is a slasher that likes to get to the rim and can score on open jumpers. He is a two guard in a point guards body. He is a wizard with the basketball, but he is not a point guard. He's never been a good distributor and the offense doesn't run through him, it runs through LeBron. I love the way Irving plays, but he is much more suited to be a two guard. LeBron is LeBron. He's one of the best to ever play the game, but I feel like all those games and minutes that he's played is starting to wear on his body. He doesn't seem to have that quick first step anymore and he looks like a bowling ball when driving to the basket. He seems to create more contact than the players that the fouls are called on. He also cannot shoot from the outside. If I was guarding him, I'd take two steps back and let him shoot jumpers all night. That's what I'd want him to do. He's an all time great, but he hasn't looked that way so far this year.

Now, lets get to the two games I mentioned earlier. I've heard on ESPN and sports talk radio and talk shows that the East is closing the gap on the West. I've heard that the Cavs are a real threat to the Spurs, Warriors and even the Thunder, but look at the Cavs most recent losses to see how wrong these columnists and TV personalities are. They held a slim lead over the Spurs going into half time last Thursday, but then the second half started. The Spurs looked unstoppable. Tony Parker was getting to the rim at will. Aldridge was having an off night, but he was finding open shooters left and right from the post. Kevin Love was getting schooled by Tim Duncan all game. Kawhi Leonard was shutting down LeBron on defense and getting his on offense. The Spurs were clearly the superior team. Side bar, the Spurs play the most beautiful basketball I've ever seen. Their offense is so sophisticated, yet they make it look easy. I love watching the Spurs play. The Spurs dominated that second half and when the Cavs have to turn to Matthew Dellavedova and JR Smith for offense, god help them.

The Warriors just demolished them last night. They were hitting threes at an insane rate. They were running up and down the court with ease. They looked like they were in so much better shape than the Cavs. The Warriors suffocated them on defense. Draymond Green was shutting down all the Cavs big men and Steph Curry did Steph Curry things. As good as the Spurs looked the week before beating them, the Warriors looked better. They looked so much better than the Cavs in fact, I couldn't believe that they were on the same court. It looked like a varsity team playing a junior varsity team. The Warriors are about a thousand times better than the Cavs, even with both teams at full strength. Curry lit up Irving, Green and Barnes crushed Love all night and any number of Warriors player, be it Andre Iguodala or Barnes moving over to James or Shaun Livingston, basically anyone they threw at James, completely shut him down.

The Cavs may be the best team in the East, but stop with the talk of the East closing the gap on the West. The West's three top teams all have better records than the Cavs and I'd take any one of those teams, be it the Thunder, Spurs or Warriors, any day before I pick the Cavs. The Warriors and Spurs proved in the past five days that the East's best cannot even come close to competing with the West's best. I'm sure the Cavs will represent the East in the finals again this year, and I'm sure they'll lose to either the Spurs or the Warriors.

It will probably be a sweep too.

Ty

Ty is the Pop Culture editor for SeedSing and the other host of the X Millennial Man podcast. He has been practicing his Lebron defense and cannot wait to get his shot at the Cavs. Follow Ty on twitter @tykulik.

The Warriors may be the best team in NBA history

Steph Curry would average over 60% on these rims

As you all know by now, I'm a HUGE NBA fan. It is on my TV whenever possible. I wrote a ten part season preview. I love the NBA almost as much as college football.

NBA basketball is getting back to the good ole days. Sure, teams don't shoot the midrange jump shot as well anymore, and if you turn on ESPN, all they show are Clippers highlights and the men's college game is becoming borderline unwatchable, with all the one and done players, but the NBA has gotten a wee bit better. It's more enjoyable to watch games now than it was 5 or 6 years ago. Most of the teams have become pretty competitive, save for the 76ers, Lakers and Nets. The East has even improved from last year. The West is still much better though and will continue to be for awhile. The Spurs signed LaMarcus Aldridge and resigned Kawhi Leonard. They also still have Tony Parker, Manu Ginobli and Tim Duncan. When the Thunder are at full strength, Durant has missed the past 10 days, they're as competitive as any team in the league. The Clippers look bad right now, much to my delight, but they will fix things and still win in the 50's. The Mavericks have played surprisingly well 15 games into the season. Dirk is still Dirk, and Wes Matthews, coming off a torn ACL, looks pretty good. The Pelicans had a terrible start, a possible playoff hopes crushing start, but Anthony Davis is back completely healthy, and they've won their past two, beating the Spurs in one of those games. The Rockets are a mess, I'll give you that. Firing Kevin McHale may prove to be a huge misstep. It's not his fault that Dwight Howard doesn't care about basketball that much anymore. And what in the world has happened to James Harden? He was the MVP runner up last year, but this year, teammates are griping about playing with him, calling him a diva and a ball hog, and he spent the entire offseason partying and not staying in shape. It's gotten so bad with him that even Bill Simmons has cooled on the Thunder trading him being the worst thing that ever happened in the NBA, and he hasn't shut up about it for five straight years. The Grizzlies and Jazz are .500 teams right now, but they, much like the Clippers, will figure it out.

All these teams pale in comparison to what the Golden State Warriors are doing right now. As you all know, the Warriors beat the Nuggets last night and tied for the best start in NBA history at 15-0. Sure, they've had some close calls to inferior teams, the Nets, but other than two or three games, they've been blowing out teams. Each win seems to be by at least ten, and the starters rest almost all of the fourth quarter. Steph Curry has been unbelievable to start the year too. He's averaging something like 33 or 34 points a game, shooting almost 50 percent from three, 60 percent from two and 90 percent from the free throw line. That's incredible! I don't know that there's ever been a 60, 90, 50 player ever. It would be astounding if Curry can accomplish that this year. He's also stepped up his game on defense as well this year. Sure, he won't be first team all defense, but second or third team is a real possibility. But, it's not just Curry winning these games. You're probably thinking, well it's him and Klay Thompson scoring in bunches. Nope, Thompson has, I don't want to say struggled, but he hasn't been scoring like he normally does. He still is playing absolute lock down defense though. That part of his game has never wavered. He's one of the best, if not the best, maybe a step behind Kawhi Leonard, the best defender in the NBA. Harrison Barnes, who turned down an extension, betting on himself, has been a beast so far. His numbers may not show it, I think he's a 14 point per game and 5 or 6 rebound per game player statistically, but what he's doing for the Warriors is awesome. He's already had two of the best dunks of the year, he's is getting to the line more frequently, and he's hitting midrange and floaters on a regular basis. He's going to get paid this offseason if he keeps this up. Draymond Green is proving that he's an elite defender, rebounder and he's becoming a pretty good scorer. He's also a total pain in the ass with the opposition, and the Warriors love that about him. I've never seen a guy under 6'8 that can guard centers like he does. It's amazing. He made the right decision to stay in Golden State. This is the perfect team for him to be on. The other players on the team are doing whatever they need to do to help this team to continue to dominate. Andrew Bogut is protecting the rim and grabbing rebounds like he has his whole career. Andre Iguodala is knocking down open threes and dominating on defense like he has his whole career. He's also taken to being a sixth man better than anyone who used to be a franchise player that I've ever seen. He clearly just wants to win. Shaun Livingston is still a point guard in a 6'7 players body. He has command of the second unit and he finds the open man every time. Festus Ezeli is still crushing it on defense for the second unit and he seems to have found a bit of a scoring touch lately. Mo Speights and Leandro Barbosa still play out of control at times, but they are both instant offense off the bench for a team that has a ton of offensive weapons. The only other bench player that kind of contributes is James Michael McAdoo and in his limited playing time, he hustles his ass off. That's great for an 11 or 12th man off the bench. You usually don't see a lot of hustle from guys that deep on the bench.

The main reason I'm singling out the Warriors today is, I feel like I didn't give them enough love in my preseason preview. I had them as the second best team coming into this season behind the Spurs. Time will tell, but the Warriors, right now, are far and away the best team in the NBA. They may be historically one of the greatest teams of all time if they continue to play like this. I never thought, not only would I say it, but see a team that has a chance to win as many games as the Chicago Bulls did in the 95-96 season. That was the team that went 72-10. That was unreal to watch that team play because they could've won 75 or 76 games that year. The Warriors won't win all 82 games, that's impossible, but I think they have a real chance to tie, or even surpass the Bulls team that won 72 games. Their schedule will get tougher and players will get injuries, it's a long season, but they seem to have a goal in mind. This offseason a lot of people said that they didn't earn the title, they didn't have to play all the tough teams, they faced teams with key injuries and so on and so forth. The thing that was said that really got to them, in my opinion was, that they were "lucky", and that they weren't "true" champions. First of all, that's bull shit. Any team that's won a title in any sport needs luck, be it with health of their players, bounces going their way, a player on a hot streak, any kind of luck has been involved with every champion in every sport. But saying they weren't "true" champions, that just gave a team that won 67 games and a title last year, a chip on their shoulder. Now, they don't just want to beat you, they want to destroy you. That's the killer instinct that people talk about when it comes to champions. Sure, they won last year, but they want to continue to win and they want to crush you while doing it.

I'm not a Warriors fan, I'm indifferent when it comes to the Warriors. They're a ton of fun to watch, and Steph Curry has surpassed LeBron James and Kevin Durant as the best basketball player in the world, but I'm a Thunder fan, so that's who I root for.

Oh, they are also doing this without Steve Kerr. Luke Walton has been the interim head coach while Kerr's back heals. That's crazy.

I just want to apologize to the Warriors fan base and the Warriors organization for not ranking them as the preseason number one team in the NBA. They're doing something magical right now, and this could be a historic season. Just sit back and realize when you watch the Warriors this year, you could be watching a historically great NBA team. Maybe the greatest of all time. The rest of this season will be the judge.

Ty

Ty is the Pop Culture Editor for SeedSing and the other host of the X Millennial Man Podcast. He has seen one team go 82-0 in an NBA season, his Oklahoma City Thunder on NBA 2K13. Follow Ty on twitter @tykulik.

Ty tells you how each NBA team can win the title: Cavaliers, Warriors, Spurs

I do believe I have mentioned that I love the NBA, and championship basketball is the best of all.

We've now reached the end of my NBA countdown. Today I will give you my number 3, 2 and 1 team. I will also give you my Finals matchup and winner and hand out all the other big awards. Let's get on with it.

Coming in at number three I have last years Eastern Conference champs, the Cleveland Cavaliers. First of all, they have the greatest player in the world in LeBron James. He is the MVP every season, but it wouldn't be fair if they gave it to him every season. He single handily won two games in the Finals last year, one of the games in Oakland. It goes without saying that, as long as he's on the Cavs, they will be one of the top teams not only in the East, but in all of the NBA. Kyrie Irving is still recovering from his knee injury last season, but when he's healthy, he's one of the better scoring guards in the league. He shoots a bit too much, but LeBron will get him to be more of a distributor. Kevin Love is coming back from his shoulder injury, but if the Cavs continue to use him like they were at the end of the regular season and in the first round of the playoffs against the Celtics, the Cavs "big three" could be unstoppable. Love is a good outside shooter, but is better with his back to the basket and stepping back to shoot threes. He's also the best outlet passer in the NBA and the Cavs are devastating when running the fast break. Timofey Mozgov is one of the better rim protectors in basketball and he's got semi decent post moves. Tristan Thompson still hasn't signed his offer and if he continues to hold out, it will be rough for himself and the Cavs. They need him for his rebounding prowess and he needs the Cavs because playing with LeBron makes everyone better. He's not a max contract player and the sooner he realizes that, the better it will be for all parties involved. Anderson Varejao comes back from injury, but that's becoming his story every year. He comes back in great shape and then he, inevitably, gets a season ending injury. He can't be counted on anymore. Matthew Dellavedova was a flash in the pan. He played two okay games, ESPN covered him like he was an All Star, and then Curry brought him back to Earth by crushing his soul at every moment possible in the Finals. He's a tenth man off the bench, at best. James Jones is too old and can't hit the open three anymore, Mo Williams is back, but he left last time around with the Cavs because he couldn't coexist with James for some unknown reason and Joe Harris is too young and inexperienced. JR Smith and Iman Shumpert are both back. Smith is an excellent streak shooter, but he fades in crucial moments and gripes about his playing situation too much. Shumpert is hurt, but when he gets back, he's this teams best defender by far. He can also hit the wide open three. They signed Richard Jefferson this offseason, but he's so old, I thought he was retired and out of the league. No one else on the bench really plays that much. The Cavs "big three" is one of the best in the league and when they're all healthy and playing their game, they are deadly. The problem lies within the rest of the team, mainly the bench. Smith needs to play hard every night, Varejao needs to stay healthy, Williams needs to find a way to coexist with LeBron and Shumpert needs to get healthy. The Cavs will win 55 or 56 games and be the clear number one seed in the East this year.

How the Cavs can win it all.

The Cavs will win the title if LeBron keeps being LeBron and Irving and Love stay healthy and are actively involved in the offense. The surrounding players need to contribute more and keep their heads in the game. They also need to resolve this Thompson situation before the season starts.

Coming in at number 2, I have the reigning NBA champs, the Golden State Warriors. The Warriors didn't really change too much about their roster and this is a team coming off a 60 plus win season. They caught every break they needed, stayed healthy all season long and beat the teams they were supposed to all the way to a championship. Their best offseason decision was to resign Draymond Green. He is the perfect fit with this team. Had he gone anywhere else, it would have been a mistake for him and the Warriors would've missed him dearly. Getting rid of David Lee was a good choice too. Sure, he helped them in the Finals, but he was a huge contract wasting away on their bench. The Warriors have the best backcourt in all of the NBA. Steph Curry, the reigning MVP, is a wizard with the ball and can shoot the three from anywhere on the floor. He also has the fastest release I've ever seen. Curry is the best shooter of all time, yeah I said it. Klay Thompson is a great shooter, but he excels on defense. He locks everyone down that he guards and when he and Curry are shooting well, this team is unstoppable. Harrison Barnes didn't sign the extension the warriors offered him, betting on himself, but he's finally living up to the hype that was praised on him coming out of high school. I think the put back dunk on LeBron in the Finals gave him the extra confidence he needed. He's starting to come into his own. Andre Iguodala, the reigning Finals MVP, is back and while he's older, he still contributes on both ends of the floor. Shaun Livingston is a 6'6 back up point guard and fits in very well with what the Warriors do. Festus Ezeli and Marreese Speights are a two headed monster in the frontcourt. Ezeli is a fierce defender and rebounder and Speights gets points in the paint. Andrew Bogut is still one of the best rim protectors, when healthy. Leandro Barbosa comes off the bench and he's a bowling ball that provides instant offense. The Warriors are one of the best teams in basketball, and they will win 60 games again this season. They will fight with my number one team all year long for the top spot in the West.

How the Warriors can win it all.

The Warriors will win the title if they do exactly what they did last year. They would also need every break to go their way again. It's hard to repeat in the NBA, but the Warriors could and, may do it.

Coming in at number one I have the San Antonio Spurs. This team got the premiere free agent, and they don't even really need LaMarcus Aldridge. They have an older version of him in Tim Duncan, but this feels like a passing of the torch. Duncan has been the face of the franchise for over a decade now, but when he retires, Aldridge will slide right into his place. The naysayers will say that they're too old, but that doesn't matter with the way Poppovich regulates minutes. Everyone should be fresh come playoff time. The back court still has Tony Parker and Danny Green. Parker, when healthy, is probably the smartest player in the NBA. He knows when to shoot and when to get guys involved and he runs the Spurs offense to perfection. Danny Green is an elite defender and he can hit the open three. Besides Duncan, the frontcourt has the best young small forward in Kwahi Leonard. He's an excellent offensive player, he's a great rebounder and he's the only guy that can shut down LeBron James on defense. He, along with Anthony Davis, is the next big superstar in the NBA. Duncan is Duncan. He may be playing on one leg and can barely get up and down the court, but he's one of the better low post scorers, and still protects the rim and rebounds at a high rate. Aldridge will join Duncan and Leonard in the front court and they will be an unstoppable force. Leonard will lockdown the opposition and score in double figures, Tim Duncan will do Tim Duncan things, and when Aldridge fully figures out the Spurs system, watch out. Aldridge will be an MVP caliber player in a year or two. The Spurs bench is elite. It's the best bench in basketball. Manu Ginobli, while getting older, is still a wizard with the ball, and still hits clutch shots. Boris Diaw has had a major resurgence with the Spurs and he's one of the best passing big men in the game. Patty Mills comes in the game and he can put up 20 points in 10 minutes. David West left a ton of money on the table to come and compete for a title with the Spurs. His addition is almost as big as Aldridge, but for different reasons. West is a veteran who loves to play defense, rebound and score when needed. He's a perfect fit with San Antonio. The Spurs look really, really good going into this season. Once Aldridge gets acclimated to the Spurs way of basketball, they will be dominate. I expect the Spurs to win at least 62, maybe 64 games and be the one seed in the West.

Why the Spurs will win it all.

The Spurs will win the title once Aldridge and West figure out Spurs basketball and the rest of the pieces continue to do what they've done for a decade. This team is the best coached team in the NBA and they now have, if they didn't already, the most talent in the NBA. I love this Spurs team.

That's my countdown, all 30 teams. I will revisit later in the year, but this is how I see the NBA looking right now. As for my predictions, my Finals matchup is the Spurs-Cavs and I have the Spurs winning in 6(Sorry LeBron). My MVP is Anthony Davis and he will also win Defensive Player of the Year. Coach of the year will be Erik Spoelstra simply because the Heat will be the most improved team in the NBA. And finally, Rookie of the Year will be Emmanuel Mudiay. I love the way he plays the game and while the Nuggets will be bad, he will get a ton of playing time and I think he will be good immediately.

Thanks everybody.

Ty

Ty is the Pop Culture Editor for SeedSing and the other host of the X Millennial Man podcast. He once drained 25 straight threes with Shawn Kemp on the Seattle Supersonics in a game of NBA Jam. Follow Ty on twitter @tykulik.

The NBA Finals are over, but what did it all mean?

Now that the NBA Finals are over and the Golden State Warriors are champs, let's look back at the series and how my prediction turned out.

Initially I picked the Warriors to win in five games, stating that the Cavs have Lebron James, so he will get them at least one game, but Golden State was so much more well rounded. After game one, when Kyrie Irving went down, I was certain, a little too certain, that the Warriors would sweep. I didn't see the Cavs being able to overcome two huge injuries to their team and the remaining players left were going to cripple them, no matter how well James played. Games two and three proved me wrong. The guy I crushed, Matthew Dellavedova, played excellent defense on Steph Curry, and he was coming up with improbable basket after improbable basket. Tristan Thompson and Timofy Mozgov were killing them on the boards and their defense was suffocating. Things were looking great for the Cavs after game three, leading the series 2-1.

Then game four happened.

The Warriors backs were against the wall and it was a must win. With this much at stake, Steve Kerr made a big change in his starting lineup which ended up being very crucial for the Warriors, he inserted Andre Iguodala into the lineup over Andrew Bogut. Iguodala was the only player who seemed to annoy Lebron on defense, forcing him into contested jumpers. That's how you beat a team led by Lebron James, you turn him into a jump shooter. As great as Lebron is, he's, at best, an average jump shooter. This isn't meant to take anything away from Lebron. He was dominate in this series, seeming un-guardable at times. He led both teams in points per game, rebounds and assists per game. That's never happened in the finals before. With the Finals being all said and done, Lebron deserved the MVP of the series, even in a losing effort. He was the best player on the court by far. Kudos to Lebron James. But, let's get back to game four. The Warriors, using this smaller lineup, ran up and down the court on a very tired, poor shooting Cavs team. This was how I expected the Warriors to play the whole series. They crushed Cleveland in Cleveland. They won the game by twenty one points and it wasn't even that close. Three days later, back at Oracle in Oakland, game five was played and Steph Curry decided it was time to go off. This was a very competitive game for three and a half quarters, with what seemed like a hundred lead changes. Then Steph started to do Steph Curry type things. I'm sure he was tired of hearing that Dellavedova, who on his best day is a good tenth or eleventh guy off the bench in the NBA, was shutting him down. His wizardry as a ball handler and supreme scorer was on full display for the last twelve minutes of game five. He would dribble himself open and he seemed to bury almost every three he took, defended or guarded, it didn't matter. This was the Steph Curry I expected all series long. He schooled Dellavedova and I've got to say, I enjoyed watching him abuse Dellavedova's pride and ankles. He was on skates. Needless to say, the Warriors pulled away late and won game five by double digits, despite Lebron's forty plus points and triple double. Then last night was game six, the potential close out game. The Cavs and the self proclaimed "best player in the world" Lebron James came out with a purpose. They tried, and succeeded for about a quarter, to turn this into a slow, low scoring game. But, the Warriors and specially Andre Igoudala and Draymond Green would not be denied. Igoudala scored a season high 23 points and Green recorded a triple double. Two role players coming up huge once again for the Warriors. That's what Lebron lacked in the series. His "role" players did next to nothing for him, and when he needed them the most, they didn't show up. Dellavedova was afraid to shoot the ball and kept throwing his terrible lob passes. Iman Shumpert is way more injured than he's letting on and JR Smith checked out of this series a long time ago. The only guys he could count on were Thompson and Mozgov, and that's not going to win you rings. Curry on the other hand, got help from everyone on the team except for, shockingly, Klay Thompson. He had no impact on this series whatsoever. Andre Igoudala was so impressive in this series he ended up winning MVP, deservedly so if they weren't going to give it to Lebron. He's the first player to win MVP of the finals that didn't start every game. Lebron played out of his mind and proved that he's the best player in basketball at the current moment, but you need a whole team of, at the very least, half way decent players and the Warriors have that. So, I was only off by one game from my initial preview. I also hope that Steph continues to bring his daughter to press conferences so assholes like Skip Bayless and Brian Windhorst have to deal with it. Those two are smug, arrogant buttheads that deserve to be "annoyed" by someone's child being at their so called "job". Almost nothing else would make me jump for joy like having to watch those two be put in uncomfortable situations for them. They're the worst. But I digress.

Congrats Golden State, you earned and deserve this title.

(Ed note: This is why Ty picks the sports, once again I was wrong with my Cavs in 6 pick)

Ty

Ty is the Pop Culture Editor for Seed Sing. There is not enough internet to say how much Skip Bayless annoys him. Follow him on twitter @tykulik

Cleveland once again will need to wait for next year.

Well there goes my hope for a great NBA Finals.

Now that its been reported that Kyrie Irving has a fractured knee cap and requires surgery and he will be out 3 to 4 months, I need to make a change to my NBA Finals prediction. In my previous blog, I picked the Warriors to win in five games. Now, with Irving out and Matthew Dellavedova, the guy that the team left at the arena the other night and he had to take an Uber to the team hotel, will be starting, I'm changing my pick from Warriors in five, to a sweep by the Warriors. This is a huge blow to an already hobbled Cavaliers team. If the game on Thursday night showed us anything, no matter how well Lebron James plays, the Warriors have a complete team that plays great defense and offense. Way too many iso plays by the Cavs, with the only two being able to score Lebron and Irving, the Cavs are in serious trouble. They have to feel even worse, because both Klay Thompson and Steph Curry didn't play anywhere close to where they normally do. They threw up some air balls and they were throwing bad passes that turned into turnovers. I don't see the two of them playing any worse than they did on Thursday night and that is doom for Cleveland. Now with Dellavedova being the point guard and having to guard Steph Curry. That simply means Curry is going to light Dellavedova up. It might be embarrassing for the Saint Mary's grad. Unfortunately for all of us watching the Finals, after how great Game One was, this is going to be a stomping for the Warriors. Lebron can carry the Cavs only so far. Even if he goes for 60 points in each of the next three games, it won't be enough. JR Smith's jumper looks broken, and Shumpert and Dellavedova can only make threes when they are wide open. That won't happen against the Warriors. And, Tristan Thompson and Timofy Mozgov can only give a little help on offense. I think they had a combined 20 to 25 points on Thursday and that was a great night from the two of them.

Sorry, GM, coach and player, Lebron, you'll have to wait until next season to have a shot at another ring.

(Ed note: I originally disagreed with Ty and said Cavs in 6.  I am a wrong person and agree with Ty on this one. Warriors in 4).

Ty

Ty is the Pop Culture Editor at Seed Sing.  He was all church league first team three years in a row.  Follow him on twitter@tykulik.

Ty takes a close look at the NBA Finals.

Tomorrow, June 4th, marks the start of the NBA Finals, maybe one of the greatest finals match ups, between the Cleveland Cavaliers and the Golden State Warriors. The Cavs came out of the Eastern conference with relative ease. The only team that beat them in any series were the Chicago Bulls, who only got two games out of them. They swept the Boston Celtics and the Atlanta Hawks. Golden State didn't have much trouble in the Western Conference either. They swept the New Orleans Pelicans, beat the Memphis Grizzlies in six and beat the Houston Rockets in the conference finals in five games. Both teams should be very well rested since they cake walked to the finals and have had nine days off.

The Cavs have been bitten by the injury bug in the playoffs, losing Kevin Love for the playoffs in their first round series and Kyrie Irving is at about, I'd say, thirty percent tops. Lebron James has/had one or both ankles sprained, but he should be 100% by the time the Finals start tomorrow night. Golden State on the other hand have had some close calls, with that scary fall from Stephen Curry in the conference finals and the concussion suffered by Klay Thompson, also in the conference finals, but they have stayed pretty healthy for the most part. Klay Thompson was cleared yesterday to play in Game One of the Finals.

Now, let's breakdown the rosters of each team. Cleveland boasts the best player in the world, Lebron James. They also have former All Star Game MVP Kyrie Irving, but as I said, he's very injured right now. With Kevin Love out, after those three, the Cavs have, at best, a rag tag bunch of players. Some are fringe All Stars like JR Smith and Iman Shumpert. They have a decent rim protector in Timofy Mozgov. A relentless rebounder in Tristan Thompson, although his offense leaves something to be desired. After these six guys, they only have a few other players who see any type of real minutes in the NBA. Their next guy in line is probably Matthew Dellavedova, who's a relentless hustler, but may also be the dirtiest player in the playoffs.(just ask Kyle Korver, Al Horford, and Taj Gibson). After him no one besides James Jones or Shawn Marion really see the floor at all and that's just for their shooting abilities since they're liabilities on defense, then can guard no one. Mike Miller, Brendan Haywood, Joe Harris and Kendrick Perkins round out the rest of the roster, but the four of them only get in during garbage time. What this team does have though, is Finals experience. Lebron James has played in five straight NBA finals(a record). Along with James, Mike Miller and James Jones played with him while they were on the Miami Heat when they were regulars in the Finals and Brendan Haywood was on the Dallas Mavericks when they won the 2011 NBA Championship. Golden State on the other hand has a roster with no NBA Finals experience, but it's loaded with talented players all over the floor. They also go way deeper than seven players like the Cavs do. Golden State is led by 2015 NBA MVP, and best shooter and ball handler in the league, Stephen Curry. The rest of their starting five consists of, the other Splash Brother, Klay Thompson, Defensive Player of the Year runner up, Draymond Green, supreme rim protector and rebounding monster Andrew Bogut and lock down defender and all around great athlete, Harrison Barnes. The bench has some pretty key components as well. First off the bench for Golden State is Andre Iguodala who they still run some parts of their offense through and he's still a pretty good defender. After Iguodala, they have 6'7 point guard Shaun Livingston, instant offense in Leandro Barbosa, one defensive minded big in Festus Ezeli and one offensive minded big in Mareese Speights. David Lee has not seen much time in the playoffs since he's such a liability on defense, but he was once an All Star. The rest of the bench is rounded out with guys that barely play at all. Guys like, Justin Holiday, Brandon Rush and Ongjen Kuzmic. I'd have to say that Golden State has the better, deeper roster overall. But, like I said, the Cavs have the experience. Both coaches are rookie coaches, so this is their first Finals as head coaches, obviously. Comparing the two is pretty easy in my opinion though. David Blatt is basically a substitute teacher. He looks like he's in charge, but you, me and the rest of the basketball watching world knows that Lebron is not only the Cavs best player, but he's also the coach and the GM. Hell, bench coach Tyronn Lue gets more respect from the players than Blatt does. Steve Kerr on the other hand, took a pretty decent Golden State team and turned them into a 67 win team. This team already played very good defense, but since Kerr has instituted his offense, they went up into a whole new level. This team fires on all cylinders and a lot of that has to do with their head coach. Once again, advantage Golden State. As far as Golden State guarding Lebron, that's a toss up to me. If I had to guess, I'd say they will start with Harrison Barnes on him and if he can't cut it, they will put Draymond Green on him. But let's face it, Lebron will get his. He's a beast. The rest of the matchups are much more of a toss up. A banged up Kyrie Irving won't be able to keep up with Steph Curry. I don't think a fully healthy Irving would be able to stop Curry.Shumpert and Klay Thompson is a wash. Both are excellent defenders, but Klay Thompson is so much better on offense than Shumpert, so I'll give this one to Golden State. The Warrior tasked with guarding Tristan Thompson, be it Harrison Barnes or Draymond Green, better dust off the hard hat and get ready for a rebounding battle. Thompson is relentless on the glass, especially on the offensive glass. Advantage Cavs. Bogut and Mozgov are pretty much equals when it comes to rim protecting and rebounding, but Mozgov is a touch better on offense, so I will give the Cavs the advantage here. The benches are so different. Golden State's bench is about a thousand times better than Cleveland's. A thousand times better. No contest, advantage Golden State. Wth all this being said, even with the starters being pretty even, and Cleveland having the best player in the world, Golden State's team is so much better, their bench and their coach are light years ahead of Cleveland's that I don't see how Golden State doesn't win the championship this season. Lebron will get at least one win because he's Lebron James, but I only see Cleveland getting one game. The Oracle Arena is almost impossible for a road team to win there and Golden State has home court advantage.

I'm picking Golden State to win in five games and Curry will cap off his MVP season with an NBA finals MVP.

(Ed. note:  I cannot compete with Ty's breakdown, but I will make my own prediction.  We will see Lebron James complete the greatest season a player has ever accomplished and will this Cleveland team to a championship.  Cavs in 6.)

Ty is the Pop Culture Editor at Seed Sing.  He was all church league first team three years in a row.  Follow him on twitter @tykulik.