Rather than coming up with teams that could beat Golden State this year, let’s instead forecast the teams that could be ready for a title a few years down the line

Will the Milwaukee Bucks be the next great NBA team after the Warriors?

The Golden State Warriors are going to win the NBA finals again this year. The final three months of the NBA calendar are just to see how easily they do it.

The season is over, barring injury to a key Warriors player. Condolences to the Spurs, Cavaliers, Thunder, Clippers and any other team that had designs on winning a championship this year, but the Warriors are hoisting the trophy again and everyone knows it. This is not a bold declaration. A team that has lost six games in five months isn’t suddenly going to lose four games in a week and a half. In fact, considering Steph Curry is only 28 and that Draymond Green, Klay Thompson and Harrison Barnes are all 26 or younger, the Warriors are most likely only at the start of a string of titles.

So instead of dallying in magical thinking and coming up with teams that could beat them this year, let’s try to forecast the teams that could be ready for a title in three or five or however many years it takes for the Warriors dynasty to wane.





Milwaukee Bucks

The Bucks haven’t been relevant since Ray Allen left 14 years ago and even then they were only barely in the NBA conversation. The franchise hasn’t really been worth paying attention to since Ronald Reagan was president. But something special is building where the cheese runs like beer. GM John Hammond has compiled a ton of young talent, with the freakish 21 year-old Giannis Antetokounmpo at the front. Watch him go the length of the court in three dribbles and then dunk from the foul line.

NBA SKITS (@NBA_Skits) The Greek Freak with the ball fake and dunk! https://t.co/mSefDWXl9Y

That’s not human. Antetokounmpo is now playing point guard at 6ft 11in – also not human – and has four triple-doubles in the last three weeks. The Greek economy could be bailed out by his future contract and endorsement deals alone. The Bucks will be playoff contenders in the East next year and could be in the the mix for the NBA Finals soon after.

Los Angeles Lakers

Rookie point guard D’Angelo Russell has turned it on in the second half of the season and Julius Randle and Jordan Clarkson have nice potential. And with Kobe gone in a few weeks, the Lakers may finally be able to lure big-name free agents to Hollywood again. This is a team that could get better fast. Laker Haters should make sure to enjoy the team’s struggles while the failing is good.

Minnesota Timberwolves

Andrew Wiggins and Karl-Anthony Towns could be dominating college kids this week, but instead they’re putting up big numbers against grown adults. If and when Golden State’s run of small ball dominance ends, the towering Towns could have something to do with it.

Whoever LeBron Plays For in Three-Five Years

Thirty-one year-old LeBron is nearing the end of his prime years, but LeBron at 34 or 36 is still going to be one of the best players in the NBA and would make an outstanding second or third option on a team with a young star. LeBron signing with the Milwaukee Bucks in hopes of winning a championship would be an amazing moment in NBA history. “I’m taking my talents to Bradford Beach.”

Mystery Team

Not so long ago, an article just like this could have been written about LeBron James and the Cavaliers. With Kevin Love, a young Kyrie Irving and a motivated LeBron, all the NBA titles were to be Cleveland’s for years into the future! But then Curry and the Warriors came out of nowhere and today the Cavs feel like old news.

It’s easy to forget now, but Curry was a much-debated prospect coming out of college. Many thought his ceiling was a nice jump shooter and no one projected this. He struggled early in his career with ankle injuries and Vegas set Golden State at 16-1 odds to win it all entering last season. Cleveland was 5-2. Now the Warriors can’t be stopped and Curry is hitting half-court buzzer beaters like they’re uncontested lay-ups. Maybe the team to knock Golden State off someday isn’t even on our radar right now.

San Antonio Spurs

Enjoy your fun now, Warriors. The San Antonio Spurs and 45 year-old Tim Duncan will be waiting when to takeover the NBA again when your run is over.



Quote of the Week

People in New York just need to trust the fact that [Phil Jackson] knows more about basketball than any of them put together - Kobe Bryant

The Knicks are 45-105 in the two full seasons since Phil Jackson began running the team and are currently 13th in the Eastern Conference. He fired his hand-picked head coach in Derek Fisher and replaced him with the porn-loving Kurt Rambis, who is 61-154 in his career. He extended Carmelo Anthony for five years, $130m. And he said Curry reminds him of Chris Jackson. If it’s true that Jackson knows more about basketball than everyone in New York combined, the 8.4m citizens of New York City should be very ashamed of their collective basketball wisdom.

Video of the Week



You hear it at every level of basketball: never leave your feet if you don’t know what you’re doing with the ball. And it’s true. But if you do leave your feet without a plan, please recover like Nik Stauskas because it’s very entertaining to watch.

How did LeBron carry the Cavaliers this week?

The Cavs went 3-1 on a road trip out West last week as LeBron averaged 24 points, eight boards and five assists per game. So he carried his team the same as always. But even the Cavaliers don’t lean on LeBron as much as the Blue Chips depend on LeBron Jr. and Bryce James.

LeBron James (@KingJames) Them James Boys at it again! #JamesGang #StriveForGreatness https://t.co/aEoRFplLM1

Power rankings



1. Golden State Warriors (1) Probably the best chance to beat the Warriors in the postseason is if Steph Curry and Klay Thompson get cold from three-point range, because Golden State doesn’t have anyone else who can shoot from th ... oh, no.



2. San Antonio Spurs (2) Gregg Popovich will go down as a champion and one of the greatest coaches in the history of sports. Greg Popovich will be remembered as a controversial judge who was crushed by a rail car. That extra “G” means a lot.

3. Cleveland Cavaliers (3) After beating the Clippers by 24 on Sunday, the Cavaliers reclaimed their Cleveland heritage the next night with a bad loss to Utah. Make sure to regularly refresh LeBron’s Twitter for the inevitable, cryptic and passive-aggressive tweets about consistency.

4. Oklahoma City Thunder (4) The Thunder are just 5-8 since the All-Star break with losses to the good – Cleveland, San Antonio, Golden State (twice) – and the not-so-good: New Orleans and Minnesota. Is it time to press the panic button? Yes, if the Thunder lose on Friday to the Sixers.

5. Los Angeles Clippers (6) The Clippers are in the midst of a five-game road trip that includes games at San Antonio, Houston, Memphis and Golden State. That sounds tough, but it gives the team a great opportunity to get away from their new and terrifying mascot.

6. Toronto Raptors (5) Give credit to Drake: he’s spent so much time around winning teams as a front-running bandwagon fan that he’s learned it’s the little things that can make teams win.

Ben Golliver (@BenGolliver) Drake double-teams Bulls' inbounds pass to force 5-second violation pic.twitter.com/X5X8pjUBzM

7. Boston Celtics (8) The Celtics are playing without Jae Crowder due to a high ankle sprain, but are close to getting Kelly Olynyk back, who has been out for almost a month with a separated shoulder/karma.

8. Miami Heat (9) Erik Spoelstra will get much-deserved Coach of the Year consideration this year for keeping Miami near the top of the East all season despite his team’s health problems. Maybe people will finally stop saying that LeBron coached the Heat to those championships. Nah. They’ll just say LeBron has developed an impressive coaching tree.

9. Memphis Grizzlies (7) Memphis lost to Houston by 49 points on Monday night while playing without seven injured players. “Half our team is D-League,” said Matt Barnes. “But nobody is going to feel bad for us.” Maybe. But we should at least feel bad for Memphis’ D-League team, which has probably been reduced to putting local rec league players on the court.

10. Charlotte Hornets (10) Charlotte’s seven-game win streak ended on Monday night against the Mavericks. That’s the bad. The good is that there wasn’t a ton of crying Jordan meme usage online after the game. We may finally be nearing the end of this dark era in internet history.

11. Atlanta Hawks (11) Kris Humphries has been huge off the bench since joining the Hawks, averaging 8 and 5 in 17 minutes per game while Atlanta has gone 5-1. See? It is possible to have a successful life away from the Kardashians. GET OUT WHILE YOU STILL CAN, KANYE!

12. Indiana Pacers (12) The Pacers continue to struggle against teams that can spread the floor and shoot. This is a bit of a problem, as that’s the style of play the entire league is adopting.

13. Portland Trail Blazers (13) The Blazers have lost two of three, including blowout losses to the Warriors and Thunder, with Damian Lillard averaging just 19 points per game. Someone should probably remind him again that he was left off the All-Star team.

14. Dallas Mavericks (14) Dirk Nowitzki is on pace to become just the fifth player in NBA history to average 18 points per game at age 37 or older, joining Karl Malone, Michael Jordan, Dominique Wilkins and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar. Paul Pierce can also join this group if he averages about 60 points per game for the remainder of the season. Go for it, Paul.

15. Chicago Bulls (15) Call Doug McDermott “The Asteroid” because he is a raptor killer.

ESPN Stats & Info (@ESPNStatsInfo) Doug McDermott's last 2 games against the Raptors are the 2 highest-scoring games of his career (29 points tonight, and 30 on Feb. 19)

16. Detroit Pistons (16) The Pistons, fighting for their playoff lives, lost by 43 points to the mediocre Wizards on Monday night. Let’s see how Stan Van Gundy handled it:

Thanks, Stan! You never disappoint.



17. Houston Rockets (17) The Rockets would be a much more enjoyable team if rookie Sam Dekker would regularly post pictures he finds on Dwight Howard’s iPad.





Sam Dekker (@dekker) Found this on dwights iPad. Why this guy taking senior pictures as a grown man 😭😭😂😂 pic.twitter.com/XtOwysbPSm



18. Utah Jazz (18) Despite playing without Gordon Hayward on Monday night, the Jazz beat the Cavaliers by nine points. If Utah can make the postseason and then somehow get past the Warriors, Spurs, Thunder, Clippers, Grizzlies and Trail Blazers in the playoffs, you really have to like their chances in the NBA Finals.

19. Washington Wizards (19) The Wizards blew out the Pistons on Monday night after Bradley Beal returned from a three-game absence due to a sprained pelvis. Yes, a pelvis is apparently something you can sprain. Leave it to an injury-prone player to discover this.

20. Milwaukee Bucks (21)

The Bucks are now only five games out of the No8 spot in the East, but with just 15 games left on their schedule, it’s probably too big a gap to overcome. That means Milwaukee’s long streak of postseason appearances won’t begin until 2017.

21. Orlando Magic (20)

22. Denver Nuggets (24)

23. New York Knicks (23)

24. Sacramento Kings (22)

25. New Orleans Pelicans (25)

26. Minnesota Timberwolves (26)

27. Brooklyn Nets (27)

28. Los Angeles Lakers (28)

29. Phoenix Suns (29)

30. Philadelphia 76ers (30)