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With all due respect to the Cleveland Cavaliers and Golden State Warriors, we'd rather not see this exact NBA Finals matchup in 2018, for the fourth consecutive year. Third time's a charm. Fourth time's overkill.

So please, Cleveland. Or Golden State. One of you. Both of you. Either of you. Please, oh please, let another team partake in the championship round next season.

What's that? Neither of you will volunteer to bow out? Well then, I guess it's time to tear down this NBA Finals deja vu the old-fashioned way: via made-up trades and free-agency signings that bolster the league's secondary title contenders.

Some of these are multistep situations requiring more than one move. They will be highlighted as such wherever necessary. Scenarios that aren't connected to another are being presented independent of everything else, so one team can appear in separate hypotheticals—a rule admittedly implemented to accommodate the wildly flexible position in which one franchise finds itself.

View all trades as if they will be completed after July 1, at which time picks from this year's draft will have turned into players. This allows for uneven salary exchanges that take advantage of certain cap outlooks, as determined by this primer.

And now, let's see if we can build contenders with a puncher's chance of putting an end to the Cavaliers-Warriors rubber match before it reaches Round 14 4.