Do Celtics, Anyone, Have a Chance Against Golden State This Year?

By Adam Lowenstein (@StatsAdam)

Why the Warriors’ Chances at 2018 Title are Still Sky High

While Carmelo Anthony and the New York Knicks dominate the current NBA news, the Warriors are readying themselves to defend their second championship in the last three years as the NBA’s heavy favorite to win the 2018 Finals.

Golden State is getting the band back together after registering the league’s best offensive efficiency, effective field goal percentage and true-shooting percentage during last year’s regular season. Although they were the Western Conference’s worst squad in terms of defensive rebounding, they were among the league’s top teams on the defensive end of the basketball.

In Defense of D'Antoni's Defense

With the Knicks poised to be a relevant NBA team and potential championship contender, discussion among fans and the media has started to beat a horse that has been dead longer than Ike Turner: coach Mike D’Antoni’s defensive coaching abilities, or lack thereof.

It’s not a new story, and it’s not one that D’Antoni cares to revisit.  Some people take that as tacit admission of guilt on his part but I think it’s far more likely that he’s just tired of everyone focusing on his perceived flaws and he’s tired of not being able to say what needs to be said in defense of his abilities on that end of the floor.  I think that it’s a sore issue with him because his former payers threw him under the bus for the team’s failures after he was very careful to keep all of the blame off of them, and I think the fact that those players were clearly wrong makes that even more difficult to deal with.  Now that we have the benefit of hindsight, let’s take a look at how the Suns actually fared on the defensive end of the floor to see how warranted the criticism is and put everything in the proper context.