The NBA Finals are upon us. When Game 1 tips off on Thursday, it’ll mark the first-ever championship appearance for the Toronto Raptors, and it’ll set up the final roadblock in the Golden State Warriors’ quest for a three-peat, the likes of which we haven’t seen since the Kobe-Shaq Lakers of the early 2000s.
Now’s the time to make predictions about what will happen and how, and we’ve got that in spades in our annual Finals Predictions Roundtable that you can read here. But even as we gaze deeply into our crystal ball for answers, we still have plenty of lingering questions as we inch closer toward the coronation of this season’s eventual champs.
Here are some of the most pressing (and a few not-so-pressing) questions we have to help get us geared up for Game 1 on Thursday.
Who Is The Player We’ll Be Most Surprised To See Trending On Twitter After A Big Game?
There are plenty of candidates on both sides. Danny Green has had such a nightmarish postseason so far, it almost feels preordained that he’ll have “a moment” in the Finals where he erupts for seven or eight three-pointers and saves the Raptors from going down 3-1.
But don’t sleep on the Warriors’ bench. They’ve taken a lot of heat for sacrificing depth to stack their roster with All-Stars, but guys like Kevon Looney and Jordan Bell both made an impact in the previous round against the Blazers and could be primed for another big showing.
Will Steph Curry Finally Have a Signature Moment In The NBA Finals?
Curry still doesn’t have a Finals MVP, and this is probably his best chance to rectify that. As incredible as his career has been, there’s still the nagging perception that he underwhelms in the postseason. That’s debatable, to say the least, and his play against the Blazers alone is already buttressing his legacy. A dominant Finals performance could help re-frame his reputation for the good.
Who Has The Most To Lose?
Just making it to the Finals is already a major win for the Raptors and a seismic shift to their legacy. It might even be enough to convince Kawhi Leonard to stick around. It’s more complicated for the Warriors. Failure to complete the coveted and elusive championship three-peat would be its own letdown, but it might also hasten the dissolution of their dynasty.
If they win and Durant plays sparingly, it will only amplify the harebrained notion that they’re somehow better off without Durant, which could tip the scales on his free agency decision and prompt him to seek vindication elsewhere. A loss would mean a further indictment on Steph and his inability to be the best player on a championship team.
And don’t forget about poor sweet DeMar DeRozan in this equation. The Raptors have now gone further than they’ve ever been in franchise history, and they’ve done it by trading him in for a newer and shinier model.
How Will This Affect Kawhi Leonard’s Free Agency Decision? A Lot? A Little? None At All?
Regardless of what happens, the Kawhi Leonard trade has been an enormous, history-altering success. The Raptors are making their first trip to the Finals, and that combined with the culture and camaraderie they’ve built this season will be the biggest argument for him to re-sign with Toronto.
But his future isn’t necessarily contingent on them winning the title. Losing won’t push him out the door, but if the Raptors somehow pull off an upset and stun the champs, it would be very difficult to imagine him leaving this summer. Either way, the risk will have paid monumental dividends. It’s a painful lesson other organizations around the league have learned the hard way.
Who Is The Player You’re Most Happy To See Make It To The Finals?
As a Memphis native, I’m admittedly a little biased here, but I think the clear answer is Marc Gasol. The Plus-Size Spaniard is beloved around the league, and though age and injuries have robbed him of some of that implacable brute force that made him so dominant earlier in his career, Gasol is proving that he can still make meaningful contributions to a title contender, helping put the clamps on guys like Joel Embiid and Giannis Antetokounmpo and bringing the type of overall savvy that has given the Raptors a much-needed edge.
Boogie Cousins’ fans also have a case here, if he is eventually able to suit up, though it would be bittersweet to say the least given that his injury has sidelined him the entire postseason. There’s also an argument for Andrew Bogut making his return to the Warriors after a year spent back in his home country among the national team ranks.
How Much Will LeBron’s Absence Affect TV Ratings?
Through the opening round, ratings were down between 14-18 percent from last year, and though the Rockets-Warriors semifinals series saw a spike, viewership in the East continued to be sluggish.
The end of the Homeric epic that was the Warriors-Cavs presented a new challenge to the interest and attention span of casual NBA fans. But a star-powered league without its global superstar headlining its championship series is a predicament the NBA hasn’t faced in almost a decade.
There’s still plenty of intrigue, especially with Durant being iffy for the first few games, which should bolster the belief that anything can happen. It’s also important to remember that Canadian TV ratings for the games will not be included, and as such, they’ll surely drop but it might not be as big of a deal as many will make it out to be.
What Is The Significance Of Having NBA Finals Games Outside Of The U.S.?
Basketball has been the world’s fastest-growing sport for more than a decade. Every season, the NBA exceeds its highest concentration of international players, and teams play more and more games overseas in places like London, Bejiing, Mexico City, various parts of Africa, and more as part of its ongoing global initiative.
Adam Silver has long sought to bring more regular season games to the international market, and overseas expansion is the NBA’s final frontier. Granted, playing a small handful of games in Toronto — where the NBA has played for more than two decades — isn’t exactly manifest destiny. But it’s significant, and we’ll see a good amount of airtime devoted to placing it in its proper context.
Mostly, it’s big win for Canada, obviously, as it’s brought a higher sense of legitimacy to the league’s only organization existing outside of the U.S.
Just How ONLINE Will Kevin Durant Be?
This obviously depends on how much he’s able to play, but we recently got a tantalizing reminder of what it’s like when KD gets MAD ONLINE. All the chatter about him being nonessential to their success has clearly gotten under his skin, and that’s only going to ramp up if they are able to dominate this series against the Raptors. We’re here for all of it, whether that means him scolding high-profile reporters or upbraiding faceless Twitter eggs.
Which Team Has The Best-Worst Celebrity Superfan?
On the surface, this may seem like it has an obvious answer. But don’t let Drizzy’s courtside dinner theater distract you from the fact that the Warriors fanbase boasts a music industry titan of their own among their ranks. Smash Mouth, the 90s radio-friendly ska-pop wunderkinds, are long-time Warriors zealots, and over the weekend, their Twitter account went at Drake hard for his sideline histrionics, which also earned him a talking-to from the league.
There are others, of course, like Toronto millionaire Nav Bhatia or the Warriors Dance Mom. The question here is just how much sweet schadenfreude you’ll indulge in when one of them suffers the heartbreak of losing in the Finals. As a side note, Jimmy Goldstein is an American treasure and is completely above reproach, as is Guy Fieri. End of discussion.
Will There Be Beef?
With Kyle Lowry and Serge Ibaka on one side and Draymond Green and Andrew Bogut on the other, it seems like conditions might be favorable for a few minor dust-ups. This should be a relatively tame series, but it’s the Finals and the stakes are high, so emotions will run hot. We could see a scuffle here and there, which always makes things more interesting even if it fizzles out with little fanfare, but a friendly reminder to the Warriors that Ibaka isn’t about the push and run stuff, he will happily throw hands.
