I don’t know about it not happening next year, but as a fan, the fact that i dont understand how the NBA cup works means i care very little about it.

If I along with millions of other fans dont care, then the players wont care too.

Maybe just the role players who feel 500k is big. But for stars, they literally sit games and lose out on that type of salary on the regular.

A KD-less warriors 2017 & 2018 team is definitely better than their 2015 & 2016 version. They certainly would still be the favorites even without KD.

But the league was already on it’s way to figuring them out. The only reason why the Cavs struggled mightily to beat them was because of Kevin Love, who could no longer defend and ate up a giant chunk of their cap.

The Rockets and Bucks were two teams constructed with multiple rangy switching defenders specifically to neutralize the chaos of Steph zipping around the court. It’s like the warriors were 50% favorites to 30% favorites. Still the best odds but not overwhelming anymore.

The game is just moving really fast now. Because of shortened contracts, high influx of rookie talent and the fast pace shortening careers, rosters are turning over rapidly, and in ways that are able to adapt to the best teams. This is why even though the Warriors revolutionized the game, they could only hold on to their advantage for so long.