Love seeing your posts, especially in this downtime because you're good at setting the scene when discussing various points in basketball history. Hope you and yours are doing well during these crazy times.
I remember that finals was quite entertaining but didn't realize it was as competitive as it was until I was looking over the box scores recently, after reading your post. I remember it going 6 games but I guess I forgot the Cavs were up 2-1 headed into game 4. It seemed momentum swung in game 3 despite the Cavalier win towards the Warriors when they had David Lee on the court at Center for them. I remember Lee being a vital part of the Warriors in that series but he didn't play at all in game 1 or 2. In game 3 he had a +17 in 13 minutes playing while all of the Warrior starters posted negative plus/minus'.
The Warriors started their "death lineup" in game 4 with Curry, Thompson, Iggy, Barnes, and Green but despite those 5 starting, I think Lee deserves a lot of credit for convincing Kerr to play without a traditional Center because of what he did in game 3 and then they had their way with the Cavs in game 4, winning by 21, and Lee was the only big to see any real playing time off the bench for them. Bogut played 2 minutes and 40 seconds and Speights played 2 minutes to David Lee's 15:28. The next game the Warriors didn't play Bogut or Speights but played Ezeli for 3 minutes and Lee played 9 minutes in the Warriors 13 point win, which gave them the 3-2 lead.
I think Bogut might have been hurt in his final appearance in game 4, I remember him getting hurt at some point in that series but they didn't really need him at that point. I do recall talk of how they would need to choose between Bogut and Lee because they couldn't afford to bring both back without paying luxury tax money but they moved Lee, who was more important in that finals, IMO. Lee wasn't quite done yet either. He had 2 seasons at least producing similarly to his last in Golden State. I know he was overpaid but that was really only an obstacle for that 1 season after their title win.
Usually a team that just wins a title, like the Warriors did, don't look to shed salary like that. We've seen since then that the Warriors aren't concerned with luxury tax payments either so it seems strange they dumped a key rotation player like that, even if he wasn't a big part of the entire playoff run. Do you recall any more about why they moved Lee? I could probably find it but like I said, I enjoy your takes and would like to know how a fan viewed that situation since he was the only rotation player they moved from the 2015 title team
We are good hope you are too.
Yes Lee was big in that series after not playing the first 2 games. He came in at the end of game 3, it was a loss but he played well in the 4th and Curry got loose in the 4th which was pivotal the rest of the way. The 2013 series with Denver, Bogut was great, in the one game he had double digit points, 20 plus rebounds and 4 blocks, he and Ezeli were dominant. But by 2015, Ezeli had missed much of the season, and Bogut was in and out with injuries. I think it was game 4 or 5 in the first finals with Cleveland Ezeli had a huge quarter, like 8 and 4 boards 2 blocks, 2 huge dunks. Too bad on him he had an absolutely amazing career I was reading up on him last night for some reason he came up on my phone feed.
He graduated HS at 14 in Nigeria, came to the US with family, and went to live with his uncle in Yuba City which is somewhat close to Sacramento. his uncle tried to teach him basketball because he was 6'5" hated it. Next year he enrolled at Jesuit HS in Sacramento, and got cut from the HS team, he was 6'8". He kept at it, graduated early went to a local JC for part time classes and was working out with Guss Armstead, local trainer in Sac, his son plays for the 49ers now, Arik Armstead. Ezeli was still totally raw but Guss and some other local guys got him into an AAU program, he was big, 6'11" by then, and very athletic. He was in a tournament in Las Vegas, had his first ever dunk in a game(he'd dunked in practices) and he said I was in traffic just went up and dunked, it was awesome. After the game he had like 7 scholarship offers on the spot. Was a terrific student, he wanted to go to college and needed the scholarship so he stuck with it, went to Vandy, redshirted and wound up an NBA first rounder. Knees ended his career. Had a cadaver ligament transplant surgery, and was trying to make the 2020 Nigerian Olympic team which is now postponed. Was living in Elk Grove in Sacramento(I lived there for about a year gf's sister lives there). Just a great guy.
But you look at that 2015 team and think IF Bogut and Ezeli stayed healthy they were going to be a "dynasty" even without signing Durant, they were both hurt and they let them both walk and got Durant. I always liked Lee, in the 2013 series he came back trying to play with a serious hip injury, said he just wanted to be part of it. Very good offensive player, just not good enough defensively.
If you watch the 2013 team you think that team is really good, has a chance to be special but it was still unclear if Curry's ankles were going to ever be 100% again, they already had injuries to Bogut and it turns out Ezeli had knee surgery that offseason. Getting Iggy made that team, and then figuring out the perfect role for Draymond.
I really hope we have a season next year I honestly want to see what this team looks like without KD again, I want to see Draymond, Curry, Klay, Paschall, etc. I want to see if they can get back close to that 2015-2016 2 year run pre KD. They won't have Bogut or Ezeli but they have some nice pieces and talented youth.
