Right now the Golden State Warriors are dominating the NBA, they are 48-4 overall, which is on pace to beat the '95-'96 Bulls record of 72-10, a team that many considered to be the best of all time. They started out the season 24-0, and finally lost to Milwaukee, and at one point they lost 2 out of 3 games. That must have sparked them because they then went on a five game tear where they beat teams by an average of 25 points. The most impressive part of that is that Cleveland, Chicago, Indiana, San Antonio, and Dallas were the teams they beat during that stretch. Those teams are all playoff teams (well maybe not Chicago, but I'll get to that) and San Antonio and Cleveland are considered contenders. It's like the Kentucky basketball team last year, after a while people begin to despise your team because they are so good. It seems like in today's NBA you're either with the Warriors or you're against them, and there are a lot of people who are against them. I think part of that is the constant and unrelenting coverage by the media, all you see on ESPN, Sporting News, Bleacher Report, and Sports Illustrated is stuff about the Warriors. It gets very old, I actually rooted for the Warriors against Cleveland last year, but the media has made me hate them. Now it's a question of who can beat them, Houston, Toronto, Cleveland, San Antonio, and Oklahoma City have tried, but none have prevailed. All four of Golden State's losses don't matter, they serve a purpose other than to prove that no team is perfect. It will be important to watch how the Warriors play against the NBA's other contenders like Oklahoma City, San Antonio, and Los Angeles (Clippers). If one of those teams can beat Golden State, it might give more hope to this years playoff. But if the Warriors continue to dominate and have no trouble with other contenders, then they might as well not even play the playoffs. San Antonio and Oklahoma City are the two teams I thought could contend with Golden State, but now it might only be Oklahoma City. Both have recently played the Warriors on the road, both lost. However the Spurs lost by 30, and the Thunder lost by 8, even though the Spurs have the second best record in the league at 45-8. Hopefully the Thunder, Spurs, and Cavs can all get it together because the playoffs won't be very entertaining if the Warriors just sweep every team they play.
The team that is arguably the most disappointing right now would probably be the Bulls, they are 27-24, but they are 5-13 since January 9th. As a Bulls fan it is getting very hard to follow them, their starting lineup of Rose-Butler-Dunleavy-Gibson-Gasol isn't bad, and they have some valuable bench pieces. I think the Bulls could use a small forward, and maybe trade some of their current assets for a good draft pick to build a better future. I would say Dunleavy, Mirotic, Noah, and maybe even Rose are all considered trade-able.
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