With the Los Angeles Lakers winning the 2020 NBA Finals, five NBA.com writers answer some of the most pressing questions left following a successful run in Orlando.
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Question 1: Will the Lakers’ path to The Finals in 2021 be easier or harder than in 2020?
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Steve Aschburner: Harder. This league is all about continuous improvement, unless it happens to be about injury. That’s the mode Golden State was in this season, gone ghost by the injuries to Klay Thompson and Stephen Curry. The Warriors will be healed, fresh and toting a high Draft pick with instant aspirations to reclaim their conference dominance. Denver wants nothing less than a Finals trip in 2021, Dallas might have been the team upsetting the Clippers if not for Kristaps Porzingis’ injury, and there always are expectations in Houston, Utah and Portland. Meanwhile, LeBron James will be a year old — wait, that’s meaningless now. But his and the Lakers’ rivals will be more formidable.
Shaun Powell: It’ll be harder. Understand that every title contender from this past year will be just as good if not better next season. And now you add the healthy Warriors and Nets and it’s a crowded field. The Lakers could loom as greater threats the following year, especially if Giannis Antetokounmpo or another A-list free agent signs up to help LeBron go out in style.
John Schuhmann: More difficult. The Lakers certainly earned that title, but the West should be stronger next season with the return of the Warriors and continued growth from teams like Denver, Dallas and even Phoenix. And with some lessons learned and improved chemistry, the LA Clippers should be more than just an in-theory championship contender next season.
Sekou Smith: Harder, but for reasons that are beyond the Lakers’ control. The pack in the Western Conference is always chasing the top dog and it will be no different in 2020-21. There’s plenty of competition gearing up for a shot at knocking the Lakers off their championship perch, starting with whatever team rises from the ashes that are the Clippers. Plus, there’s still Denver, Dallas, Utah, Houston, Portland, San Antonio, Oklahoma City, Phoenix and anyone else hoping to catch LeBron on the other side of 35. The Lakers’ championship window is open, though … as long as LeBron and AD stay as healthy and engaged as they were this time around.
Michael C. Wright: Harder, for sure. You forget about them because we didn’t see them in the bubble, but the Golden State Warriors haven’t gone anywhere (and they’ve got the No. 2 pick in the upcoming Draft). Then, you’ve got the Clippers and the Rockets, which need to figure out what they’re going to do moving forward as the championship window for James Harden and Russell Westbrook is quickly closing. Dallas is emerging as a threat in the West with Luka Doncic and Kristaps Porzingis, and we all saw how formidable Denver will be for years to come with two superstars in Murray and Nikola Jokic. It’s unfortunate Oklahoma City lost coach Billy Donovan to Chicago, but the young Thunder are on the come-up, too. Utah and Portland should also be threats next season. So, the West definitely hasn’t gotten any easier.
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Question 2: Will Miami’s path to The Finals in 2021 be easier or harder than in 2020?
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Aschburner: Harder. Nothing seems to get easier about NBA competition, at least in a relative sense. I mean, it’s easier for a ball handler to get where he wants to go without hand-checking anymore. But as far as vying for the same goals, there is zero reason to think the Heat will cake-walk to the 2021 Finals. The top East teams that got ousted this time — the Milwaukee Bucks, Toronto Raptors, Boston Celtics, Philadelphia 76ers and Brooklyn Nets — will have made changes or be lugging greater urgency next time. Milwaukee might be out-of-its-mind desperate to win big to retain Giannis Antetokounmpo. Doc Rivers accepted a win-now pressure in Philadelphia. Brad Stevens’ days as a wunderkind coach are over — it’s payoff time. And so on. Fortunately for Miami, it will be better too. But nothing will come more easily.
Powell: It’ll be much harder for the Heat if only because of the potential monster that’s emerging in Brooklyn with Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving healthy. Also, unlike this time, Miami will need to win some tough road games. The Heat’s chances actually will look better for the 2021-22 season, assuming they take advantage of their ample cap space in that offseason to find an A-list talent to join their youthful core.
Schuhmann: More difficult. Brooklyn is adding two of the most talented players in the league, Boston’s two young stars are only getting better and Philadelphia might be able to figure things out under Rivers. Goran Dragic and Jae Crowder are free agents, but Miami has the payroll flexibility to make tweaks, and its own young players (Bam Adebayo is 22! Tyler Herro is 20!) should continue to improve. The Heat will be right there among the contenders, but things might not break for them as well as they did these last two months.
Smith: Much harder. The surprise factor for the Heat evaporated with each and every dominant effort they delivered in their run to The Finals. There will be increased expectations across the board, from Jimmy Butler and Bam Adebayo on down the roster. The benefit of having a tight-knit group carrying its underdog role into an isolated environment won’t be on the Miami’s side in 2021 (or at least not that we know of). The “Heat culture” that fueled this run must be even stronger when we discover to what our new NBA normal is.
Wright: It’s definitely going to be more difficult. We saw in the bubble that the Brooklyn Nets have a nice, young squad — and that was without Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving in the mix. Brooklyn will be better, as will Philadelphia under Rivers, as he figures out ways to make the Joel Embiid-Ben Simmons pairing work. Let’s also not forget about Toronto, Boston and Milwaukee. All three of those teams are legit title contenders. Obviously, Miami now has NBA Finals experience that will serve it well moving forward, but the East is quickly becoming a gauntlet, and I personally can’t wait to see what the offseason brings for some of these teams.
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Question 3: The Most Valuable Player inside the bubble was __________.
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Aschburner: Jimmy Butler. Look, LeBron James is the more obvious choice for what he’s credited with doing on and off the court, as well as for the trophies with which he walked off the floor Sunday night. But I’m applying the same standards to this question as I apply to Kia MVP ballots. Having two MVP candidates on the same roster limits each of their cases, in my view. Take either James or Davis out of L.A.’s lineup, the Lakers still can beat a lot of teams. Take Butler out of Miami’s and they’re done after eight seeding games. Better yet, keep Butler in the lineup while removing Goran Dragic and hampering Bam Adebayo, and you still get a Heat team pushing to six games a Lakers squad flaunting two of the league’s best players. Butler’s triple-doubles in Games 3 and 5 gave the NBA’s TV partners more earning opportunities and fanned some fan flames that might have been flickering with a sweep.
Powell: LeBron James didn’t have a poor game or terrible moment or any lapse from the steep level he built for himself. It seems like an easy answer, choosing the Finals MVP for this question, but he simply outlasted all other bubble MVP candidates (Damian Lillard, Jamal Murray, Luka Doncic), and that must stand for something.
Schuhmann: There are cases to be made for Jimmy Butler (for a couple of huge games in The Finals) and Anthony Davis (for two-way play), but the Heat’s success was more of an ensemble affair and Davis took a back seat in the Lakers’ offense at times. LeBron James never took a back seat and was, simply, the best player on a team that went 16-5 in the postseason. James’ own offense was a reason the Lakers got off to a slow start in the bubble, but there shouldn’t have been any doubt about his ability to turn it up in the postseason. His jumper will always come and go, but his ability to get to the basket (he scored 76 more points in the restricted area than Davis in the playoffs) hasn’t diminished with age, and this was probably his best defensive season since he was in Miami.
Smith: Since he’s clearly not a fan of the narrative nature of awards season, I’m sure it will pain LeBron James to know that he’s the glaringly obvious pick here for that very reason. You know the script: legendary talent in his 17th season, leads the league in assists, guides the historic franchise (which had not won a title in a decade) out of the darkest time in the organization’s history in a tumultuous, longest-ever season that ends with them securing banner No. 17. If there were any doubters left before this fourth title run for LeBron, they’d be wise to lay down their arms now. The guy has earned his status as the best player on the planet and one of the truly greatest to ever do it, whether you agree with his methods or not. Three franchises, four titles, four Finals MVPs and the most recent one coming in an unprecedented environment that none of his Mount Rushmore brethren had ever dealt with strengthens his case. No player in the bubble impacted the culture or bottom line for his franchise greater than LeBron (though Jimmy Butler is a close second).
Wright: If you asked this question two weeks ago, it would have been Damian Lillard, no question. But Jimmy Butler catapulted himself into this spot with the grit he displayed in The Finals. In five of the six games, Butler played at least 43:26, and in Game 5, he played all but 48 seconds. We all saw the camera shots of Butler exhausted with seemingly nothing left to give throughout the series. But he kept coming back for more and finding ways to win without necessarily filling it up in terms of scoring. Butler’s leadership proved contagious for an undermanned Miami Heat squad in The Finals, and it was almost heartbreaking after Sunday’s Game 6 loss to hear him say, “I didn’t hold up my end of the bargain.” Yes, you did, Jimmy. Yes, you did.
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Question 4: Which player established himself as a legit NBA star inside the bubble?
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Steve Aschburner: Jamal Murray. Heading into this season, right up to the playoffs, Murray was considered a potential star for Denver. A guy who, someday, might chase a scoring title. But after a slow bubble start, Murray took flight. He thrived in a first-round duel with Utah’s Donovan Mitchell, twice scoring 50 points to lead the Denver Nuggets’ comeback from a 3-1 series hole. He outplayed Paul George, if not Kawhi Leonard, when they did it again against the LA Clippers. Then he averaged 25 points while making 52 percent of his shots in the Western Conference finals against the Lakers. The 23-year-old Canadian, who had boosted his scoring from 2018-19 to the 2019 playoffs by 3.1 ppg, topped himself by morphing from an 18.5 ppg guy to 26.5 ppg in Denver’s three rounds this time. The respect and expectations for Murray will be jacked higher whenever 2020-21 begins.
Shaun Powell: While Jimmy Butler, Donovan Mitchell and Luka Doncic certainly had their moments, Jamal Murray leaps to mind. He emerged as a certified offensive force. The Nuggets had been waiting for this to happen and it did, suddenly and spectacularly. His ability to shoot from distance, hit from mid range, attack the rim, command the double team and gain respect was very vivid and real. His defense needs to come around. However, he’ll be on the preseason Kia MVP watch list for 2020-21. LeBron James didn’t have a poor game or terrible moment or any lapse from the steep level he built for himself. It seems like an easy answer, choosing the Finals MVP for this question, but he simply outlasted all other bubble MVP candidates (Murray, Damian Lillard), and that must stand for something.
John Schuhmann: Jamal Murray established himself as a real off-the-dribble threat, the type that will challenge the way most of the league defends pick-and-rolls. With Nikola Jokic, Murray and Michael Porter Jr. (25, 23 and 22 years old), the Nuggets have three complementary talents who should have them playing top-five offense for years to come. Donovan Mitchell’s star turn, though it came with a smaller sample size, was similarly intriguing. The talent has always been there, but there was a whole new level of efficiency in his postseason performance. His effective field goal percentage of 61.9% on pull-up jumpers was the best mark among 23 players who attempted at least 50 in the playoffs. He also shot 95% on 8.3 free throw attempts per game. Those numbers aren’t sustainable, but if Mitchell has taken a step forward in regard to both his off-the-dribble shooting and his ability to get to the line, he is a star at just 23 years old.
Sekou Smith: I don’t even know if he was in the conversation before the bubble, but no one did more for his Q rating in Orlando than Denver’s Jamal Murray. He went from blazing hot scorer against Utah to a man on a mission in that upset of the Clippers to a full-blown performance artist in the Western Conference finals against the eventual-champion Lakers. We knew Murray was talented, but we had never seen him prove it on the playoff stage as he did for the Nuggets in the bubble. Nikola Jokic was already a legit star, a first team All-NBA center and one of the most difficult individual matchups in the league. Murray’s rise, however, turns the Nuggets into a legitimate contender for the foreseeable future, especially with younger talents like Michael Porter Jr. and Bol Bol in the same player development program. What this playoff run has done for Murray’s confidence won’t be clear until the next season starts. But I’ll have my popcorn ready to watch that show.
Wright: Honestly, he was a star before the NBA bubble, but Jamal Murray showed everybody why the Denver Nuggets will be in the mix to win titles for years to come. Suiting up in the playoffs for just the second time in his career, Murray, 23, cooked up 50-pieces twice in the postseason and made it a point to continue speaking up for social justice causes in the wake of a signature performance in Game 6 against the Utah Jazz. When Denver stunned the Clippers in the West semifinals, Murray racked up 40 points in the deciding Game 7. The Lakers took out the Nuggets in five games in the conference finals with Murray struggling to perform due to a bone bruise in his foot. But there’s no way Denver gets there without Murray carrying the Nuggets in the playoffs when needed.
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Question 5: What was the most unusual or surprising thing that happened this postseason?
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Aschburner: The Clippers coughing up a 3-1 lead in the Western Conference semifinals. Seriously? With that roster, that coaching staff and those expectations? The Lakers’ Staples Center roommates, losing three in a row when many thought they would beat LeBron & Co. to reach The Finals, is one of the NBA’s biggest choke jobs of this century. It cost Doc Rivers his job, dinged Paul George’s reputation (“Playoff P” indeed) and had some critics recasting Kawhi Leonard’s decision to leave Toronto as all about his lifestyle. Based on when it was announced, the Executive of the Year award to GM Lawrence Frank also wound up looking silly, given Lakers GM Rob Pelinka’s roster moves around James. Even with Rivers’ head-scratching record in Game 7s and knack for blowing three times a 3-1 playoff series lead, this was a stunner to me.
Powell: Maybe that there actually was a postseason? Or that it came to a halt because of the Bucks? In the purest sense, perhaps the collapse by the Clippers. That egg-laying after a 3-1 lead over the Nuggets left the franchise devastated. And the fallout was severe when Doc Rivers departed “by mutual interest.” Surely owner Steve Ballmer was (and still is?) livid over how his team behaved (“Lemon Pepper” Lou, the laughing at the expense of Damian Lillard) and definitely how it performed. This time next summer, the Clippers could be a total wreck if Kawhi Leonard and Paul George bail because the team’s future belongs to Oklahoma City.
Schuhmann: Besides the fact that it took place in a bubble with no fans? How about that it was probably the most efficient postseason ever? Over the 83 playoff games, teams combined to score 110.8 points per 100 possessions, the highest mark of the 24 postseasons for which we have play-by-play data (and likely NBA history). Regular-season efficiency hit an all-time high of 110.1 points per 100 possessions this year, but it was fair to believe that offense would suffer from a 20-week layoff. That was the case with the Lakers through Game 1 of the first round, but overall, offenses were sharp, despite the layoff and the unique environment. A larger-than-usual jump in the percentage of shots coming from 3-point range (from 38.4% in the regular season to 42.7% in the playoffs) was a factor. A jump in efficiency from the regular season to the playoffs isn’t unusual (it’s happened in 12 of the last 24 years), but it’s noteworthy that it happened given the circumstances and how efficiently the league scored in the regular season.
Smith: The LA Clippers entered the bubble as the favorite to win it all and exited the competition with an Executive of the Year honor for Lawrence Frank as the only tangible highlight. The Clippers’ collapse after taking a 3-1 lead over Denver in the conference semifinals should be an instructional video for how not to manage the pressure and expectations that come with contender status. The Clippers parted ways with Doc Rivers (who quickly got the Sixers’ coaching job). Stars Kawhi Leonard and Paul George are facing increased scrutiny within their own locker room and beyond while the makeup of this roster looms as a question marks as they enter the offseason without a coach. Put it this way: Before the confetti fell on the Lakers’ Finals-clinching win over Miami, the Clippers’ supposed takeover of the L.A. basketball throne was already ashes. Their meltdown was so thorough that most of us forgot that Milwaukee’s brutal bubble collapse happened in the same postseason.
Wright: Obviously, that moment came in August when the players decided to take a step back to reiterate their support of the Black Lives Matter movement and their stance on racial injustice and police brutality after Jacob Blake was gunned down from behind by police in Kenosha, Wisc. The league postponed playoff matchups between Milwaukee and Orlando, Houston and Oklahoma City and Portland and the Los Angeles Lakers. Doing so created an encouraging domino effect in pro sports as the WNBA and Major League Baseball also postponed games. Their actions and words put more of a spotlight on the injustices taking place in the United States, and with pro sports cancelled, all fans were forced to at least pay attention. The NBA players entered the bubble wanting to use their platform for good, and it appears they accomplished that with this moment.
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Question 6: What changes enforced inside the bubble would you like to see stick for 2021 and even beyond?
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Aschburner: Reduction of travel. As much as I loved seeing coaches in sweat suits, as curious as I am about why the shooting background of the bubble gyms were preferable to arena crowds for many players, I’d like to see some lessening of the travel grind when play resumes. That might mean keeping a road team in the same city for a pair of games (if it doesn’t make ticket-selling more difficult). At the very last, making sure to exploit two-team markets in L.A. and New York, hitting both the Lakers/Clippers and Knicks/Nets on one visit. Nearby markets too (which often occurs) — Chicago and Milwaukee, Orlando and Miami, Sacramento and Golden State. We get consecutive games in one site in the playoffs, so it’s worth trying — to reduce flights and odd sleeping hours — as much as the schedule will allow.
Powell: I like 10-minute quarters for exhibition games, the option for coaches to dress down, the names below the numbers on the backs of jerseys and the ample space along the baselines and sidelines. Of course, once normalcy returns, the teams will be too anxious to get $$ from courtside fans, so there’s no chance of that latter request happening.
Schuhmann: The dress code for coaches and staff. This is sports! Polos and khakis are more suitable than suits and ties. I also think that quality of the offenses should have the league continuing its effort to reduce travel during the season. Alas, if there’s not a reduction in the number of games, I’m not sure how that happens beyond longer stays in New York and L.A.
Smith: Nothing on the court. The competition between the lines in the bubble was every bit as energized as anything we’ve seen in home arenas. Another collective tip of the cap to the competitive nature of the teams and players involved is necessary. That said, I imagine that the powers that be noticed that the absence of the normal travel back and forth during a series proved extremely beneficial on game nights. There is substantial wear and tear involved in a long regular season followed by a rigorous postseason. Any opportunity to mitigate some of that wear and tear must to be top of mind as the parties negotiate the road ahead. The social distancing on the benches seems like it has to be a permanent change in the post-Covid-19 world. And finally, the relaxed dress code for coaches and players who are not in uniform was a welcome sight. It made for a much more comfortable feel inside the arenas for whatever reason.
Wright: Two small changes — virtual fans and the relaxed dress code for coaches — should stick beyond this season, if possible. Obviously, the NBA wants to be playing games this upcoming season in front of packed houses. But if it can’t initially, let’s bring back the virtual fans, and perhaps the league could do more outreach in terms of informing the fans how they can actually get into these virtual seats. Even if arenas are full next season, maybe there’s some type of “virtual section” that could be pulled off. Maybe shots of virtual fans can run across the ribbon boards at arenas that often display advertising. Inside the bubble, the virtual fans were a nice touch. And if you’re a Lakers fan in New York that can’t get to the games at the Staples Center, what better way to represent than to be a virtual fan? As for the dress code for coaches, I’m not advocating for it to be relaxed for all games permanently. Maybe the coaches should be required to wear suits only for nationally televised games and the postseason.
