Getty Updated standings and playoff chances for the NBA's western conference.
The Golden State Warriors will not make it to the NBA Finals this year.
Well, that’s what Charles Barkley says.
“I know it’s something going on in Golden State,” Barkley told me.
Currently, the Golden State Warriors are tied for first in the Western Conference. Bluemanhoop’s Nathan Beighle suggested that the Warriors may actually want to be a No. 2 seed in the NBA Playoffs.
There aren’t many situations in which the Golden State Warriors should actually want the No. 2 seed, but in the current state of the Western Conference, it’d be smart for them to drop.
However, they’d be giving up guaranteed homecourt advantage throughout the entire Western Conference playoffs if they did. At the same time, the perk of dropping to the two seed is that they’d eliminate any chance of playing the Houston Rockets in the second round.
The route in which the Warriors take is what’s important when considering seeding. Given how dominant the Warriors are, it’s not the end of the world if they secure the top seed, but it certainly seems ideal if they don’t.
The path they’ll likely take to the finals if they’re the top seed would be through OKC, Houston then possibly the Nuggets. That’s the most difficult three series that the Warriors could manage in the West.”
While Barkley did not elaborate on what was going on in Golden State,observers can see.
Kevin Durant and Klay Thompson‘s free agency status are daily discussion on talk radio and television.
That said, Barkley believes that a new team could represent the NBA’s Western Conference in the NBA Finals: the Portland Trail Blazers.
He really believes that.
“Put it on the board! The Portland Trail Blazers are going to the Finals,” Barkley said earlier in the month on March on the NBA on TNT.
“The NBA Finals!”
“Put it on the board, the #Blazers are going to the NBA Finals!” — Charles Barkley
Retired NBA player, Kenny Smith, joined Barkley on that prediction on TNT and stated: “we are in agreement. I went there.”
Barkley and Smith’s enthusiasm for the Trail Blazers stemmed from their takeaways after watching the intense first half of Portland’s game against the Thunder, but also from the Blazers’ improved play since the February 7 trade deadline in which Portland acquired Enes Kanter and Rodney Hood.
So are the Blazers really going to the NBA Finals?
“I like Portland in the [NBA] Finals,” Charles Barkley told me.
“With [Damian] Lillard and [CJ] McCollum. The addition of Rodney Hood and Enes Kanter. I like them in the West.”