(1) While GSW is a great team, one of the all-time best, let's not forget that the early 80s Lakers and Celtics teams had like four Hall of Famers on their teams each. In fact the 1987 World Championships featured 8 Hall of Famers, 7 guys on the original top 50 all-time list, 13 career league MVPs, and something like 10 players who made All-Star teams. I mean the Lakers of that year had two top 10 players of all time (Kareem and Magic), Worthy, AC Green, who was an All-Star in his own right, Michael Cooper, an 8-time all defensive player who never played in an All-Star game, and Mychael Thompson, Bryon Scott, and Kurt Rambis.Anyone who thinks adding Lebron to the Celtics (in any manner that works under the cap) creates a team that can seriously challenge the Warriors is delusional. The Celtics are currently inferior to the Warriors at every position and most by a significant margin. They are a really good team but the Warriors are probably the best collection of talent the sport has ever seen. Adding Lebron and, say, losing Horford puts this team in maybe a slightly better position to last year's Cavs, in other words, still not close to good enough without a Warriors injury.
Nobody is talking about this, but Houston is the best positioned team to pitch Lebron on having a real shot against the Warriors. They could repeat what they did to land Paul next off-season and add Lebron for Anderson, another contract, and enough picks to make it worth it to Cleveland to take on Anderson's contract. Lebron, Paul, and Harden would give them a true big 3 that might hope to be able to compete with the Warriors. It's a little hard to see how those three fit together, but the talent is undeniable.
So greatest collection of talent ever to be assembled remains to be seen.
(2) I think LBJ, GH, IT4, Morris, and JB, with Smart, Tatum, Baynes, and Rozier being main bench options are a clear upgrade over what the Cavs put on the floor in the last championship. Granted GSW would be favored, but this team would give GSW more issues than the Cavs just because they have better and more versitile defenders than the Cavs do. I'd be more than happy to see the Cs take this to 6 games and see what happens.
Not that we're ever going to figure out but it's a dreamy kind of Monday, what with Devers being called up and everything else.