The NBA Finals don't start until Thursday, June 1st, but excitement for the third straight meeting between the Cavaliers and Warriors is in the air.
With two days to go until Game 1, final preparations are being made by both teams for the series opener and players are getting physically and mentally ready for what should be an incredible series.
At Warriors practice Tuesday, everything was normal for the most part, aside from the fact that Steven Nash was working with Kevin Durant.
By the looks of it, the focus of Nash's workout with Durant was shooting.
Durant's field goal percentage and three-point percentage during the playoffs so far are the highest they've ever been in his postseason career, but it never hurts to get tips from one of the best.
For those wondering why Nash is working with the Warriors, the team signed in him in 2015 as a Player Development Consultant.
He's been helping the team ever since and he even talked to KD before he signed with Golden State this summer, as per Tim Kawakami of The Mercury News:
-Q: So Durant calls you just as he’s making the decision this summer. What was that conversation like?
-NASH: I think Kevin was ready to make a move for himself as a person. I sensed that in him.
OK, so there were two things going on here. One, there’s a basketball move that had at least two sides–what a great move for him and everybody can see that or people who despise him for making this move.
The reality is that he made a decision within the rules as a basketball player, to the team that he chose, and it was fair.
The other side of it–he’s at a stage of his life where he wanted to challenge himself as a man and put himself in an environment where he felt there was room for a different kind of growth in a way, maybe an uncomfortable different step.
I think from the outside, people look at it and go, he went to the best team available.
But that’s the same thing LeBron did as a free agent the last two times, he went to Miami and Cleveland to join two max players. When he was doing that, there didn’t happen to be team with three all-stars or maybe he would’ve gone to that one.
Look, it would’ve been easier for him, no one would’ve been upset if he went back to OKC; but I think he has a chance here to grow as a man and put himself in a new environment where he’d be challenged in different ways.
For me, I thought it’d be a great move for him basketball-wise. I thought that he would fit in great.
And one thing I told him, if he doesn’t make a move like this, there’s nothing stopping a free agent next year from (joining the Warriors in this spot). (If he doesn’t sign with the Warriors), he loses an opportunity where he’s in complete control and has his own choice and he took advantage of it.
What I really started to realize as I talked through the process with him, it seemed like he wanted to take the next step as a man.
It was less about winning a championship than being challenged in new ways and gain as much as he could from that new experience.
One of the reasons Durant decided to sign with the Warriors was to win a championship, and Game 1 of the Finals is the next step to accomplishing that goal.
