With the Cavaliers clinching their spot in the Finals last night, I really got to thinking about how that really could've been the Wizards winning that trophy last night. Now normally I'm not a guy to speculate on what could've happened because frankly, it won't change anything but because I don't have anything else to blog about I think it's worth speculating, I ask you: If Gil and Caron were healthy, how far could we have gone?
Had they both stayed healthy, the Wizards would probably have held onto the 6 seed and would've faced the Raptors, who I think we would've beaten for no other reason than that they lacked a certain something. After dispatching the Toronto, we'd face off against the Cavaliers, in the conference semi-finals. A lot of people will point out that the Wizards kept it close in every game and conclude that had the Wizards could've won if they had their all-stars playing. Personally, I think the Cavs were only playing hard enough to get by and had they really wanted to they could've beaten us by a more comfortable margin. Then again, the Wizards stayed right with the Cavs last year and had a few things gone differently in the series, Washington very well could've won last year.
So let's say that the Wizards get revenge and beat the Cavs. That would put them in the Eastern Conference finals against Detroit. In any other situation, I'd take the Pistons to beat any six seed come playoff time. But over the last two years, the Wizards are 5-2 against the Bad Boys. Obviously the playoffs are a whole different animal, but if the Warriors could translate regular season dominance of a better team into a playoff series victory, why not Washington?
Here's where it kind of dries up though, because I really don't see any way outside of a severe Tim Duncan injury that the Spurs would've lost to Washington but even if they lost the NBA Finals, I don't think they would've had anything to be ashamed of.
Like I said before, I don't want this turn into a sour grapes thread or a woe-are-us session or anything like that, but I think it's something worth bringing up.
So what do you all think? How far could the Wizards have gone if they were fully healthy?