Process or personages? Which is more essential to the NBA's championship formula? Today's rollout of the ESPN Summer Forecast unveiled the collective's prediction for the title winner, and it seems our voters believe in a little of both.
Take the No. 1 team, the Cleveland Cavaliers. As Kevin Pelton wrote on Monday, Cleveland's perch atop the Eastern Conference seems secure, as their mathematical projections give them plenty of buffer, despite any lingering injury concerns surrounding Kyrie Irving or the unsolved issues created by the long restricted free agency of Tristan Thompson.