Offseason questions the Warriors, Cavaliers must answer

Basketball fans are in store for what should be a captivating night Thursday. With Game 6 of the NBA Finals in Cleveland, the Cavaliers will have an opportunity to force a decisive Game 7 in Oakland against the Warriors. The Warriors, however, look primed to win their second consecutive NBA Finals with star power forward Draymond Green returning to the starting lineup after his one-game suspension.

Regardless of whether the Dubs win back-to-back championships tonight or in seven games, or whether the Cavs can become the first team in NBA Finals history to come back from a three games to one series deficit in an NBA Finals, both of these teams face some curious offseason questions. Let’s take a look at them.

1) Will the Cavs trade Kevin Love?

Anyone with two eyeballs can see the gap in talent that exists between Kevin Love and Cavs superstars LeBron James and Kyrie Irving. It’s a far wider chasm than any NBA fan could have imagined when the Cleveland initially acquired Love in the summer of 2014.

Simply put, Love just has not been able to find a suitable role on this Cavs team. The 27-year-old power forward’s numbers are down all across the board from his days with the Minnesota Timberwolves, and his body language suggests he isn’t exactly enjoying his time on the court.

Even if the Cavs win their first NBA title in the coming days, all signs point to Love making his departure from Cleveland this offseason. A Carmelo for K-Love swap, anyone?

2) Could the Warriors sign Kevin Durant?

As easy as it is to get mesmerized by the shooting of Stephen Curry and Klay Thompson and pit-bull playing style of Draymond Green, what so often gets overlooked about these players are the contracts they’re signed to. Warriors GM Bob Myers has three of the top 15 players in the NBA signed to contracts that are absolute bargains. They're such bargains that with the salary cap rising an estimated 20 percent to 30 percent this offseason, the Warriors are expected to have enough cap room to sign another max-contract player.

Enter Kevin Durant, stage left.

Admittedly, it’s a long shot, but if the Warriors do in fact collapse and lose this NBA Finals, the impetus to sign a player of Durant’s caliber will rise. Whether or not Durant will leave Oklahoma City after nearly beating the Warriors in the Western Conference Finals is another story, but if the Warriors fail to hoist the Larry O’Brien Trophy in the coming days, expect the rumors to begin to swirl.

3) Will Tyronn Lue be Cleveland's coach going forward?

Another overlooked facet among these two teams is that one of them has a head coach who took over midseason. After firing coach David Blatt in January, lead assistant Tyronn Lue was named head coach in Cleveland.

Considering Blatt never seemed to gel with LeBron James, his dismissal was not too much of a surprise. Lue, who had no head coaching experience prior to this season, has done an admirable job thus far but has hardly set the world on fire. Now, if the Cavs can manage to win their text two games, there isn’t any doubt Lue will back to coach the team next season. But if the Cavs lose, questions will arise, and Lue’s position as head coach will be in jeopardy.

It feels as if Cleveland has a small window to win a title with LeBron’s prime nearing its end. That being said, having the right head coach in charge is no small matter.

4) Will Harrison Barnes and Festus Ezeli leave the Bay?

Warriors starting small forward Harrison Barnes and backup center Festus Ezeli will both be unrestricted free agents this summer, and both will be looking to cash in. Barnes in particular, who was the seventh overall pick of the 2012 NBA Draft, will likely be looking for a new team where he can assume a larger role on offense.

Similarly, Ezeli is probably tired of being buried on the depth chart behind starter Andrew Bogut. Throw into play the Dubs' love for small ball, and Ezeli leaving the Bay area for greener (purely in terms of money) pastures would appear to be a distinct possibility.

5) What will the Cavs' bench look like next season?

The Cavs' bench will likely have a number of new faces on it next season. J.R. Smith, Matthew Dellavedova, Timofey Mozgov and Richard Jefferson will all be unrestricted free agents, and retaining all four players is a dubious proposition at best. Of course, the idea of competing for a championship always has the ability to sway veteran free agents into signing for less money, so expect the Cavs to go after players like Joe Johnson, Jamal Crawford and Luol Deng.

6) Will LeBron opt out of his contract?

Will LeBron James opt out of his contract in Cleveland? Yes. Is there any chance at all he leaves Cleveland? No.

Having made his fortune from previous contracts, endorsement deals and other business ventures, King James is no longer playing basketball for the money. OK, that would be totally naive to believe, but the financial incentives of playing in the NBA certainly don’t have the pull they once did on James.

LeBron has committed the remainder of his career to bring not just one, but hopefully multiple championships to Cleveland — a city that has never won one. Giving Cavs management as much possible cap flexibility to either bring in new free agents or facilitate a trade is why you can expect LeBron to opt out of his contract this summer, but given how poorly his first departure from Cleveland was received, don't expect James to abandon his home state again.