Which Team Will End LeBron's Run of Eastern Conference Dominance?

For the last six years, the Eastern Conference has been represented in the NBA Finals by whatever team happened to have LeBron James on its roster. The last non-LeBron team to come out of the East was the 2009-10 Celtics, which featured Kevin Garnett, Paul Pierce, Ray Allen, Rasheed Wallace, Kendrick Perkins, and Rondo When He Was Still Good. LeBron's dominance in the conference playoffs has become so thorough that it seems naive to pick any other team besides his Cleveland Cavaliers to represent the East in June. And yet, it has to happen at some point, and with Kevin Love sidelined for six weeks due to injury and the Raptors more or less being gifted with Serge Ibaka (sorry, Terrence Ross), one has to wonder if a playoff ouster could come sooner than expected.

When looking at who could finally knock LeBron James from his perch at the top, there are essentially two categories: the teams that could do it this year, and the teams that could do it in a few years after their young talent has fully developed. (There is a third group, technically—the handful of Eastern teams who have no readily apparent path to contender status.) For now, we're going to focus on the teams most capable of unseating the King and the Cavs today.

Toronto Raptors

The Raps had been in a tailspin recently, dropping to fifth in the Eastern Conference, but with the acquisition of Ibaka they've reasserted themselves as LeBron's biggest threat.The Raptors' biggest weak spot has been their defense, as they rank 20th in the league in defensive rating. Ibaka will fix that right away, replacing rookie Pascal Siakam in the starting lineup, while also adding essential floor spacing on the other end (he's shooting .388 from downtown this season, a career best). With Kyle Lowry and DeMar DeRozan racking up buckets, and Ibaka and DeMarre Carroll getting stops on the other end, this team just got really scary.

Boston Celtics

Isaiah Thomas has gone from "really good scorer" to "unstoppable scoring machine," and the Celtics have reaped the benefits. Furthermore, his defensive flaws are remedied by the presence of Avery Bradley, Marcus Smart, and Jae Crowder. The Celtics are second in the East; with Love going down, they have a clear shot at grabbing the top seed. Making predictions a little more difficult, though, is what this team might do at the trade deadline. Do they trade for Paul Millsap? Do they make a run at Melo? Do they give up the Brooklyn pick? Most importantly, if they make a run at a big star, does it hurt the chemistry they've developed over the last few seasons? The Celtics are a good team with multiple options, but until we find out what they do at the deadline, it's hard to know exactly how much of a threat they are.

Washington Wizards

John Wall is having a career year, Bradley Beal is becoming the player we all hoped he'd become, and Otto Porter has thoroughly obliterated any notion of him being a bust by becoming one of the most efficient scorers in the game (expect him to get the max this summer). The team is also relatively strong upfront, with Marcin Gortat still producing well into his 30s and Markieff Morris being quietly effective. There's just one problem: there's absolutely no depth here. Outside their starting five, no one is averaging more than 6.6 points per game. No one can confidently say who this team's sixth-best player is. Marcus Thornton? Jason Smith? Their incredible OT showdown with the Cavs showed that this team deserves to be taken seriously, but unless they make a deal for a sixth man at the deadline, they're going to be leaning heavily on their starters come playoff time, and eventually might run out of steam.

That about does it for this year's contenders. (Sorry, Hawks fans, the Cavs swept you two years in a row, and you gave them Kyle Korver.) There are three other teams that could unseat the Cavs in the not-too-distant future if everything works out: the New York Knicks, the Milwaukee Bucks, and the Philadelphia 76ers. Each of these teams has a young stud who could lead them to glory (Porzingis, Giannis, Embiid), but also a key obstacle in their way. For the Sixers, it's Embiid's history of health issues; for the Bucks, it's the question of whether Jabari Parker can recover from a second long-term injury and still be the Bucks' second-best player; for the Knicks, it's… being the Knicks. And yet, if these teams can overcome these issues, they all could become legit title contenders by the time 2020 rolls around.

LeBron's dominance in the East has been impressive, but it's also made things a tad predictable. Thankfully, there are plenty of teams in the present and the future that could break up the monotony. The East won't belong to LeBron forever, and the battle for top dog in that conference should be fascinating to watch for years to come.