Brian Windhorst Reveals His Crazy NBA Finals Travel Strategy

The postseason is still two months away and the NBA Finals are set to tip off in June, but it's never too early to start looking at potential host cities.

That's the reality for ESPN reporter Brian Windhorst, who shared on ESPN Cleveland's "5 Good Minutes With Windy" show that he starts making hotel reservations several months in advance.

"I've been around the league for a while... I know exactly where I want to stay," Windhorst said. "I also know that if you don't book your hotels until the playoffs start, you can't always get into the hotels. So when I make hotel reservations during the Finals... that's my own personal way of saying [to a team], 'You can make it.'"

Windhorst already has reservations in three cities: Boston, Cleveland and Oklahoma City. He added that he's "on the verge" of booking a hotel for Denver.

For Cleveland specifically, Windhorst booked his June hotel around January 7th — one day before the Cavaliers beat the Thunder, 129-122, in one of the best games of the year. Windy gave a glowing review to ESPN Cleveland's Chris Oldach on why he thought the Cavs have what it takes to make it back to the championship series for the first time since 2018.

"I watch the way that the Cavs can control games and I watch how they can win in different ways, and they have a superstar player," Windhorst said. "This is a big thing. If you have a 50/50 playoff game, you can't just hope your system works, that's not how the NBA [works]. People have compared this Cavs team to the Hawks teams of the mid-teens. [They] had a bunch of All-Stars and won 60 games, and the difference between those Atlanta teams and this Cavs team is that the Cavs team has a superstar. They have a superstar who can take a playoff game and... flip it on its head."

Donovan Mitchell has proven his worth in the playoffs with both Utah and Cleveland, raising his career scoring average from 24.7 points per game in the regular season to 28.1 in the postseason. In the 2024 playoffs, Mitchell averaged 29.6 points over 10 games.

There are still 28 games left for Cleveland at the All-Star break, but the Cavaliers currently have a franchise-best .815 win percentage and sit 5.5 games above the Celtics in the Eastern Conference. Time will tell if Windhorst is correct about reserving his Cleveland hotel early, but the NBA Insider certainly believes the Cavs are a group that can go all the way.

Read More Cleveland Cavaliers Content