Team of the Decade: The Golden State Warriors
The story of the National Basketball Association is obviously a long one, one that deserves a great deal of time and attention and thought. As much as I’d love to eventually put my spin on this entire story, for right now I’m only concerned with one specific era … the 2010’s.
I’m taking on the task of writing three pieces about the two teams that will define this one particular era of the NBA, an era which experts have called a “Golden Age” of Basketball. Parts 1 and 2 will highlight what made these two teams so important to the grander story of the NBA. Part 3 will detail what would’ve happened if these two teams ever crossed paths, because the unfortunate reality is they never did, and they never will. Perhaps more importantly, Part 3 will also evaluate which team will be first remembered when discussing the 2010’s many years from now.
NBA Team of the Decade, Part 2: The Golden State Warriors
Origin Story
This story begins in July 2016. Perhaps more accurately it begins sometime between August 2010 and June 2016. Maybe it actually begins in 2009. But quite literally, it begins on July 4th, 2016, when a 27-year old basketball prodigy decided once and for all he was “tired of being second,” so he joined a 73-win juggernaut ahead of the 2016–17 NBA season.
If LeBron James’s 2010 Decision was the decade’s most important basketball moment, Kevin Durant’s signing with the Golden State Warriors is safely second. Never before had one single offseason move threatened to remove all suspense from an NBA season. Never before had the team that the oddsmakers in Las Vegas decided was the current favorite to win the upcoming season’s NBA Title improved in such drastic, monumental fashion in Free Agency. Never before had we seen a top-tier player in the league willingly leave his own title-contending team to join another franchise whose nucleus had already been to the NBA Finals twice. There was no historical precedent for Durant’s move to the Bay Area, and I’m not sure we’ll ever see anything like that again.
In Kevin Durant’s Free Agency statement in The Players’ Tribune, he wrote of a desire to move out of his comfort zone and find a situation where he could evolve as a man and as a player. While there’s no reason not to believe that this is a fair and truthful depiction of Durant’s mindset as he made his choice to sign with the Golden State Warriors, it’s also reasonable to wonder if there was more to his choice.
For what it’s worth, Kevin Durant doesn’t need to explain his reasoning to anybody. If he wanted to go to play with the Warriors because he developed a bond with Stephen Curry and Andre Iguodala during their time with USA Basketball in 2010, that’s fine. If it was stylistic or personal issues that he had Russell Westbrook that resulted in the change of scenery, then so be it. Or if it was a phone call from Draymond Green immediately following the conclusion of the 2016 NBA Finals that sealed the deal, that shouldn’t be a problem either.
Of course, Durant signing with Golden State turned out to be a big problem for analysts, fans and the other 29 NBA teams. Many former players questioned KD’s decision (if you read my piece on the 2010–14 Miami Heat, this likely sounds familiar), and as a result, we had to suffer through far too many “Is this generation of athlete soft and not as competitive as previous generations” debates on ESPN, Fox Sports 1 and just about every other sports media outlet. Fans wondered whether the new-look Warriors would ruin the NBA. And those other 29 teams, they just had to hope and pray that they’d catch the Dubs on one of those nights where they were going at half speed, and even then, there was no guarantee they’d walk out with a win.
As you’d expect, the Warriors weren’t concerned about what the rest of the sports world felt about how their super team was formed or what it meant for the sport (Well actually, maybe KD was concerned about this since he was caught using secret Twitter accounts to defend his move from Oklahoma City to Golden State). Their focus was singular … obliterating everyone on their way to multiple NBA Titles.
The Main Characters
Stephen Curry — The defending two-time league MVP — one of which was won unanimously — and the most popular basketball player in the world since MJ was carrying the Bulls to a second three-peat. Depending on who you asked, Curry was either breaking or revolutionizing the game of basketball, but either way he was well on his way to a pantheon-caliber career. That didn’t change once Kevin Durant arrived.
Kevin Durant — A true basketball unicorn. A 7-foot scoring machine who could shoot and handle the rock like a guard. Durant made one Finals appearance with the Oklahoma City Thunder before making three consecutive trips with the Dubs. Durant won back to back Finals MVP trophies in 2017 and 2018 before having his postseason cut short with a calf strain and Achilles tear in 2019.
Klay Thompson — The lesser-heralded Splash Brother, and for a long time one of the most underrated basketball players in the world. It seems as though Klay is properly rated now … a two-way star, an overqualified third option in the Kevin Durant era, and quite possibly the second great three-point shooter ever behind teammate Stephen Curry.
Draymond Green — A 2nd Round steal in the 2012 NBA Draft, Draymond Green developed into one of the most versatile all-around players in the league under Head Coach Steve Kerr. Despite missing one game due to a suspension, Draymond likely would’ve won Finals MVP in 2016, ya know, had the Warriors not blown a 3–1 lead. Draymond made up for his one game suspension though … he’s often been credited for keeping in contact with Kevin Durant all throughout his final season in Oklahoma City and pitching him on joining the Warriors.
Steve Kerr — A five-time NBA Champion as a player and one hell of a color commentator for Turner Sports. It’s no surprise that Steve Kerr’s arrival in the Bay Area coincides with Golden State’s rise as the NBA’s defining super-power. Kerr unleashed his stars and emboldened everyone on the roster to do what they do best while embracing both the past, present and future of basketball. He’s added three NBA Championship rings to his collection in the last five years.
Andre Iguodala — Once “the man” for a bunch of good but never great Philadelphia 76ers teams, Iguodala joined the Warriors ahead of the 2013–14 season, and won a Finals MVP (one that belonged to Stephen Curry) two years later. The fifth man in what would be known as The Hampton’s Five line-up, a nod to the location of where Durant was sold on joining the Golden State Warriors.
Plot
Aside from the fact that a rising salary cap allowed the Golden State Warriors — coming off of a 73-win season — to sign one of the 30 best basketball players to ever walk the earth in the Summer of 2016, there wasn’t really anything abnormal about the trajectory of their dynasty in the 2010’s. It was fairly standard in comparison to dynasties of the past. You generally nail your Draft picks, you sign the right players in Free Agency and make the right trades to fill out your roster, you hand control over to the right Head Coach, and then you’re off. The Warriors did all of this in a span of five years.
First came Stephen Curry, a combo guard with a lightning quick shooting stroke and limitless range, but iffy ankles and questions about whether he’d ever be more than just a spot-up shooter. Then came Klay Thompson, a light’s out shooter with good size and solid defensive potential. Last came Draymond Green, a power forward who was chubby (he would lose 20 lbs. ahead of his second season in the NBA, and yes, I’m aware that it’s ridiculous that I of all people are calling anyone chubby), older (22 at the time he was drafted) and undersized (only 6’7”). Factor in a savvy trade for veteran big man Andrew Bogut (a move that sent Monta Ellis to Milwaukee and thus handed the keys to the car over the Stephen Curry), the free agency signing of Andre Iguodala (perhaps the most underrated summer steal of the decade) and the hiring of Steve Kerr … and just like that, the Warriors had assembled the core of a Championship caliber team in a five year window.
Again, this series of events isn’t much different than those that led to the dynasties of the Los Angeles Lakers and Boston Celtics in the 80’s, the Chicago Bulls in the 90’s, or the early 00’s Los Angeles Lakers. What was different was the Warriors ability to raise their own ceiling after a year in which we saw them break a 20-year-old regular season record.
The addition of Kevin Durant was the basketball equivalent of if the Chicago Bears signed Lawrence Taylor after their 15–1 season in 1985. It was the basketball equivalent of Jay-Z hopping on Forever with Drake, Kanye, Lil’ Wayne and Eminem. It was the basketball equivalent of Jennifer Aniston leaving Friends in 1998 and deciding to try her hand at drama by joining the cast of ER.
(Y’all get the point I’m trying to make, right?)
All of the concern of immediate chemistry issues (notice I said immediate) and how things would work for the Warriors schematically turned out to be no concern at all. The Dubs were trounced by a very good Spurs team on opening night of the 2016–17 season, and then proceeded to win 27 of their next 30 games. As Jon Hamm put it in The Town, the 2016–17 Golden State Warriors were The Not Fucking Around Crew, and the scary thing was that even on the nights when the Warriors were just fucking around, they could flip the switch at their leisure and absolutely wreck their opponents in the blink of an eye. Yes, this was a trait that we saw was embedded in their collective DNA during the previous two seasons, but their margin for error increased exponentially with Kevin Durant joining the Splash Brothers and Draymond Green.
It almost feels silly to dive too deep into the 2016–17 season … is this story really worth telling when there was essentially no drama along the way? The Warriors were never seriously tested that first season. Their backs were never once against the wall. They faced a 25-point deficit at home against the San Antonio Spurs in Game 1 of the Western Conference Finals, but Zaza Pachulia undercut Kawhi Leonard and the Dubs recovered to win that game and eventually close out the series in a sweep. They went 15–0 in their first fifteen games of the Playoffs, winning by an average of 16.1 points per game before finally losing Game 4 of the NBA Finals in Cleveland, one game shy of sweeping the entire postseason. To nobody’s surprise, Game 5 concluded one of the most dominant and predictable Championship runs in professional sports history.
The Warriors came out of the gate without any legitimate pushback on the court, and because of that, over the course of the next two seasons, if the Warriors ever appeared to be in the midst of a rough patch or on the verge of being seriously challenge, there was always the assumption that it was in someway fluky.
When they went 7–10 down the stretch in the 2017–18 season … They were just coasting.
When they were heading into the Western Conference Finals in 2018 without home court advantage … Come on, you really think they’re going to lose to Houston?
When they won the final two games of their series against Houston … It didn’t matter that Chris Paul got hurt, the Warriors would’ve come back to win the series anyway.
When they entered the 2019 NBA Finals against Toronto … Well if they lose it’s only because Kevin Durant is injured.
After losing in the 2019 NBA Finals to Toronto … Even without Kevin Durant, they still would’ve won the series if Klay Thompson didn’t get hurt in Game 6.
Maybe each one of these assertions is true. They damn sure well could be, though, I’d argue against the Houston ones because I was one of the few who actually picked the Rockets to win the 2018 Finals in February 2018. I’m just saying, that’s how historically great the Golden State Warriors were. That’s how much of a total rarity their top-of-the-roster talent was. The simple suggestion that anybody could test them seemed more ludicrous than it rightfully should’ve.
The Warriors didn’t ruin the NBA or break the game of basketball … they just broke our brains. Because we hadn’t seen anything like them before — and I’m talking about the way they helped to usher in a new era of professional basketball, the way they dominated on the court, the way their team was constructed, the way they made Fergie and the National Anthem relevant for 36 hours — it took everyone a while to figure out what sort of curve we were supposed to judge them on, and even now after the dust has begun to settle on the KD-Warriors partnership, I’m still not sure that most people have arrived at that point yet.
In the end, the Warriors were probably not as good as we expected they would be, but even better than we’ll remember them. Or maybe it’s the other way around. I guess I’m still at the point where even my own opinions are not yet definitive or coherent. But I do know that despite questions of how dominant they were, how likable they were or whether this never would’ve happened had Andre Iguodala not been blocked by James, the Warriors were champions. And in the NBA, that’s what matters most.
