While Teams Scramble To Get Better, The Warriors Sit Back And Laugh
Golden State isn’t just a threat during the regular season. Their current roster has forced teams to make moves, giving us one of the craziest offseasons yet
If you’ve slept more than like six hours at anytime since Golden State won their second title in three years, you’ve probably missed some absurd rumor or a trade no one saw coming. While we all knew the Warriors were good, we didn’t know they were this good. This offseason has already gotten off to one of the most insane starts yet, and it’s all thanks to Golden State.
Look we all know teams are always looking to get better and there will forever be a disgruntled superstar thanks to management, a losing team, teammate chemistry, a Kardashian, or whatever reason you can possibly come up with. That is not what the Warriors dominance has done. The NBA has officially painted them as a goliath, making it a better time now more than ever to either tank, load up with assets to create your own team through the draft, or to trade or recruit a few renegades who want to take down the league’s biggest monster. Teams are either loading up with weapons like they’re heading into World War III, or they’re heading to a bunker with their assets and cap space to lose in peace while the Warriors rage a nuclear war across the NBA.
Don’t think it’s true? Just look at how people are freaking out about the Bulls trading their second round draft pick Jordan Bell to the Warriors for cash. They’re acting like the Warriors just moved up and grabbed Fultz.
The Warriors make a move, and the earth shakes. Even if it is for a second round draft pick.
Whether you believe it or not, plenty of big moves across the NBA have the Warriors’ fingerprint on it. Look at the Celtics for example. Boston moved back in the draft to select Jayson Tatum while adding another future lottery pick. What this does is give the Celtics a number of different possibilities to take down the Warriors at some point.
They can either take one of two paths to slay the four-headed dragon that resides by the Bay: A) They can trade the assets Danny Ainge has hoarded over the years for a star like Paul George while signing Gordon Hayward, giving them four superstars to match that of Golden State or B) They can ride their draft picks into the sunset, biding their time while Jaylen Brown, Jayson Tatum, and their two future lottery picks develop as Golden State slaughters others in their path for years to come.
That isn’t just the path for the Celtics. That’s the path for every single team. There’s almost no point in building a team that lingers around playoff contention, going from the four seed to the eight seed just waiting to get knocked out of the playoff eventually. Even if you make a miraculous run, all roads lead to Golden State, while the path is littered with the teams loading up to take them down like San Antonio, Boston, and of course, Cleveland.
That’s why the Bulls abandoned ship and traded Jimmy Butler for a fraction of what they could’ve gotten a year ago…
…while Atlanta dumped Dwight Howard off to Charlotte as they line Philps Arena with dynamite Wile E. Coyote style as they prepare to blow up their entire roster.
Like it was mentioned previously, we’ve seen stars get dealt. It’s the way they’re moving that makes all these moves Warriors-related. The league has simply never seen an arms race like this. A team like the Cavs that has three superstars are going from team to team to try to add another star as if they’re in dire need to make a move. Newsflash everyone, this is the same team that went 12–1 on their way to the Finals, while dismantling every single team in front of them in embarrassing fashion. It’s simply not enough thanks to Golden State.
We aren’t even two weeks removed from the Finals and the NBA has already turned into a lawless country. Rumors fly around recklessly, stars flip their stance on where they want to go on an hour by hour basis, as fans hover around their phone waiting for the next Woj-bomb (side note, if you don’t have Woj’s Twitter on alerts by now, you’re a sucker). We’ve even gotten to the point where athletes following chefs from a certain city has become news.
While you breath heavily into a paper bag to catch your breath wondering when the offseason will slow down so you can leave your dimly-lit computer screen to actually enjoy the summer weather without the fear of missing everything, blame the Warriors. Their dynasty is continuing to reshape the NBA in every single way possible.