That's how I feel. Most people respect those Rockets title teams because they won back-to-back championships. Same with the 2004 Pistons who did seem like a fluke at the time, but then made it back to the NBA Finals the following year and were 12 minutes(or a Robert Horry 3-pointer) away from a repeat title. Not to mention they made it to 6 consecutive Conference Finals. Even in the East, that's an impressive accomplishment. If the Warriors can make a deep playoff run next year or the year after while facing much tougher(or at least healthier) opponents, then this was no fluke or lucky break.
Winning regular season games means nothing, ask all of the teams the 95 Rockets beat in the playoffs. As to the playoffs, you might have been impressed by the Warriors eking by crippled opponent after crippled opponent, but it REALLY wasn't impressive. They very likely don't make it out of the 2nd round if they face the Grizzlies at full strength.
Yeah, the Warriors dominated this season. Regular season and playoffs. There's no arguing that. I'm thinking about this season's Warriors versus other great teams of the past. I don't have data, but anecdotal evidence would suggest that there was a LOT more injuries to teams and star players this year than in prior years. And in the playoffs, you just have to think about it. You don't think about those Bulls championships and say "but Ewing was injured. But Starks was injured. But Reggie was injured". You look at the Rockets championships and realize they went through healthy Blazers, healthy Suns, healthy Spurs, healthy Jazz, healthy Knicks, healthy Magic. It's anecdotal, but something to consider. That said, i actually give the Warriors a fighting chance against most of histories past champions. Because the game has changed, and the 3 point shooting of this Warriors squad is something that those Bulls never saw, those Shaq/Kobe Lakers teams never saw, etc. Imagine Shaq having to guard Curry repeatedly on switches. I think the Warriors still lose most of those series. But I also think this Warriors team definitely has a place among the great teams. True overall. But the Warriors were again on the extreme side of good luck here. Kerr is a better coach than Mark Jackson. I don't disagree with that. Coaching matters. I don't disagree with that. But Steve Kerr doesn't take this Rockets team any farther than Kevin McHale took it this year. I feel VERY VERY confident in saying that. I'm not so sure about the reverse. Does Kevin McHale coach the Warriors team to the championship? I'm not sure... but all else being equal, if I'm forced to bet on it, I'd say yes. Not all of the Warriors players dramatically improved. Klay and Green did. This strikes me as hard work by Klay and green for 75%, and other stuff, say coaching, for 25%. 2 young guys, having figured the league out a bit, putting in hard hours, with skill-sets that should allow them to be really good, improving.
@RealSkipBayless: 2015-06-17 17:42:47 UTC I love Steph but GSt had a fortuitous run to title. Avoided OKC, Clips, Spurs and 4 straight injured starting PGs. Needs to validate next yr @StephenCurry30: 2015-06-17 17:55:32 UTC .@RealSkipBayless Love you too Skip!
Gotcha - yeah, I don't know how to compare them with previous champions because the game and the rules have changed so much (not to mention nutrition, science behind workouts, etc). I think you can only really compare teams to their contemporaries, and in that respect, I think the Warriors were far better than their contemporaries at a fairly historical level. But I wouldn't try to guess who would win between the 2014 Warriors and some team from the 1990's or whatnot.
I guess steph destroyed the logic that scoring point guards can't win championships and how "pure" point guards or pass first point guards are better
Congrats to the Warriors. So much for the myth that jump-shooting teams can not win a title. These Warriors have dispelled such crap...What this team has become is a high efficient offense that is tailored to their personnel and a scrappy defensive team. Theyve used the Spurs model of success and modified to their needs. Sure Curry is their golden child, but every player on this team played better than I have ever seen them throughout the career. This directly points to a coaching staff that was able to create a terrific motion oriented offense that gave each player options to attack, pass or shoot at any given moment. The offense was tailored so well to this personnel group...The ball hopped around on this team, as evidence by their high assist totals for the season. They shared so well and didnt care who took a shot. The offense rarely had moments where it was stagnant. No one cared who the primary player was, because the secondary player, tertiary(etc...) all had a task to do for any given play. Whether they need a screen from Curry or a backdoor alley oop for Bogut, this team's offense had rhythm and chemistry. It was just so fun to watch, even though I hated watching them bash us for 8 games this season. Yes they set a ton of moving screens, but its up to the refs to call it. Yes they played tons of illegal defense, but its on the refs to call it. Yes they got away with a ton of holds, but when you do it as often as they do it...refs wont call it every time. This team did whatever necessary to win a title this year and I commend them for it. They believed in what Kerr preached and it was a thing of beauty to watch just as a basketball fan. You bet Im salty as heck that Curry got to the finals and won a title before Howard and Harden...but it what it is... The Warriors were the best team this season, and they made sure everyone knew by winning a title.
Not that I really expect anything other htan the absolute worst from Bayless... ...but it is a commonly-held principle in many sports leagues with a postseason tournament that the prize for beating the ever-living sh-t out of most of the league during the regular season at a historic rate is a more favorable seeding in the tournament and a more fortuitous title run.
Yup, and while I can't find the stat for 2015, their points per transition opp (10th last year at 1.4 or something vs 1.7 for Phx who led the league and 1.6 for Houston) was probably elite level this year.
Like the GS team needs any more motivation for next year ... The more this narrative of them winning only because other teams are unhealthy is repeated over and over, the more fuel it will give them. In the postgame interviews, those players kept harping on the chip on their shoulders. We'll see next year but I think they went from overrated for not having won anything to being underrated for not having won against healthy rosters.
Rockets should definitely work on illegal screens, illegal defense, dirty play, grabbing, and hacking. The refs might call it once but let the other several times go. The growin pains might be tough at first but once you get that label of being a great defensive teak the refs allow you to get away with more.
I think ignoring the extreme good luck the Warriors had this year with injuries in both the regular season and the playoffs is the real fluke. This Warriors season is the true outliers here - nothing about their previous performance seemed to suggest they would dominate this year(aside from a few hard fought playoff games against contenders). Most pegged them as a top 4 of 5 team and a few even had them as darkhorse champs at the start of the year, but let's get real that their past performance, the fact they didn't make any necessarily sizable offseason changes, and the fact they came in with a new coach - none of those necessarily screamed "they will turn this into a historically great team". I watched many of those historically great teams play and can tell you that they were dominant teams before and after their magical seasons. It didn't surprise you necessarily when Jordan's Bulls won 70+. The Celts and Sixers at their most dominant were all perennial juggernauts before they turned a corner. The point everyone is trying to tell you is the Warrior's season is an extreme outlier and I think people here want to see the Warriors do that again because modern day outliers tend to be the product of either cheating(I'm not suggesting that about the Warriors) or some form of extreme good luck(in this case injured opponents in regular season/playoffs, and mostly avoiding injuries themselves).
Yeah, it's always impossible to compare against seasons. But it's fun to do, and everyone likes to do it. If I look at NBA champions from 1980 forward - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_NBA_champions - I have a hard time definitively saying for any series that I feel very confident the Warriors would be likely to win. That may be true in reverse... though I also have a hard time even favoring the Warriors in most series. They'd maybe be favored against the 11 Mavs, 06 Heat and 94 Rockets?? Just fun thought experiments!
Can't argue against the injury luck warriors faced. but i don't understand why everyone assumes the clippers would have beaten the warriors...GS was 3-1 against them in regular season with 2 blowouts. and they have double the depth the clippers have. They took the clippers to 7 games without bogut last year with an inferior coaching squad. i really dont get this. spurs you can certainly argue could have beaten them, but no way in hell clippers had a chance.
They better get used to it. Especially from fans of every playoff team that suffered injuries this season. Which would pretty much include all of them aside from Golden State. And if the Warriors and their fanbase think it's bad now, imagine how much sh-t they'll get if they do in fact lose in the first or second round next season and are fully healthy when that happens.
It's entirely hypothetical, so it's kind of silly to debate. But if the Clippers had finished off the Rockets in 5 or 6 games and gotten some rest before the WCF, then maybe I could see them upsetting the Warriors. Paul was looking healthy again by that point and he would've made Curry work his ass off at the defensive end. Unless Golden State switched Barnes or Thompson onto him, but that could've landed those two in serious foul trouble(or left them with little energy at the offensive end). Then you consider that Green would have his hands full with Griffin. The problem of course is the Clippers bench was a joke. I would've picked Warriors in 6 had that series ever materialized, but LA would've had a shot. Now the Spurs on the other hand probably would've beaten the Warriors. Their bench was every bit as good as Golden State's and Duncan was playing like he was 10 years younger.
Golden State did win the championship, no one can discredit that. But when the conversation turns to them being one of the greatest teams and having one of the greatest runs, that's were the issue becomes suspect. Many people would have liked to have seen the Warriors play a string of fully healthy teams on their way to the title before giving them the greatest team/greatest run crown. Not all wins are measured the same.
