GS Warriors - Least Respected Champion since Rockets?

A championship is a championship and Golden State deserved it. They were heavy favorites coming into the playoffs.

The only knock is that all of their playoff opponents were gimped, so they didn't seem to really be tested in the playoffs. But their depth and seed accounted for their overall health and easy opponents.

 

Yeah they deserve it.

But I'm pretty sure at least one of the championships of those multiple championship teams were questioned.

And also not all roads to the championships are created equal.

Let's say Dallas, do people think the Mavs deserve their ring more than the warriors?

 

The Warriors haven't been disrespected at all.

They won MVP, Finals MVP, second in MIP, second in DPOY and second in COY.

They are fortunate they won the Finals, because they wouldn't have beaten a healthy Cavs team.

 

Has there really only been 8 teams to win it over the past 20 years?

 

I don't like the GSW and I think they are getting disrespected. Just like people disrespect the Rockets when they say they wouldn't have won if MJ was still in the league, people say the GSW wouldn't have won if the teams they faced were healthy. The only difference is the Media hopped on the disrespect train when it came to the Rockets and try to dispel the notion that GSW isn't deserving with the health thing comes up.

Both teams played the teams in front of them. It's not the Rockets fault MJ retired it's not GS's fault everyone was injured.

It's a tie between Mavs and GSW for least respected Champion since the Rockets won. People hardly even talk about the Mavs as champions.

 

What world do you live in where the GSW are disrespected?? All you hear on ESPN is the greatness of the one and only all mighty steph curry. They had pre-game coverage of his warm ups before games. They had breaking news because he shot 70 3 pointers in a row or whatever. The GSW are the most hyped up team ever, even more so than LBJ Miami Heat.

 

The Warriors were fully deserving on their NBA championship.

Every team they faced in the playoffs had injuries to key players and were not at full strength. Every single team.

Both things can be true.

 

The Rockets are still the most disrespected champs. Especially the '95 team considering where they started and how they finished.

Except everyone acts like MJ wasn't even there for '95.

 

They were slobbered over all season.....baby Jesus curry.....gimme a break. Rockets could have beat Jordan and still would have been more disrespected.

 

It's weird, I could say the same things about other teams being healthy, during certain seasons.

I certainly have said that about the Lakers 08-09 when they faced us. We would've beaten them with healthy Yao and Mutombo, completely different series. With healthy and participating, T-Mac, may have really been the boiling point.


I say the same thing about the Spurs, 2014 (No Ibaka for the first two games), 2013 (No Westbrook for Thunder), 2007 (questionable suspensions on Diaw/Amare), 2003 (Nowitzki, injured). They've benefitted from some well placed injuries and suspensions on the other teams, like the Thunder, the Suns, and Mavs.


The Bulls never had to play the Rockets, people don't consider that. MJ's team wasn't good enough in 95 to play the Rockets. The Bulls were not a championship team at the time. So, there's no dissing the Rockets. Moreover, a team that took the Bulls to the limit, twice...was also beaten by the Rockets. The Bulls at full strength never played too many teams to the quality of say ... the 80s Celtics or 80s Lakers. Should we delegitimize their championships? Remember, we could speculate how things would be different, if Magic was not HIV+ or Bird's back did not go out as early as it did, while what if Len Bias and Reggie Lewis, both did not have unfortunate situations.


What ifs are simply what ifs, championships are not won on what ifs.

 

While the Warriors aren't disrespected, not more than any other championship team anyway, dismissing their championship because of other teams' injuries is as absurd as dismissing the Rockets' because of Jordan's absence. Same thing with the Spurs' championship in a shortened season. It's just sour grapes thinking. Sour grapes thinking is for losers.

 

They got their respect before they even won the title.

I think most people are tired of being force feed Every little thing about the Warriors And Curry.

 

Golden State would still be favorites coming into most of their playoff series, even if their opponents were fully healthy. They were an incredibly deep and versatile team, and that should win out in a 7-game series. The fact that they never had that chance to prove themselves makes their championship run not as impressive as others.

The Mavs actually had to beat a stacked Heat team, and their championship was more impressive, but largely forgotten because the Mavs dropped off quick when Cuban decided not to re-sign their playoff contributors.

 

[rQUOTEr]The 2014-15 Golden State Warriors were, statistically, the best championship team since Michael Jordan's Bulls. But some inside and outside the league would describe the Warriors as lucky, in that they avoided playing the Clippers and Spurs, and faced four teams with missing or injured point guards in the postseason.

The league's general managers seem to agree that the Warriors aren't a budding dynasty. Only 17.9 percent of GMs pick the Warriors to repeat as champions, the third lowest percentage for a defending champion in the 13-year history of the NBA.com GM Survey.[/rQUOTEr]

[rQUOTEr]The annual NBA.com general managers' survey revealed a fresh round of perceived disrespect toward the defending champion Golden State Warriors.

The GMs picked the Cleveland Cavaliers to win the title this season, as 53.8 percent of the votes were cast in their favor, according to the survey results released Tuesday.

What was more surprising, however, was the Warriors got just 17.9 percent of the votes, putting them behind the San Antonio Spurs, who got 25 percent.

It was the lowest percentage for a defending champion in the 13-year history of the survey, according to NBA.com.

This continues a trend that has left the Warriors having to defend themselves despite owning the best regular-season record, the best home record and placing at the top of key rankings in both offense and defensive metrics last season.

Because of their health, how the playoff bracket ended up falling and injuries suffered by opponents, some seem to believe the Warriors were "lucky."

This even seems to spread to defending Most Valuable Player Stephen Curry, who received only 7.1 percent of the votes to win the MVP again -- tied for fifth with Russell Westbrook. LeBron James was picked as the favorite with 39.3 percent.

Over the summer, James' teammate Kyrie Irving told Shaquille O'Neal on a podcast that the Cavs "would have definitely won an NBA championship if everyone was healthy. But almost doesn't count."

The Warriors Draymond Green mocked Irving by saying: "I think if I was 6-foot-11, I'd be Anthony Davis."

Earlier this month in an interview with Grantland, Los Angeles Clippers coach Doc Rivers teams "need luck in the West."

"Look at Golden State," Rivers said. "They didn't have to play us or the Spurs."

Klay Thompson issued the Warriors' response to that one, saying he "wanted to play the Clippers last year, but they couldn't handle their business."

Now, it seems the Warriors have a new round of motivation with this survey.[/rQUOTEr]

 

Thanks, J.R.

I think people confuse media hype with respect from the NBA community (GMs, coaches, players, and fans).

It looks like the Warriors are hyped by the media but disrespected by a large portion of the NBA community.

I think in addition to the "injury luck" thing, people generally do not think Curry is the kind of star that can carry a team on his shoulder, the way LeBron, Durant, even Davis and Harden can. The thinking is that Curry relies too much on the team structure to thrive, and his defensive impact is suspect. In other words, he's more of a "system guy" than a true superstar.

I think had the Nash-led Suns won a championship back in the mid-2000, they would got the same perception from the NBA community.

 

Other players and teams have been giving them shade...the Media has glorified this team since December of last year. They remained healthy throughout the season...they won with a first year head coach that maximized their offensive potential and maximized their defensive approach. They can flat out blitz teams with their ability to get both of their elite shooting wings...WIDE open shots, with screens(down screens/cross screens/illegal screens).

They won the championship because they played excellent defense along with a high octane offense, that essentially put games away in the 3rd quarter. No ONE punished Curry or Klay as they attacked the rim (sans the play when Klay was taken out by Ariza). When Draymond Green, Harrison Barnes and Andre Iguodala are all shooting carrier highs from distance...its going to be hard to beat them. Oh and they play unselfishly, by leading the league in team assists.

I dont know how much their offense will lag without Gentry(who in my opinion is a great offensive mind), but I can assure you that as long as Curry and Thompson keep shooting at such a high clip...they will continue to be a threat for the title every season.

 

how insecure are rockets fans?

 

Finally I think its an embarrassment to include the Clippers in the same breath as San Antonio...

The Clippers are a joke of a franchise and it took a miracle from heaven to keep that team together. Cuban was right...Rivers' and his career was done if they lost Jordan...and it almost happened.

Rivers to me always has had a ton of talent around him...but for all that...he's only had 1 title as a coach. He is far from being a great coach...and his resume has two teams that have lost after having a 3-1 lead in the playoffs. Rivers will quickly find out that his season is done if Chris Paul gets hurt in any way shape or form. And Paul is at the age where most PG's fall apart (physically).

The only challenge that the Warriors didnt face was San Antonio last season, maybe the only team in the NBA that couldve been daunting for the Warriors... but even then, I think the Warriors wouldve won.

Championship teams are always gonna be marked...and they will get shade. We shall see how things pan out for the champs, bc there are a lot of hungry teams looking for blood - especially James Harden and the Houston Rockets.

 

I feel in part this is probably Kerr's way of trying to motivate the team to not be complacent. Its far easier to stay motivated when chasing after something than when being chased. Every team has its share of breaks or lucks on its way to the championship. Rockets lucked out in 95 by not having to face the Sonics and hell even last year they had some luck in having home court in the second round despite having the same record as the clippers and being tied in h2h because of the division rule. I do understand the point though the Warriors had phenomenal luck when it came to the injury bug. They were by far the healthiest team last year, especially in the playoffs and all the teams they faced had at least one major injury to a starter. Again unfortunate but you know its not like the Warriors did anything to want that - they just played the teams they had to play based on the results. I can't in any way taint their championship because they had an easy road to the championship - a road that they had no control of choosing.

The one thing I will say though while I fully believe Curry is the engine of that team and him being on the court makes guys like Klay, Barnes, Green, Iggy all the more lethal its hard for me to believe he can put a team on his shoulders and carry a team with less talent the way LeBron, Durant, AD, Harden, Kobe, KG, Duncan,TMac etc have done in the past. They played 17 games last season without Bogut starting and won 11 of them So basically 20% of the season was played without Bogut and the Warriors went 11-6 in that stretch good for a .647 winning percentage which was almost exactly the same winning percentage as the Cavs who went 53-29. 4 other western conference teams (Rockets, Clippers, Spurs, Grizzlies) all had winning percentages greater than .647 despite having far more numerous injuries to deal with. They won at a historic .877 rate when they had their entire starting lineup (the same 72 win pace of the 95-96 Bulls). Losing a starter shouldn't necessary account for a .23 drop in win rate especially if you have the MVP on the team. (again my opinion) especially when that starter while a key component in your system hasn't been a a guy who was an all-star the same way Iggy, Klay, Lee, etc have been. Makes you wonder if a guy like Klay does miss extended time what that would mean as well. I do believe that Curry relies on the talent around him more than any of the recent MVPs (exception of Rose whose MVP was a joke).

Again none of this should diminish that Curry was the MVP because its not like he said "I want my team to be super healthy this year" and it happened - those were the breaks. I am sure LeBron or Harden or Westbrook would have wished the same for all of their respective teams if it was that simple and in their control. We haven't seen Curry carry his team for an extended period of time - I don't know if he is able to, but he hasnt had that chance yet. Personally I don't believe he can for an extended period of time in the same way the other guys mentioned have. Thats just my opinion though.

Add in Bogut has been pretty injury prone his entire career so him playing so many games last season was a shock. Bogut averaged 75 games his first 3 years and 56 his last 6 seasons (not including the lockout year where he played 12)

Again I dont believe its disrespect at all towards the Warriors - I believe its GMs feeling that the circumstances the Warriors benefited from last season wont replicate this season. That isnt to say they will be a crappy team or anything but with the changes other teams have made it will be tougher and you cant rely on that teams being decimated by injuries nor can you rely on being super healthy the same way they were last season.