I disagree with your 1st part, mainly because both of those players were their lightening rods coming off the bench. Iggy will start and will not match those two production.
I hope you mean on the offensive end only! That's another thing. As long as David Lee remains healthy, our team is better.
GSW is an attractive underdog team to root for. They were good but not great last season. They play in the Bay Area. Their new logo is pretty cool. Curry looked great in the playoffs. Iggy is likeable too. Houston is much easier to hate because of the way we got Harden thru Presti's stupidity, because Howard destroyed whatever goodwill he had by ditching 2 teams, because Beverly knocked darling OKC out of the playoffs, because we stole Asik and Lin from Chicago and New York, because anti-intellectuals bristle at Moreyball, because Houston is not a picturesque town that people like to vacation at, and because our logo is kinda lame. If I was from somewhere else, I'd probably like the Warriors more than the Rockets too. Plus, the popular wisdom is that Houston is a contender now with Howard. Some 'analysts' think to have something interesting to say, they must deny the popular wisdom. I doubt think they believe anything they say -- they say things to produce content.
People are underestimating the Warriors. They beat an almost 60 win Denver team, matter of fact, they were close to beating them in 5 games if not for the Andre Miller play in Game 1. Denver are usually unbeatable at home, they would have knocked out Houston out, that's for sure. Then, they were the only team to beat the Spurs in a game during the Playoffs. The Spurs whooped the Dwight Howard led Lakers, and then made it look easy against the Grizzlies. The only team they struggled with in the West was the Warriors. The Warriors gave away game 1 as well in double OT. They added Iggy, who can be considered a Harden stopper. In 4 games against Denver, Harden went 2-10, 6-13, 8-17, 5-15. People say Iggy is overrated, but ignore the fact that Iggy brings exactly what the Warriors need offensively, a slasher. Neither Curry or Thompson slash to the basket. Iggy does that well, and is a good passer to be able to kick out for easy threes. Iggy could probably play PG as well as Jack did, so it's not really a big deal seeing Jack be sent off. Jack was not a true PG anyway. Iggy was a welcome addition.
Our post dominance will be on full display against teams like GS. GS is not built to win a championship. The will win during the regular season and get owned in the playoffs.
People do not forget that Gallinari did not play in the playoffs last year against GSW. He was pretty important, maybe their best player
Iggy is terrific so I don't want to be misunderstood but, he is not IMO the best ball on defender in the leageu. But he is great. Having said that... CP25 is a terrific defender in his own right. While I admit he took a bit of a dip last season compared to his rookie season, he still had some great defensive games. The one game that stands out is the game against the Knicks at the TC when Melo was going off. McHale switched CP25 on Melo in the 2nd quarter and he shut Melo down. It was one of the best defensive efforts I have seen from any wing defender. Iggy better at defense yes but absolutely not light years ahead as you seem to think. CP25 much much more efficient on offense than Iggy. People should stop minimizing CP25, he is that good. Plus, does anyone think CP25 has peaked? I don't.
Terrence Jones tends to get blocked a lot, whereas Lee's ball protection is exemplarary to the point he might be one of the best finishers in traffic in the nba, his little floaty layups are such a frequent occurrence.
Hey look, the Warriors are a terrific young team but don't forget that Dallinari missed the entire series and Farried played hurt.
I love how people like to ignore the fact that Houston beat GS 3 out of 4 games last season. Twice at GS and destroying them two times.
There is a reason certain people are ignoring that, it is because certain people are smart enough to understand that last season has no baring on two different teams going into next season.
And yet you are the very genius that is pointing to last years GS play-off run as a relevant reason that they are better than Houston. So which is it Einstien? Was last season relevant or not.
read carefully, I didn't say warriors were better than Houston, or that they are going to beat us in a series. I said the Warriors are being underestimated by some people here. Nothing I said was inconsistent with one another. YOU are saying that the rockets are better than Golden State by bringing last year into account, not me.
On paper they have a better and more experienced team but we have Harden & Howard. You need H2o, meaning Howard and Harden - 2H - in Houston = Ho and they came in a trade so Howard & Harden 2 Houston
In all honesty this is a terrifying matchup. In my opinion the top four teams in the West are OKC, HOU, GSW and SAS in any order with MEM and LAC rounding out the top 6. GSW was a beastly team in the playoffs, Stephen Curry is going to be a bonafide playoff superstar. Their main concerns mainly relate to injury. Their major concerns are injury histories to Curry and Bogut, but keep in mind HOU also has a major injury concern in their best player Dwight Howard. In my opinion they were the third best team this postseason behind Miami and San Antonio. If Curry didn't destroy his ankle in game 4 there is a very real possibility it would have been GSW vs MIA in the finals. You need to remember that the Warriors won 47 games starting two rookies for most of the year with Bogut playing less than 20 meaningful games. The main thing is depth and chemistry. The Warriors have an awesome combination of defense and shooting. Curry when healthy is undoubtedly a top 3 pg in the NBA and is also far and away the league's best 3pt shooter. Bogut/ Igoudala are premium all league defenders. Lee and Thompson adds scoring versatility.
