People tend to forget, or don't even know, that the Warriors were the best defensive team for this season. Yeah defense wins championships.
And then we throw in the context that both of those teams they were down 2-1 were essentially crippled by injury and it's not impressive, it's embarrassing that they were down 2-1 to begin with. A legitimate great team wouldn't have seen a game 6 in any series during this cakewalk of a postseasn run. Of course, we're not talking about a great team, we're talking about a lucky team.
How I rate the Warriors: Regular season: 10/10 Post season: 7/10 This team is built for the regular season. I dunno if they will make the same playoff run next year, but what's stopping them from winning 60+ next year? I think they'll rule the regular season again.
They got really lucky 1). not playing the Clippers and 2). having key starters injured against Memphis, Houston, and Cavs.
What will stop them is other teams being healthy. Durant being back, the Rockets being at full strength, the Blazers having their guys back, the Pels being better..... This was a one year thing for the Dubs, they had an amazing season and a fluke postseason, everything fell into place for them, but it's over now so they'll go back to being the Warriors. They'll always have the championship, but they were one of the 2 or 3 worst championship teams in the last 25 years or so.
Being healthy is having luck, I will not disagree with that. Tony Allen played in game 4 and Grizzlies still got busted. IMO, It's insane for people to say for if Tony Allen and Conley were healthy Grizzlies would have beaten the Warriors. Warriors can still beat them with them healthy. They "shouldn't" be down in the first place? Lol You act like the Grizzlies without Tony Allen or Lebron without Kryie would just roll over.
Yeah that's postseason. I agree their playoff run kind of sucked. But they're going to dominate the regular season again next year... I don't see any reason why they wouldn't. I guess my point is that this team was built for the regular season.
Well being healthy is just half of the luck, having literally every team you play in the playoffs missing starters....and every one of them missing their starting PG is just beyond luck. You'll never see a playoff run that lucky ever again. A truly great team would have rolled through that broken competition with ease.
FYI, Warriors fans, the Cavs would have also been criticized for essentially coasting until the Finals because of how bad the East is. In fact, that is an essential component of the criticism against Lebron when he is compared with the greats.* *I'm not saying I necessarily agree.
It's tough to game plan for a high octane offensive team in the regular as players have to deal with travel and not as much time/focus to stop a team. In the Playoffs, most teams stopped/slowed down what the Warriors wanted to do. Teams made the Warriors adjust, and being the very good team that they were, they made adjustments and just dominated them. It's very good to have a good coaching staff, now if Mark Jackson were coaching, they would not have won this year.
Well they weren't crushing healthy teams all season. The Clippers were without Blake for a bit. The Rockets played their first game against the Warriors I think with Tariq Black getting meaningful minutes, etc. For two, when speaking about injuries and the "luck" associated with it, it isn't just your opponent's injuries... it's your teams lack of them. Of their top 5 guys I thinkt hey missed a total of 15 games... or something like that. As for coaching... clearly Kerr is a very very good coach. But I wouldn't attribute the ring principally to the coaching change. The Warriors were deep as crap, and Livingston was one of their best bench players. Barbosa had solid minutes off the bench. Both guys not there. Klay improved a ton. Kind of down Finals, but who had Klay as the #2 SG in the leauge before the season. And clearly Green improved a ton. Kerr gets credit for being "creative" with his rotation. But then, his hand was somewhat forced with Green, given Lee's injury. The big change was putting Iggy on the bench.... but hey, wait a second, isn't that EXACTLY what McHale did with Josh Smith? And like Iggy, didn't Mchale have to undo that change in the playoffs when it became necessary? Point being, clearly coaching matters, but when you factor in the Warriors new additions, improvement to 2 key players, and their own and the rest of the leagues health, could another coach have coached the team to a championship as well? Of course. Could McHale? I definitely think so. As is, they met in the WCF, where simply the team with clearly more talent won.
I don't want to sound like I'm hating or discrediting a team, but If Beverly and Dmo had played, would they have help win 3 more games against the Warriors..?
we'd never know. bur you cant say that's not possible. remember how close the rockets were in the first couple of games?
Easily. Bev and DMo being healthy makes the Rockets a MUCH better team on both sides of the ball and makes the bench considerably better. With both of those guys healthy, the Rockets win in 5 or 6.
Broken competition LOL...so if the 86 Celtics, 96 Bulls or the 2001 Lakers played in this years competition and won. You would discredit them right?
Even with them, the Warriors are a more talented and better coached team with HCA. They would most definitely be favored. I'd certainly bet that it would have went to 6
No, I would say they had a cakewalk of a post-season, but those teams were actually great so they probably don't see a game 5 at any point during that run. You really shouldn't compare this weak Warriors team to legitimately great teams.
LOL why would I even ask :grin: Ok buddy Rockets would have beaten the Warriors in 5 or 6 and then would have swept the Cavs.
