The Postmodern Majesty of the Golden State Warriors
The Golden State Warriors don’t exist. How can they? It’s not possible.
Defending champions don’t just go out and get better, especially not without any major additions and especially with an interim head coach while their usual maestro recovers from back surgery. Defending MVP’s don’t go and add eight points to their scoring average and put themselves not only in position to repeat that honour but also in position to win Most Improved as well. This is fantasy basketball, it’s a dream. It is fiction and I don’t believe it.
But I love it. And so do you.
Since Michael Jordan’s Chicago Bulls set the precedent for the modern era of basketball, there have been a handful of teams worthy of being included… maybe not in the same conversation but at least in that very next tier of greatness. Kobe and Shaq’s Lakers were something special (until the dual-superstars started stepping on each other’s feet). Tim Duncan and Gregg Popovich have presided over at least two legendary Spurs teams. Plus, of course, we can add LeBron James’ Big Three Miami Heat, a team that lasted just four years but made the finals in every of them.
These Golden State Warriors, though, they’re something else. They’re not only establishing a dynasty for the ages but they’re hauling basketball into a new era, one step-back three at a time. It’s not that they’re purely original, like a team out of time, because they’re not – the San Antonio Spurs have prefaced this style for at least half a decade, probably a lot longer. They’re the ones that really pushed the extra-pass mentality, the constant movement and the unflinching team chemistry. What the Warriors have done is they’ve taken that and built on it.
Those other great teams were all in the shadow of Jordan’s Bulls, who modernised basketball after the 80s antics of the Lakers and Celtics. Of Magic and Bird. Jordan’s single-minded, nuclear heroism meant that no matter the foundation or the situation, MJ was taking the final shot. And probably 30 more before it. But Hero Ball is dead now and the skeletal wreck of Kobe Bryant is hammering a new nail in its coffin with every successive 20% shooting night. That was the generational impact that Jordan had, all of those legendary teams owed so much to that legacy, but now we’re entering a fresh generation and the Warriors are the forbearers.
These days the numbers rule and the numbers say threes and layups. The Houston Rockets and Daryl Morey know this, they’ve built their entire team around it, but the numbers aren’t worth much if they’re predictable and the Warriors beat the Rockets 4-1 in the Conference Finals last season. Golden State has the shooters to go toe to toe with the Rockets or anybody but they also have skill at every position. Even Andrew Bogut, who runs like his knees are held together by rusty screws, is a sneakily decent passer. Yet their real secret is the small-ball formation they trot out sparingly but devastatingly with Draymond Green at centre. Draymond, a former 35th overall draft pick, who is one of maybe five men in the NBA capable of carrying the entire emotional burden of his team alone. Russell Westbrook is another (for better or worse), while Chris Paul, for his many other virtues, is not.
That small ball line-up is what swung the NBA Finals. Andre Iguodala, a small forward/shooting guard, came into the first five at Bogie’s expense. There were hushed whispers, how would this ridiculously small team cope with LeBron and the Cavs? Next thing we knew they were NBA Champions and Iggy was Finals MVP.
And when people started calling them out for the luck they’d had on their way to the title (as if every single title team in history didn’t have a few things break their way), they came out and broke the record for the longest unbeaten streak to start a season. Add in the four games they ended the regular season by winning and the 27 game unbeaten streak that the Heat managed in 2012-13 is in sights. Following that, should they remain unblemished, then the all-time winning streak of 33 games by the 1971-72 Lakers will be matched on Christmas Day (UST) with victory over the Cleveland Cavaliers in a Finals rematch.
Oh, but it’s not just that they’re winning. This team is straight up ANNIHILATING teams. The key is that versatility that they have, the same thing that allows them to play these unique line-ups. There is playmaking across the court. They’re the best shooting team in the NBA, led by the inimitable Steph Curry, as well as the league leaders in assists and they’re sitting right up near the summit in rebounding too. They play a rapid pace and they don’t hesitate a second to pull the trigger on a good look – unless a teammate has an even better look, that is.
Combine this all together and you have a team in which Klay Thompson can score 37 in a quarter, a heat check team to fry all other heat check teams in the burning rubber which they leave in their trails. If you can score like that (and defend as well as they do – check out the numbers on their perimeter defence, it’s almost as incredible as their perimeter offence!), then you’re only ever a run away from getting back into any game. You want a great stat? Here’s a great stat:
The reason they are able to keep winning is that they never believe they’re beaten. (Side note: How incredible is it that they’ve only trailed by 20+ six times during that period!?)
The most recent such comeback was a dismantling of the LA Clippers for win #13 that is still being felt by Blake and Chris and DeAndre and co. They beat the Memphis Grizzlies by 50 for win #4 – the defensive powerhouse that is that Memphis team. 13 of their first 18 wins have come by at least 13 points and that number keeps on rising. You have to fight to the utter, permanent death to beat them but they can kill ya within three quarters.
Yes, and then we have Steph Curry. The Minnesota Timberwolves held picks five and six in the 2009 NBA Draft and they needed guards. Curry fell to the Warriors at seven, the Wolves taking Ricky Rubio and Johnny Flynn. In hindsight that looks like a travesty of misjudgement but in reality, Curry took a long while to emerge. Despite finishing runner up in the Rookie of the Year ranks in his first season (Tyreke Evans nudging him), the team won just 26 games. His prescient shooting touch was clear by his second season but the third was a mess as persistent ankle injuries threatened to keep him from ever reaching his potential. He was too fragile. Right up until he wasn’t.
Curry is a career 44% three-point shooter. He might have the best jumper in the history of the sport, many analysts are already saying as much. He also probably has the best ball-handling of any current player and is one of the two or three best passers going around – notice how those claims mirror the team’s statistical dominance? Yup. Steph Curry has taken his MVP Season and he’s considerably improved upon it. The level he is playing at, it’s just ridiculous.
Watching Curry swerve between defenders, finding his way through paths of spare court like rivulets of water in the sand, is a rare joy. As is his ability to find the open man, whether by swift flick-on or flashy reverse. Ahh and that shot. So smooth, so silky… so devastatingly lethal.
He’s a baby-faced assassin, is Master Curry. He still looks the same age as he did when he entered the league, although now he’s a husband and father of two. We know all about that because his family life is a major part of his fame. It began with his former baller father Dell Curry, as well as D-League star brother Seth Curry (now on the Kings) and continued to the point where his daughter was outshining him at press conferences. In contrast to the single-minded fury of Kobe Bryant or Kevin Garnett, the enigmatic reclusiveness of Tim Duncan and the unstoppable force of nature that is LeBron James, the best player in the NBA is now a humble, easy-going, accessible family man, comfortable with his celebrity yet completely unchanged by it. It’s pretty rare that the most clinical hitman in the sport is a lad you’d happily wish your sister had married.
And shall we also single out Klay Thompson, the knife to Curry’s fork, the thunder to his lightning, the rock to his roll. Or the brilliantly named Festus Ezeli. Or Luke Walton, the finest interim coach of all time if you wanna go by the numbers. Or Harrison Barnes, their young, stoic SF who can hit shots like this:
In the same way that the Warriors took the script that the Spurs had written and adapted it for the new age, Steve Kerr came in as a highly recruited rookie coach and took the team that Mark Jackson had moulded and pushed them to a new level. Now it seems as if his team is evolving upon itself once more. Pretty soon everyone else will be trying to copy them (both the Hawks and Thunder, amongst others, have had decent success with smaller line-ups – Millsap at C or Durant at PF, etc.). By then it’ll be too late because the Warriors will have moved on themselves. Like the Spurs and Bulls before them, they’ll be often imitated but never replicated.
Now who wants odds on them matching that legendary 72 win mark?