Don’t expect the Warriors to click on day one
The Golden State Warriors have the most talented team in the NBA, but don’t expect them to have it figured out right away.
Barring anything catastrophic happening during the Olympics in Brazil (knock on wood), the Golden State Warriors will start a lineup on opening night that features four All-NBA players and two MVPs.
The Warriors will have star players all over the floor, especially when they go to their new-and-improved Death Lineup with Andre Iguodala playing the small forward position. A year after winning 73 games and coming within five points of repeating as NBA champions, Golden State added Kevin Durant to a championship core.
Last year’s team was special; this year’s team will be better. The Warriors now have two of the league’s top three players suiting up for them. They have two of the last three scoring champs. Golden State had one of the best offenses the league has ever seen, largely because of Stephen Curry‘s heroics. Now, Durant is there to ease the pressure, forcing teams to re-think their strategy of trapping Curry up high.
It’s exciting to think of how much better Golden State will be–on both sides of the ball–with Durant.
It’s also important to realize that Rome wasn’t built in a day. This won’t become the greatest team of all-time overnight. There will be growing pains, from everyone, over the course of this next season.
The Warriors have re-tooled almost their whole roster. It’s not about losing anything too important; Durant is worth far more than everything they let go. It’s about incorporating the new guys and having them learn the system and adjusting to playing with new teammates.
Steve Kerr frustrated and confused everyone with his rotations in the NBA Finals. He was playing his end-of-bench guys in key spots with everything on the line. He, inexplicably, rode Festus Ezeli and Anderson Varejeo in Game 7 of the Finals, instead of turning to the best lineup in basketball.
Even going back to the regular season, Kerr experimented a lot. He wanted to keep his players’ minutes low so that they’d be fresh in the postseason. He really bought into his #StrengthinNumbers motto, using every single player throughout the year.
With so much talent, Kerr is going to figure out when and how to use it all. It’ll take some time before he figures out which combinations work best. It wasn’t until late in the season that he figured out how to stagger Curry and Klay Thompson and, even then, he played with fire with how long he kept one of them out.
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It’s safe to say that, at least, one of the “big four” will be on the court at all times. It will be a lot of trial-and-error until the Warriors find what works best. And it’s not just about Durant. David West will need to find a way to work with limited spacing in lineups with Shaun Livingston and Iguodala. It’s about finding the best role for Patrick McCaw.
Golden State will win a lot of games because of how talented they are. Just based on natural ability alone, they’ll probably blow a lot of people out. But it won’t be anywhere near where they will be. They have to ease Durant in and find the right amount of touches for everyone to keep everyone in a rhythm.
LeBron James‘ Miami Heat took some time to figure it out, losing in their first Finals. They won two championships after James, Dwyane Wade, and Chris Bosh learned how to play together. While the Golden State Warriors don’t have three stars playing together for the first time (and it won’t even be the first time they play with Durant due to Team USA).
Even the Warriors are trying to be on the opposite end of the Philadelphia 76ers, they should still trust the process.
It might take the whole season for Golden State to really get going. But once they do, it’s over for the rest of the league.