Warriors, Spurs have a lot in common

Tonight, the Golden State Warriors will play host to the defending champion San Antonio Spurs in a battle of teams expected to contend in an extremely competitive Western Conference.

The Warriors are the new, energetic and fun team to watch in the association while the Spurs are a model of consistency, winning, year after year.

When lining these teams up next to one another, at first glance it seems like they are very different. But while they do have their differences, there are surprisingly some very similar traits between these two organizations.

Head Coach

This isn’t to say that Steve Kerr, only six games into his coaching career, is at Gregg Popovich’s level as a head coach – he has a very, very long road to be in that discussion – but one can see that they have some similarities in the way they coach. Kerr seems to have a very low tolerance for silly mistakes and sloppy play, similar to Popovich. While Golden State has gotten off to a fast start, Kerr hasn’t been shy to convey his frustration over the team’s carelessness during parts of games. It will be exciting to see how far he can take this team by the seasons end. Heck, Popovich has been coaching at a high level for so long that he coached Kerr!

General at Point

While point guards Stephen Curry and Tony Parker skill sets aren’t molded in exactly the same way, their importance to their respective teams can’t be emphasized enough. Both have a strong supporting cast around them, but when push comes to shove, both Curry and Parker have shown that they aren’t afraid of the big moment and will put the team on their back.

The Emerging Star

Alongside Curry and Parker are their running mates, Klay Thompson for Golden State and Kawhi Leonard for San Antonio. Leonard put his name on the map with an incredible postseason topped off with winning the Finals MVP after his brilliant performance against the Miami Heat. Thompson, the other half of the Splash Bros, just signed a four-year extension worth $69 million dollars, showing how much he is valued to the Warriors organization. Leonard will be “The Man” once Parker is gone, and Thompson has a long future with Curry as they try to form one of the best backcourts perhaps this game has seen.

Sixth Man Importance

Manu Ginobli is one of the greatest bench players the NBA has ever seen. He is so effective in his role providing a spark when he comes in and finishing out games with the starting unit that he is not viewed in the light as a “bench player.” The only numbers that matter to him are three – for his part in San Antonios “Big 3” and four – for the number of NBA championships he has won. On the other hand, this is a completely new environment for swingman Andre Iguodala, who has started for every team he has played for during the first 10 years of his career. Making the unselfish move has seemed to pay dividends so far – providing a spark off the bench, one that can find a way to score, helping strengthen the second unit and Golden State to a 5-1 start to the season. If Iguodala can be as valuable to Golden State as the sixth man as Ginobili has been all these years for San Antonio, look out.

These two teams go about it in two different ways and have two very different track records in the recent past, but in the present day, both teams are similar in many forms, and most importantly are winning. Tonight should be a fun matchup.