Do NBA teams fear the Golden State Warriors anymore?

It’s time to ask the question: Do the Golden State Warriors still strike fear into the rest of the NBA?

When the Golden State Warriors first began their reign of terror over the league, every NBA team was truly frightened to match up against them. Now, five years after their first championship, are the Warriors still feared by the rest of the NBA?

The idea of running a player like Draymond Green at the center was, at one time, an absurd tactic. Green was simply seen as undersized and many assumed he would be a liability against bigger opponents. However, the Warriors quickly realized how deadly this lineup could be.

The Warriors “death lineup” was essentially a way of offensively blitzing the opponent with a fast-paced 3-point oriented attack. Each player in the lineup was capable of bringing the ball up the floor and creating plays for the rest of the team. Throw this in with pure shooters such as Stephen Curry and Klay Thompson and the Dubs had created a recipe that the league had never seen before.

Prior to the Warriors, 3-point shooting teams did not have much success in the NBA Playoffs. In fact, the saying used to be “live by the jump shot, die by the jump shot”. This is why when the Warriors began killing teams and winning championships, the rest of the league was stunned.

See, the brand of basketball that the Warriors created in the 2014-15 season was something unique. Opponents had no answer for the Dubs offensive onslaught. The fact that the entire Warrior roster bought into the system and was led defensively by Green (A Defensive Player of the Year winner) made them nearly impossible to compete with.

However, the Warriors are no longer anomalies in today’s NBA. A majority of the league has mimicked Golden State’s playstyle and as a result, the Warriors fear factor has diminished. Opponents no longer look at the Warriors as some alien team playing an otherworldly brand of ball.

This is part of the reason as to why the Warriors have not had as much success in the regular season recently. Teams are giving full effort into every game against the Warriors because they truly believe they can beat them if they play their cards right.

For example, let’s look at the Sacramento Kings and Miami Heat. These two teams aren’t even in the same stratosphere as the Warriors talent-wise, but they have gone into each matchup showing no fear and have made each game a full on battle.

There is no doubt that the Warriors are respected as the best team in the league, but opponents are not going to bow down to them any longer. The Warriors will have to rev it up down the stretch of the season to regain a mental advantage over the competition.