Are the Golden State Warriors legit NBA Championship contenders?

The Golden State Warriors have started off hot, losing only one game through their first five of the season. More impressive still, they have missed Klay Thompson, Jonathan Kuminga, and James Wiseman for all five, with Andre Iguodala missing a game as well.

This has caused many doubters of the Warriors’ potential success to give this team a second thought, especially after back-to-back wins against the Los Angeles Lakers and Clippers.

The Golden State Warriors have been surging, and they’ve done so behind a full team effort and miraculous performances from Stephen Curry.

The obvious starting point when discussing this Warriors team is the sheer amount of talent that they have, not just on the court, but in the coaching staff and front office as well.

Head coach Steve Kerr is one of the best in the league, helping propel the Warriors to five Finals appearances in a row and winning three of them. The assistant coaches are arguably even more impressive.

Almost all of the assistant coaches for Golden State are good enough to be head coaches on other teams, two of them have been, assistant Kenny Atkinson and former Coach of the Year Mike Brown.

This coaching staff mixed with the great front office duo of Joe Lacob and Bob Myers has led them to attract some great players to join their Big 3 of Stephen Curry, Klay Thompson, and Draymond Green.

Golden State has a roster of fifteen very talented players, and with a championship tested starting 5, a young core off the bench, and multiple crafty vets to round out the roster, they seem improbable to lose on paper.

The Chemistry

Throughout the preseason and start of the regular season, the Warriors have looked formidable, having won their first four.

The entire roster has seemed to mesh very well together including newcomers Nemanja Bjelica and Otto Porter Jr. Those two, in particular, have mixed with the Warriors system nearly perfectly already.

The Main Concerns

The Warriors are not perfect; they have flaws and growing pains that will plague them throughout the year, perhaps even in the playoffs.

Most noticeably, Klay Thompson will just be returning after two and a half years on the sidelines. Nobody knows how he will look when he makes his anticipated return. Thompson will also almost certainly take a majority of the regular season games that he does play easing into action again.

There are also numerous players on the roster who have little to no playoff experience. This could lead to poor performances when it comes to winning tough games. I mean just look at how they performed down the stretch against Memphis.

Overall, this season the Warriors have put together a well-rounded and balanced roster, with varying levels of experience. This combination of roster talent and great coaching leads to a lot of optimism about how they could perform in the playoffs.

The Warriors are definitely a top-five team in the NBA and are absolutely contenders. The only things holding them back from a sure-fire championship are health and inexperience among young players.

Overall stardom could be an issue as well but good chemistry could prove to beat a team with more top-tier players.