The Golden State Warriors will have one of the most difficult tasks an NBA team can have: defend the championship title. Despite being the last team standing during the 2021/22 season, the bar inevitably will rise.
The path that must be traversed to repeat the achievement becomes steeper due to the improvements that other organizations have implemented in their rosters, the evolution of their young cores and, more importantly, to how difficult it becomes to maintain the staff that eventually lifted the Larry O’Brien trophy.
The Golden State Warriors are the defending NBA champions. But… is their roster worse than last season? Are they the team to beat?
There’s no doubt about it: the first items on that list have been met. Franchises like Los Angeles Clippers and Denver Nuggets will have their best players back.
The youth of Memphis Grizzlies, New Orleans Pelicans, Dallas Mavericks and Phoenix Suns should be even more dynamic this year. Some teams like the Minnesota Timberwolves made really risky bets to be in the conversation.
And that’s only in the Western Conference. Add the contenders of the East to the equation and… yeah, it’s tough.
But, what about the most important part? Since the Warriors lost several members of their rotation, popular belief says their roster is worse than the last one who made them champions. That the losses are so big they will have major problems trying to figure out how to fix those holes.
Let’s take a look.