"1987 Lakers...the 1986 NBA Champions...the 72 win Bulls...2001 Lakers...the 2008 NBA Champions..." I see what you did there. Nicely done.
My honest opinion... Hate the title! There's only one team in the Golden State worth becoming and it ain't those bottle rattlers in the Bay. That being said, I applaud a fellow Laker fan not happy with our present situation and finding solutions to once again run these lands!
Adding paul george this year and kawhi next year while our young guys growing into stars is the only way the lakers become golden state.
The 2001 Lakers would destroy the Warriors. How are you going to guard Shaq? How are you going to guard Kareem and the 85 team? MJ and Pippin would shut down KD and Curry. Warriors might sneak into my all time top 10 just barely.
+1 Any championship caliber team with a dominant big man would give GS fits. Walton, Moses, Kareem, Shaq, Hakeem, Duncan / Robinson, Wilt, and that guy with 11 rings (I suppose).
Thought about that Houston mid-90's team... Olajuwon, Smith, Mad Max, Cassell, Drexler, Elie, Thorpe. Very good overall... Climates are different now. Back then: Now: Seriously, Warriors are THE best team currently...precise ball movement, great shooting and switchable defenders. Their key is that really deep bench of Iguodala, Livingston, West, Young, Looney and Bell along with that Duke kid too whose name escapes me at the moment. Pachulia can come in to contribute...injure someone and McGee is serviceable give or take a comedic moment or two. I do enjoy watching them play Hopefully our own core can replicate that model to some degree of success much less Cleveland's opponent in the Eastern Finals...
I think it's fair to say Golden State is one of the greatest teams of all times. Very few teams have ever had two MVP caliber players in their prime (Durant and Curry). Add in a quality All-Star like Klay Thompson and extremely solid starter/role players like Draymond and Iguodala... This is as well built a team as I've ever seen. I think top to bottom they rival our 80s teams in terms of depth and talent. I put this team right up there with our 01 team, with the Jordan 96 team, with the Lakers 85, If you want to go back far enough to the 60s C Bags teams that's fine too I guess. These Warriors are that special in comparison to their era. It's always hard to rank beyond that though. Greatest ever? I mean how do they guard Shaq? Part of what makes this team and this era special is the fact that there's no dominant big men who force teams to adjust. Embiid is the closest, but there's nothing close to a Shaq or a Hakeem or a Kareem in the league right now. If there were, the Warriors' team makeup would be different.
I don't think the 2001 Lakers get enough credit for that blood bath of a Playoffs it was for them. Click on this twitter thread for some stats:
Kobe and Shaq were other worldly but the first person that comes to mind when I think of 2001 Playoffs is Fisher and his 3 pt shooting. He was simply unreal throughout the entire playoffs.
Stats. Stats. Stats. People obsessed with freakin stats. 2001 run from the end of March to Game 5 of the Finals was a destruction of mass quantities. Sixers challenged them really well in Game 1 and 3 but all the other games were just a foregone conclusion. Kobe Bryant and Shaq chemistry in that playoff run would have beat anyone in the history of basketball that year. It was a great final 3 months of basketball. I do not think we will ever see that again.
Kobe, Shaq and Fish were absolutely destroying their opponents back then. It was such an awesome team. Kobe was unstoppable on the road, killing the home crowd and Shaq was... just generally unstoppable, lol.
Fish hit 15-20 3's in the Spurs series. Kobe blowing his finger tips in his 48 point 16 reb Game 4 clincher in the house that Kobe made his b****, Arco Arena. Horry telling the Philly fan after he hit the clutch 3 after Shaq fouled out to "eat it" hahahaha. So many amazing games and moments in the 2001 Playoff run.
Can we become Golden State pre-Durant? Stay in that nice phase of beautiful team ball before an ISO player comes in and messed it up only to shrink in the big moments and screw it all up?
Gosh how quickly things have kinda changed looking at the NBA and how we thought gsw would be indestructible. They might be let off the hook by a cp injury.
abeer really called it with Houston, since the offseason really. But to be fair, I did also call his annual season ending injury in the playoffs. It’s on the Warriors to finish them off though, because even without CP3 they can win the Finals, and the longer they’re in the playoffs the higher the chance he can come back.