Jun 16, 2015; Cleveland, OH, USA; Golden State Warriors head coach Steve Kerr talks to his team during a time out during the first quarter of game six of the NBA Finals against the Cleveland Cavaliers at Quicken Loans Arena. Mandatory Credit: David Richard-USA TODAY Sports
2. Golden State Warriors
2014-2015 Efficiency Rating: 41.6
The newly crowned champions showcased how important depth can be. Their ability to wear down a Cleveland team with less depth is the perfect example for why depth is vital to success.
Scary part? They only lost David Lee. Sure, he played some productive minutes during the playoffs, but for the majority of the season he was a non-factor.
Andre Iguodala (the Finals MVP) returns to lead the familiar cast of characters off the bench. Festus Ezeli, Leandro Barbosa, Shaun Livingston and Marreese Speights all return looking to help the Warriors repeat. The versatility and depth that the bench offers seems so unfair, especially due to the potency of the starting lineup.
A sneaky good pick-up for the Warriors was bringing in Jason Thompson for almost nothing. With career averages of 9.4 points and 6.9 rebounds, he is a more than adequate backup big to add to the long list of quality reserves. He will see time this season and, now that he is in a culture of winning (Sacramento does not meet that standard by any means), he may thrive like he never has done before.
Golden State won an outstanding 67 games last year. After that historic effort, the question is can they repeat their success? As far as their depth is concerned, there is no reason to believe they can’t. They are the hands down favorite and it would not be all that surprising if they repeated as the NBA Champions come June 2016.
Next: San Antonio Spurs