Jun 19, 2015; Oakland, CA, USA; Confetti surrounds the stage during the Golden State Warriors 2015 championship celebration at the Henry J. Kaiser Convention Center. Mandatory Credit: Kelley L Cox-USA TODAY Sports
Golden State Warriors – Fighting to Hold On
The Golden State Warriors are in a very tough place as they enter the 2015-16 NBA season. That’s not something you’d expect to hear about a team that just won it all just a short while ago, but that is precisely why the coming season will be so difficult.
The Warriors will no longer be viewed as the underdogs who took the league by storm a year ago. They were leaps and bounds ahead of the other teams in the NBA in nearly every statistical category and rode their regular season momentum all the way to a win on the grandest stage in the sport. Now they aren’t overlooked. Teams won’t take games against them as lightly, and they’ll put a lot more energy and effort into preparing for them each night. Every team in the league will be gunning for them, hoping to knock them off.
Another cause for alarm is that, by some estimations, the Dubs have managed to weaken themselves by shipping David Lee off to the Boston Celtics. Lee didn’t necessarily play a major role once the team hit the playoffs, but he is now one less potent scorer and rebounder that Steve Kerr will be able to send in off the bench.
The Warriors are still strong, undoubtably one of the elite teams in the NBA, let alone the West. However, their inability to improve their roster to keep pace with the rest of the league’s upper echelon of teams could prove to be the reason they fall from their place at the top of the NBA mountain.
Next: Wizards: Superstar?