Golden State Warriors: Winning the NBA Finals this season would be their most impressive feat

Winning the NBA Finals this season would be the most impressive feat of the Golden State Warriors’ dynasty

Let’s face it: the Golden State Warriors are going through a rough patch in their dynasty. They lost four games in a row for the first time since Steve Kerr was hired as head coach, are exhibiting angst for one another, and have some prominent players in walk years.

What that said, if the Warriors can overcome all the chaos and criticism that exists to win the NBA Finals, it will be their dynasty’s most impressive feat.

Right now, the Warriors are 13-7 which is considered a good record, but, by the Bay, a record of that magnitude screams trouble. The primary reason why there’s doubt as to whether the Warriors will rebound and/or win the NBA Finals is an incident that transpired between Kevin Durant and Draymond Green.

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In a road matchup with the Los Angeles Clippers, Green held onto the ball and didn’t get a shot off as time expired in regulation, later leading to a Warriors overtime loss. Afterwards, Durant supposedly confronted Green, and the two had a heated exchange which included Green criticizing Durant for making the season all about himself under the belief that he’s leaving the Warriors in free agency this upcoming offseason. Green also supposedly took exception to Durant talking to him like he was a “scrub.”

Afterwards, the Warriors took action and suspended Green for one game. According to The Athletic‘s Tim Kawakami, this incident had Kerr and president Bob Myers worried about the entire chemistry of the team and whether the situation would further escalate.

For the past several months, one of the biggest question marks surrounding the Warriors has been Durant’s upcoming 2019 free agency. Now more than ever there’s reason to believe that the perennial All-Star will make the second free agent departure of his career. If that assertion holds true, the Warriors reign as the unbeatable force on the West Coast will begin to gradually disintegrate.

There are many questions concerning the Warriors that won’t be answered until the playoffs come around. In fact, Kerr said that the Warriors have entered the “real NBA,” and they have to work out of it themselves, per ESPN‘s Nick Friedell.

"“Oh, yeah,” Kerr said after the Warriors fell 104-92 to the San Antonio Spurs. “But I’ve had a dream run for four and a half years. We’ve had such a charmed existence the last four seasons. This is the toughest stretch we’ve been in.“This is the real NBA. We haven’t been in the real NBA the last few years. We’ve been in this dream. And so now we’re faced real adversity and we got to get out of it ourselves.”"

But, let’s put the 2019-20 season and the ones that come after to the side. Look at what the Warriors are and what they still have with the season a little over a month young.

The roster is the same. Stephen Curry, Klay Thompson, Andre Iguodala, Durant, and Green are present. Kerr is the head coach, and Myers is the president. And the Warriors are feared by the rest of the association, healthy or not.

Durant is still the second best player in the NBA and performing at an MVP level; before going down with a groin injury, Curry was averaging an astonishing 29.5 points per game (which is the most he’s averaged since Durant signed with the Warriors) on 51.5 percent shooting from the field and 49.2 percent shooting from beyond the arc (which are both career-highs); Thompson has continued to be the two-way star the Warriors are accustomed to; Green has been a defensive backbone and done the dirty work for the starting five.

Off the bench, the Warriors have Quinn Cook, Jonas Jerebko, Kevon Looney, Shaun Livingston, and Iguodala, among others. A profound respect for Kerr appears to still be intact amongst the Warriors. So, outside of two players having beef with one another, this team hasn’t endured any earth-shattering developments that have destroyed their championship aspirations.

Now, the Warriors do have legitimate competition out West. The Houston Rockets have returned to being the high-powered offense they were last year when they took the Warriors to seven games in the Western Conference Finals; the Portland Trail Blazers have one of the most electric offenses in the association; the Denver Nuggets are a young team on the rise; the Memphis Grizzlies are a resurgent 12-6.

The New Orleans Pelicans are turning the corner and have Anthony Davis; despite the slow start, the Utah Jazz are a well-rounded team; the Los Angeles Lakers have LeBron James; the San Antonio Spurs play the Warriors tough; the Oklahoma City Thunder demolished the Warriors by 28 points on Wednesday; the Clippers have given the Warriors some trouble in the past.

And if the Warriors win the West, they could have to face the likes of the Toronto Raptors, Milwaukee Bucks, Philadelphia 76ers, or Boston Celtics in the NBA Finals. Winning the title is certainly not a given for the Warriors this time around.

Regardless of whether they right the ship and win the title for a third consecutive season, the 2018-19 season may be the Warriors’ last hurrah with Durant. His potential departure significantly affects their window for success, and, who knows, perhaps Thompson decides to head elsewhere in free agency too – though that appears unlikely.

All dynasties come to an end at some point. And while losing Durant and/or Thompson wouldn’t end the Warriors being a playoff and/or Western Conference contender, they wouldn’t pose anywhere near the same threat without them.

In the 2014-15 season, the Warriors won 67 games and eventually the NBA Finals. The ensuing year, their 73-win season was crashed by a 3-1 comeback from the Cleveland Cavaliers in the NBA Finals. In the 2016-17 season, their first with Durant, the Warriors won 16 of the 17 playoff games they played and won the Finals in the process. Last season, they swept the Cavs in the Finals.

Sure, they were down 3-2 to the Rockets in the Western Conference Finals last season, and had Chris Paul not hurt his ankle, the Warriors may have missed the Finals. But there was never a moment where a firm belief existed that they couldn’t win back-to-back games to advance to the Finals when Paul was healthy. In fact, after beating the Rockets by 41 in Game 3 to take a 2-1 lead, some felt the series was decided in the Warriors’ favor.

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If the Golden State Warriors win the NBA Finals this season it will be their third consecutive championship and their fourth in the last five years. How many teams in NBA history can say they’ve done the same, especially with the competition stiffening in every passing year?

When considering what they will have to overcome, their competition for the time being, and the constant nagging about when they will fall off a cliff, winning the title this season would be the Warriors’ most impressive feat.

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