It's absolutely foolish to hate on the Warriors
After falling siege to a Cleveland Cavaliers scoring onslaught for the ages in Game 4, the Golden State Warriors completed the job of ruining basketball on Monday by winning their second NBA title in three years.
As the Warriors launched their assault on the rest of the league throughout the playoffs, the idea that they were somehow tainting the game was one that gained a ton of traction.
Sports are built to reward excellence and praise brilliance, yet perhaps the greatest basketball team ever is being vilified for its dominance. It's an absurd thought, and here's why the Warriors should instead be praised for the way their remarkable team was built.
Dubs drafted incredibly well
The NBA draft exists to give downtrodden teams a chance to rebuild and become relevant with a high pick. It's wrong to call the Warriors a "superteam" because they expertly built through the draft and didn't bring in high-priced free agent after high-priced free agent to make themselves relevant. They added Steph Curry in 2009 and Klay Thompson in 2011, but that didn't turn their fortunes around immediately. Prior to drafting Draymond Green in 2012, the Warriors finished 23-43, the third-worst record in the Western Conference. Five years later they have been in three straight finals - winning two of them - and shattered the record for best season of all time in 2015-16.
2009
Golden State pick: Steph Curry, seventh overall
Guys picked before seventh still on drafted team: 2/6
Notable players picked before the seventh spot: Hasheem Thabeet, Ricky Rubio, Jonny Flynn
2011
Golden State pick: Klay Thompson, 11th overall
Guys picked before 11th still on drafted team: 4/10
Notable players picked before the 11th spot: Derrick Williams, Jan Vesely, Jimmer Fredette
2012
Golden State pick: Draymond Green, 35th overall
Guys picked before 35th still on drafted team: 6/34
Notable players picked before the 35th spot: Thomas Robinson, Kendall Marshall, Royce White, Andrew Nicholson, Fab Melo, John Jenkins, Arnett Moultrie, Jeffrey Taylor, Tomas Satoransky
The fact Green was a second-round pick is astounding, and means almost every team in the league passed on him at one point. Cleveland could have picked Green three times but opted for Dion Waiters, Jared Cunningham, Bernard James, and Jae Crowder. They traded the last three players to the Dallas Mavericks for Kelenna Azubuike and Tyler Zeller.
Sacramento could have drafted Curry, Thompson, and Green, but instead ended up with Tyreke Evans, Jimmer Fredette (through a draft-day trade for Bismack Biyombo), and Thomas Robinson. Minnesota could have drafted Curry and Thompson but instead took Ricky Rubio, Jonny Flynn, and Derrick Williams. Instead of keeping the 18th overall pick in the 2012 Draft and selecting Green, the Timberwolves traded it to Houston for Chase Budinger and Lior Eliyahu.
The above paragraph is probably a perfect indication of why neither team has made the playoffs since since Curry entered the league.
Keeping talent
Curry battled wonky ankles throughout his first few seasons in the NBA, which drove his price down to $11 million per season on a contract extension. He signed that deal in 2012 for four years, a contract that has turned out to be an incredible steal for Golden State.
In 2014, amidst trade interest from the Kings, Thompson signed a then-max $70-million deal over four years. The former Washington State standout was coming off a season where he averaged 18.4 points and 3.1 rebounds per game while connecting on 41.7 percent of his shots from beyond the arc. Those are strong numbers, but a large number of people questioned the move at the time.
Fresh off winning the championship in 2015, the Warriors locked up restricted free agent Green on a five-year, $85-million deal. The $17-million annual salary represented a significant jump from the $915,243 he made in the championship winning season.
Those three contracts meant that the core trio of the Warriors would be making an average of $45.5 million the next two years until Curry became a free agent. As a comparison, the Orlando Magic paid Bismack Biyombo, Evan Fournier, and Jeff Green $49 million to finish 29-53 this past season.
Winning the Kevin Durant sweepstakes
Golden State finished the 2015-16 season with the best record in the history of the NBA. After holding a 3-1 lead in the NBA Finals, the Warriors imploded and lost to the Cavs three straight times to fall in historic fashion. Yes, if you do the math quickly it's apparent that the Dubs blew a 3-1 lead.
Instead of giving Harrison Barnes a five-year max contract, the Warriors opted to let him leave and join the Dallas Mavericks. Other than Mark Cuban, there aren't many people out there who would give Barnes that money, and practically everyone applauded the Warriors for a very smart money decision.
Two days later Golden State lands Durant on a two-year contract, a move every single team in the NBA was trying to pull off. The decision by the uber-talented Durant came with great scorn from NBA fans around the country, acting as though they wouldn't make the same move in their field of work. Watch tape of any Oklahoma City Thunder game from the past few years and ask yourself, "Does playing with Russell Westbrook actually look fun?"
Durant made the move and absolutely dominated throughout the NBA Finals, capturing the MVP trophy and scoring at will on anybody the Cavs threw his way.
Three years ago the Warriors finished sixth in the conference and lost in the first round of the playoffs. People would have laughed you out of the room if you said from that point on we would look at them as the best team of all time. They should be applauded for how they built this remarkable team, and give hope to other organizations that they too can reverse their fortunes with the right moves by the front office.