As the NBA playoffs begin this Saturday, the biggest question going in surrounds the Golden State Warriors. Will a Western Conference team be able to prevent them from getting to the Finals for a fifth straight year? Or will the dynasty win another championship?
This is a question that has been getting asked over the past few months due to the Warriors uncharacteristic season. It was mid-November when, during the fourth quarter of a game, Draymond Green said to Kevin Durant that he was a b***h and that the team didn’t need him because they won without him before was on the Warriors.
This got Draymond suspended in-house for a few games and began stirring up rumors about where Kevin Durant will end up once his contract expires at the end of this season. According to a prominent Lakers and Warriors insider Ric Bucher, as well as pretty much the rest of the internet sports world, Kevin Durant is leaving Golden State and will be going to the New York Knicks this off-season.
“It’s not a matter of not liking or appreciating what he has,” Bucher said. “But being there, I can tell you that Kevin Durant has never been fully embraced by the Warriors faithful. And has never, from even a national perspective, been given the just do that you would expect for a guy who has been the NBA Finals MVP of their last two championships. It’s still Steph’s team. It’s still Steph, Klay, Draymond. He’s never gotten the just deserts.”
With Kevin Durant having at least one foot out the door, questions have begun to spur about the likelihood of the Warriors getting to and winning a third straight title. The Warriors number of wins went down below 60 for the second year in a row in the Steve Kerr era, and have had some humiliating defeats, particularly at home this season. In March they were crushed by the Boston Celtics at home 128-95.
They have lost to the Houston Rockets three out of the four times they played this year. They have also lost multiple times to other contenders such as the Toronto Raptors, the San-Antonio Spurs and the Portland Trail Blazers. Numbers-wise, they are still one of the best offenses in the league averaging just below 118 points per games, ranking them second in the league behind the Eastern Conference number-one seed, the Milwaukee Bucks. However, their defense this year has averaged around 111 points-given-up, ranking 15 in the league.
If the Warriors can band together for one last ride with Kevin Durant, and stay fully healthy, the only teams I can see beating them out, in any scenario are the Houston Rockets and the Toronto Raptors. James Harden and company are pouring it on this year and had the Warriors up 3 games to 2 before Chris Paul got hurt. A fully healthy Rockets teams can beat the Warriors four times in two weeks. I don’t believe that any other team can beat them in the Western Conference. The only team I can see beating them, should they get to the Finals, would be the Toronto Raptors, who beat them twice in two matchups and have the sixth ranked points per game allowed on defense.
Whether KD leaves this year or not, this is the most vulnerable the Warriors have ever been and if somebody doesn’t take them down this year, we could be looking at one of the greatest dynasties in basketball history. They would still have Steph Curry, Klay Thompson and Draymond Green, who went 73-9 without Durant in 2016 and won a title without him in 2015. This is the year to take them down.