Stephen Curry is literally trying to kill all competition
Photo Credit: GQ
Last year, the Golden State Warriors went into the 2015 season with the mindset of believing they could beat any team put in front of them. With the exception of Gregg Popovich, who use to coach Steve Kerr (current Warriors coach), nobody believed that the young collective of hungry players in the Bay Area could actually win an NBA Title. Last year, the team won a jaw-dropping 67 games, which tied the Chicago Bulls for 4th all-time in most wins per season.
Though their toughest challenge of the entire post-season was the edgy-defense collection of the Memphis Grizzlies, they saw unnecessary criticism from sports journalists, fans and Skip Bayless.
Unfortunately, the team didn’t play post-season meetings against the San Antonio Spurs or Los Angeles Clippers, as well as facing an injury-plagued Grizzlies team and LeBron James on an island in the NBA Finals. However, these are professional athletes in the NBA, just like any other sport; and whoever is out on the opposing end has to play their best basketball.
This promoted Dwight Howard to reveal he had an injured MCL, the Clippers saying they didn’t defeat anybody, and for whatever reason, Ty Lawson saying Curry didn’t have to play defense the entire playoffs. While some believe all of that may be true, Dub Nation was still successful in hoisting the Larry O’Brien Trophy last May – something very few players can do.
Stephen Curry, Klay Thompson and Draymond Green knew the rest of the league didn’t like them internally, but speaking out publicly made them reach a boiling point. Without a doubt, Curry is the league’s best player in the world (sorry, LeBron) and if you want anybody in the NBA to take a last shot with the game on the line, it’s him. He just has that killer instinct!
But his jaw-dropping shooting perfection isn’t the only thing that’s sticking out this year. He’s essentially dropping somebody on the floor every night, at the expense of some petty off-season talking from some rivals out west – and LeBron James who’s come off as a bit jealous of their health.
Curry’s cool 53 points against the New Orleans Pelicans
Stephen, who looks more motivated than last year, is averaging a league’s best 32 points-per-game and is past making friends around the NBA. After making history this week in becoming the first team ever in the NBA to start a season at 16-0, Golden State is looking to surpass the 1972 Los Angeles Lakers’ 33-game winning streak, as well as the 72-10 Chicago Bulls record this season.
We’re not sure if fatigue or boredom will catch up to this team throughout the season, but they’re already playing NBA Finals basketball – and we’re barely a month into the season. Surprisingly, Golden State remains humble from their accomplishments, after having to watch the San Antonio Spurs make consecutive NBA Finals appearances, prior to last year.
They can survive an off shooting night, like they did against the Clippers last week and still win; on the strength of their depth chart and ability to have a free-flowing offense. The stigma of jump-shooting teams not being able to win a title came to an end last June, as top-tier ball movement and having one of the best collective defenses in the league led to their success.
Los Angeles, San Antonio and Memphis are taking notice of their continued progression in playing small ball, and will have to make some serious considerations in sitting out one of their star bigs to keep up with Golden on both ends of the floor. The Warriors feel a sense of jealously and hate from opponents every night and continue to put up astronomical numbers on the boards.
Whether the trend declines is highly unlikely, but we’re sure they’re not just thinking about winning an NBA title next June. This is just the beginning of a dynasty for these young players.
Let us know in the comments what you think about the future of the Golden State Warriors.