Are The Golden State Warriors An All-Time Great Team?

If you were an NBA fan and had taken a trip to Mars for the last year, you would’ve missed quite a year of basketball.

From Russell Westbrook’s one-man show to James Harden’s emergence to half of our favorite players sustaining some sort of season-ending injury, there were plenty of ups and downs in 2014-15 to both thrill us and horrify us.

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But even with all the missed memorable plays and overall entertainment absent from your outer space expedition, the following sentence would’ve caught you up on the entire season upon your return: In 2014-15, the Golden State Warriors were the best team in basketball and they made winning a championship look entirely too easy.

With 2015 NBA Draft getting underway tomorrow evening, all attention has turned to the next batch of future pros because, let’s face it, 29 other teams are probably sick of the Dubs by now and would rather focus on the future and all its possibilities.

But before we move on to the 2015-16 season and forget everything we learned over the last year — and in service to those still reveling in what an awe-inspiring year this team had — one question still needs to be answered before the draft takes over: Where does this Warriors team rank among the all-time great championship teams?

Next: Regular Season Dominance

Regular Season Dominance

After compiling a 67-15 regular season record, the Golden State Warriors tied the sixth best win percentage in NBA history. By winning the title, the Dubs marked the 16th team to win it all out of the last 19 teams to reach the 65-win mark. They also were the 10th team of the previous 13 to go on to win the title after winning at least 60 games in their first 73.

That’s some pretty elite company to be in, but it gets even better.

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If you take a look back on the list of NBA champions dating back to the 1999-00 season, you’ll notice that nearly every one has been in the top 10 for both offensive and defensive efficiency (with the exceptions being the 2009-10 Los Angeles Lakers, the 2003-04 Detroit Pistons and the 2000-01 Lakers).

But do you know how many of them were in the top two for both categories like the Warriors were this season? None. The closest team to reaching that kind of statistical accomplishment was the 2006-07 San Antonio Spurs, who were second in defensive rating and third in offensive rating (though the 2009-10 Orlando Magic, who fell short of a title, were top two in both categories).

The Warriors’ standing among past champions becomes even more pronounced, however, when you take into account their unbelievable +10.1 point differential for the season. The last team to boast such an impressive point differential for the season was the 2007-08 Boston Celtics (+10.3), who won the title. Before that, you’d have to go back to Michael Jordan‘s 1996-97 Chicago Bulls (+10.8), who also won the title.

In fact, the Warriors rank eighth all-time in terms of regular season point differential:

1. 1971-72 Los Angeles Lakers: +12.3 (won title)
2. 1970-71 Milwaukee Bucks: +12.2 (won title)
3. 1995-96 Chicago Bulls: +12.2 (won title)
4. 1971-72 Milwaukee Bucks: +11.2 (did not win title)
5. 1996-97 Chicago Bulls: +10.8 (won title)
6. 1991-92 Chicago Bulls: +10.4 (won title)
7. 2007-08 Boston Celtics: +10.3 (won title)
8. 2014-15 Golden State Warriors: +10.1 (won title)

En route to those 67 wins, the Dubs won their first Pacific Division title since 1976. They set a franchise record for regular season wins, finishing with the best record in the NBA by seven games and becoming the 10th team in league history to win at least 67 games.

They strung together so many elite and interesting statistical tidbits this season that it’s hard to keep track of them all.

They won a franchise-record 19 straight games at one point in the season and they posted an unbelievable 39-2 record at home (tied for the second-best home record in league history). Klay Thompson set an NBA record for most points in a single quarter (37), Steve Kerr set a record for most wins by a rookie head coach and Stephen Curry broke his own NBA record for most three-pointers made in a single season (286).

General manager Bob Myers won Executive of the Year, Curry won MVP and, to be completely honest, Steve Kerr and Draymond Green were more than deserving of Coach of the Year and Defensive Player of the Year honors, respectively. The 2014-15 regular season belonged to the Golden State Warriors, and it’s not even close.

Next: The Postseason Run

The Postseason Run

In the postseason, the Warriors weren’t quite as blow-your-hair-back fantastic as they were during the regular season. They compiled a 16-5 record in the postseason and were never taken to a Game 7, but their elite point differential dipped to +7.8, they lost two of their 10 games at home and in two of their four playoff series, they actually trailed 2-1 at one point.

That being said, the Warriors also brought the first NBA championship to the Bay Area in 40 years with Klay Thompson virtually disappearing in the Finals. That’s not a bad accomplishment in and of itself.

Even though they weren’t as dominant as they were in the regular season, the Warriors were still the most impressive team in the postseason, even if they hadn’t won the title. Keep in mind, to get to the Finals, Golden State had to traverse through one of the most brutal Western terrains the NBA has seen in quite some time.

In other words, if you’re trying to take away from the Warriors because they had such great injury luck or because they avoided the Los Angeles Clippers and San Antonio Spurs in the Western Conference playoffs, you’re missing the point.

Blue Man Hoop

In the first round, the Warriors swept a tougher than advertised New Orleans Pelicans team, which was led by a player just as likely to devour a galaxy as he was to drop 30 points (Anthony Davis). In the second round, they faced a Memphis Grizzlies team that had the second best record in the West for most of the season.

In the Western Conference Finals, they handled the second seeded Houston Rockets, a resilient team that hit its stride at the perfect time and was spearheaded by the MVP runner-up, James Harden. In the Finals, though the Cleveland Cavaliers were missing Kyrie Irving and Kevin Love, those All-Star absences actually boosted their defense and forced them to play a style of basketball that actually worked quite effectively as Warrior krypotnite for the first three games of the series.

Plus, the Cavs had the world’s greatest basketball player who put up 35.8 points, 13.3 rebounds and 8.8 assists per game for the series. And even with that brutal path to the championship, the Dubs still had the best point differential, best defensive rating (97.4) and second best offensive rating (106.4) among all playoff teams.

The Dubs didn’t come close to the “Fo’ Fo’ Fo’ Fo'” feat that we keep waiting to see whenever a truly elite contender comes around, but with such a young roster, we might need to cut them some slack. To this point, neither Curry nor Thompson nor Green nor Harrison Barnes nor Andrew Bogut had ever made it past the conference semifinals in the playoffs. That’s Golden State’s entire starting five.

Furthermore, not a single player on the Warriors’ roster had ever played in an NBA Finals before, making them the first team to fit that qualification since Michael Jordan’s Bulls back in 1990-91. Those Bulls went on to win six titles in eight years and become the NBA’s greatest modern dynasty. Just saying.

Next: Uniqueness

Uniqueness

Over the course of 103 total games, the Golden State Warriors outscored opponents by 11.0 points per 100 possessions, which, as NBA.com’s John Schuhmann notes, is the third-best mark among the last 38 NBA champions and the best the league has seen since Jordan’s 1996-97 Bulls.

The Dubs also became just the third team in league history to win at least 83 games between the regular season and playoffs, trailing only Jordan’s 1995-96 Bulls (87-13) and Jordan’s 1996-97 Bulls (84-17). Funnily enough, Kerr was a part of all three of those teams:

The world-beating numbers aren’t the only traits that make NBA champions stand out, however. Whenever a discussion like this comes up, it’s entirely necessary to take into account where that champion fits in with the overarching trends of the league at the time.

In other words, did that champion break the mold in anyway? Was there anything about them that made them truly memorable? Did they revolutionize the game or the way we think about it?

The 2014-15 Golden State Warriors definitely pass that test with flying colors.

It must have been bittersweet for Phoenix Suns fans watching the Warriors win their first championship, since it marked the culmination of Mike D’Antoni‘s life work with the Seven Seconds Or Less Suns.

Favoring a style of play that emphasized pushing the tempo, spacing the floor with shooters and avoiding lineups that included traditional big men, Mike D’s teams never caught their break, and many condemned that style of play as fun, but ultimately not fundamentally sound enough to win you a title.

Steve Kerr (the Suns’ general manager when D’Antoni was in Phoenix), Alvin Gentry (one of Mike D’s disciples) and Stephen Curry (the second coming of Steve Nash) proved that opinion to be outdated, essentially finishing what pioneers like D’Antoni and Nash had started but were never able to see all the way through.

By leading the league in pace, the Warriors became the first team to rank in the top five in pace and win a championship since the 1981-82 Lakers, vindicating Mike D’s up-tempo playing style even if these Warriors and those SSOL Suns teams had major differences on the defensive end.

But that’s not all that sets the Dubs apart.

Golden State’s championship was a huge victory for advocates of the pace-and-space era and analytics in general, both of which emphasize the value of the three-point shot. Pundits like Charles Barkley who have been spouting off tired, outdated tropes like jump shooting teams can’t win it all or teams without a low-post presence can’t win it all were finally silenced when the four conference semifinalists just so happened to rank in the NBA’s top five for attempted threes.

The Warriors became the first NBA champion to rank in the top four in made three-pointers, attempted three-pointers and three-point percentage. Having snipers like Stephen Curry and Klay Thompson obviously helps, but Kerr’s emphasis on passing and off-ball movement helps explain why so many of their threes were uncontested…and why the Dubs led the league in assists as well.

Finally, we can’t talk about the Dubs without mentioning the personnel move that changed the outcome of the 2015 NBA Finals. In the fourth quarter of Game 3, by inserting David Lee into the lineup, Kerr’s eyes were opened to the way to beat the Cavaliers, who were playing two traditional, bruise-you-in-the-paint bigs: small-ball lineups.

In Game 4, Kerr inserted Andre Iguodala into the starting lineup for Andrew Bogut. The Dubs won the next three games and the title with Iggy in the starting lineup. They pushed the tempo, they confined Timofey Mozgov to the bench, they got the ball out of LeBron James‘ hands to prevent his grind-it-out hero ball strategy and the versatile Draymond Green held down the fort at center.

It was wholly representative of how this amoeba of a team constantly adapted to adversity and overcame it thanks to their team play, depth and versatility.

Just look at the Finals matchup. It was team ball against a one-man show. It was new-wave analytics vs. hero ball. It was small-ball versatility against traditional lineups. It was perfectly fitting that the Warriors prevailed in the end, not only because they were the best team in the league all season long, but because they’re emblematic of the pace-and-space era and the current direction the NBA is heading.

On a team with no Finals experience, tons of youth and a rookie head coach, the fact that these Warriors had so much fun this season proves you don’t have to take the traditional hard-ass approach of Michael Jordan, Kobe Bryant and LeBron James. We’ll revere those past champions for laying it all on the line with their heroic efforts that saw them sweat and bleed for the game.

But the Warriors proved you don’t need to treat the game like a battlefield to win. When the going got tough, the Dubs overcame every challenge and had plenty of reasons to smile the whole time. Combine that with their versatility, their revolutionary playing style and their overall dominance and I’d say this year’s Golden State team was pretty darn unique if not one-of-a-kind.

Next: What Comes Next

What Comes Next

The Golden State Warriors are not the greatest NBA team we’ve ever seen. The statistics don’t back that kind of bold assertion up, even if you dive further into the numbers than simply recalling that the 1995-96 Bulls once went 72-10 during the regular season. But are the 2014-15 Dubs one of the 10 greatest NBA champions of all time? Without question.

They dominated the regular season to a degree that hasn’t been seen since that 1996-97 Chicago Bulls team that keeps popping up in this conversation. Statistically, the Dubs are the best team of the last 18 years, and they stack up pretty well with teams like Jordan’s Bulls, Larry Bird‘s Boston Celtics and Magic Johnson‘s Los Angeles Lakers.

The question is, what comes next after one of the greatest single seasons in NBA history?

Believe it or not, Golden State’s title defense could help define this team’s lasting legacy. Are they bound to be the next Michael Jordan-esque dynasty? Or was this just one tremendous campaign that will never be replicated by this current core again?

The Los Angeles Clippers are one re-signing of DeAndre Jordan away from being back in the title conversation next season. The Houston Rockets and San Antonio Spurs aren’t going anywhere. The Oklahoma City Thunder will be healthy again next year and the Cleveland Cavaliers will retool in the East as well.

Nothing gets easier for the Warriors from here, even if Golden State quickly takes care of business and re-signs Draymond Green this summer. A crucial assistant coach will be gone with Gentry coaching the Pellies, David Lee might be gone soon and this team won’t be the same next season. Will Green still play hungry as a max contract guy? Will Bogut stay healthy? Will the Warriors avoid getting complacent now that they’ve arrived?

We’ll have to wait a few months for the answers, but if the Warriors can make another deep playoff run next season — and especially if they win the title — they have a chance to start placing themselves in the conversation of the NBA’s all-time great teams…and perhaps even make their way toward dynasty territory down the road.

But no matter what the future holds, the 2014-15 Golden State Warriors had one of the greatest single seasons in NBA history and deserve recognition as such. No one can ever take that away from them and they have their seat at the table as one of the NBA’s 10 greatest teams. Now they just need to continue building on it to cement their legacy and determine where they sit at that table.

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