Golden State Warriors: GM Survey Results

As calendar pages turn and NBA basketball finally returns, the annual NBA General Manager’s survey is released and the fans get the unsolicited valuable opinions of the association’s higher-ups. Golden State Warriors fans, you will be pleased with the results.

NBA.com’s John Schuhmann published the results of the 2014-15 Survey on Wednesday morning. The league’s general managers vote on a total of 56 questions covering all aspects of the league from best players to best home crowd. Some of the results will not shock you, but some will catch your interest.

An example of one result that caught my eye — when asked which team will win the 2015 NBA Finals, 46.2 percent of voting GMs went with the San Antonio Spurs to repeat. Meanwhile, just 15.4 percent cast their vote for the Vegas favorite (and possibly fan favorite) Cleveland Cavaliers.

Even more intriguing about that category is in last year’s survey, 75.9 percent of the votes went to LeBron James’ Miami Heat to win the 2014 NBA Finals. Talk about a major loss of confidence in Bron-Bron and his new Big Three.

Looking at the survey as a fan of the Golden State Warriors, you really can’t do much better as far as meaningless survey results go. The Dubs appeared at the top of a multitude of both team and player categories. Let’s take a peek at some of the notable mentions.

When asked which team will win the Western Conference crown, the Dubs came in fourth with 3.7 percent of the votes behind a strong outpouring of support for the usual suspect Spurs, Thunder and Clippers. Along the same lines, the Warriors finished sixth in the voting for the Finals victor.

It’s certainly exciting knowing that NBA-savvy people believe the Dubs finally have a shot at a championship. In last year’s survey, the Golden State Warriors received zero votes to win even the Western Conference. Think Stephen Curry and company earned a few believers as they pushed the Los Angeles Clippers to seven games in the first round of the playoffs, despite key injuries and sub-par coaching?

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On to the player categories. When asked which player is most likely to have a breakout season in 2014-15, GM voting consisted of 12 total players, with Golden State’s own Klay Thompson finishing tied for third with Andre Drummond, behind only Bradley Beal and Anthony Davis.

Lofty expectations for the young shooting guard here, which he should have no problem meeting. After an impressive showing at the FIBA World Cup, and in an improved system under Steve Kerr, Thompson should hit that mark again in an expanded offensive role.

That leads us to the next set of questions on the survey — best individual players positions. Klay Thompson received the second-most GM votes for the NBA’s best shooting guard, behind only James Harden. In a league where true top-flight elite shooting guard talent is hard to come by, I couldn’t agree more. Klay is undoubtedly one of the best, helping his team on both ends of the court. I believe he has a chance this year to outshine Harden and solidify the title of best shooting guard.

The survey results for the NBA’s best point guard is up for debate as well.

Chris Paul, receiving a whopping 71.4 percent of votes, sits comfortably at the top of the GM point guard hierarchy. Behind him is Russell Westbrook with 10.7 percent, and in third is Tony Parker with 7.1 percent.

Sure, those are three great point guards making up nearly 90 percent of the voting. However the Golden State Warriors’ own Stephen Curry resides in the “also receiving votes” section with Damian Lillard and Derrick Rose.

At this point, I would agree with the way the GMs voted, but I believe Stephen Curry will use 2014-15 to prove he belongs in that top-three conversation. Time will tell, but we’ll have a better grasp by the time April rolls around. Steph wasn’t completely ignored though — he received the most votes for “Best pure shooter” later in the survey, obviously.

Next on my list is the category of best assistant coach in the NBA, with Golden State’s associate head coach Alvin Gentry securing the top spot in the voting. Gentry has served a total of nine teams from college to the NBA, and he’s an early buyer into the Steve Kerr Golden State Warriors.

Last but not least, the miscellaneous category of the survey. This is the part that fans of the Golden State Warriors will enjoy. When asked which team is the most fun to watch, the Dubs took the top spot with 57.1 percent of the voting.

What’s possibly more important is the Warriors were also voted as having the third-best home court advantage, behind the Denver Nuggets and Oklahoma City Thunder. The general managers acknowledge the crowd at the “Roaracle” being one of the loudest and most intimidating to play in front of as a road team.

The Golden State Warriors can be found all over the 2014-15 GM Survey. They are finally starting to be acknowledged as an elite team with top-tier players and championship capability. The 2014-15 season should prove that beyond a paper survey.

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