5 Biggest Takeaways From The 2015 NBA Finals

1. The Warriors Are The Future

“The Warriors are the future” sounds vague, but that’s because it applies it two distinct ways.

First of all, it points to the fact that we could be looking at a potential dynasty in the making here. Guys like Andre Iguodala, David Lee and Leandro Barbosa are all over 30 years old and Shaun Livingston is 29, so the role players won’t be around forever.

But Stephen Curry (27), Klay Thompson (25), Draymond Green (25), Harrison Barnes (23) and Festus Ezeli (25) are all still young and the Warriors seem committed to paying up to keep that talented core intact for the extended future. If that’s the case, people are going to want to join the Warriors to pursue championships, much like people want to play with LeBron James.

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The way their contracts are structured, the Dubs are as well-poised as anybody to build a championship dynasty as the NBA’s salary cap explodes over the next three seasons.

The second meaning of “the Warriors are the future” refers to the simple fact that the Dubs are revolutionizing the way professional basketball is played. In the current pace-and-space era, three-point shooting, lineup versatility and up-tempo offense are all at a premium. You can be guaranteed other teams are going to try and model their rosters after the Golden State Warriors.

Teams will be looking for the next Stephen Curry who can create and shoot off the dribble. Teams will be looking for the next Draymond Green who can be a human Swiss Army knife. But most of all, they’ll be placing an emphasis on perimeter shooting and two-way versatility now that the Dubs have finally buried the “jump shooting teams can’t win a championship” trope.

By going to small-ball lineups halfway through the series, Steve Kerr made a ballsy decision that resulted in an NBA championship. The Cleveland Cavaliers were playing in an ancient hero ball system with traditional, bumbling bigs because they were shorthanded and they needed to try and slow the tempo down.

Thanks to the greatness of LeBron James and a few shaky performances from the nervous and inexperienced Warriors, it seemed like it was going to work for a while there.

But then the Dubs found their sea legs, Kerr rolled out the small-ball lineups and the Cavaliers had no answer. It was the perfect representation of where the league once was and where it’s going now in the pace-and-space era.

In essence, it was perfectly fitting that the versatile, deeper team that was more effective from three-point territory wound up winning the series over a one-dimensional team (that was admittedly missing two players that had helped them build a similar offense during the regular season). It was the perfect storm of old school vs. new waves, and the analytics junkies finally won.

The Golden State Warriors aren’t going anywhere and they’ll be one of the favorites in the West again next season. But even if they never win another title, it’s important to note that their dominance during the 2014-15 campaign represented both the perfection of Mike D’Antoni‘s Seven Seconds Or Less Suns and the revolutionary new direction the NBA is heading in.

Next: Golden State Warriors: 10 Steps To Winning The Title

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