How The Golden State Warriors Found Their Motivation For 2015-16

Normally, you wouldn’t think a 67-win team coming off a dominant NBA championship run would have reason to defend itself heading into a new season. And yet, despite being a historically great team with legitimate hopes of repeating in 2015-16, that’s exactly where the Golden State Warriors find themselves after listening to a summer of nonsense.

It looks like a dangerous team — that could have fallen into the trap of being complacent after reaching the mountaintop in such an ideal fashion — may have found its motivation for remaining kings of the hill.

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Over the last few months, the Warriors have been occasionally scrutinized for the method in which they won their championship and the good fortune they enjoyed along the way. The core of their team stayed healthy for basically the entire year, they faced a couple of playoff opponents that were banged up and the Dubs made everything look easy in their “cruise” to the title.

And yet, somehow that good fortune has been twisted into that ugly word, “lucky.” It started with Los Angeles Clippers head coach Doc Rivers, who implied in a conversation with Grantland’s Zach Lowe that the Warriors were lucky to win the West because they didn’t have to face his team or the San Antonio Spurs.

"“You need luck in the West,” Rivers said. “Look at Golden State. They didn’t have to play us or the Spurs. But that’s also a lesson for us: When you have a chance to close, you have to do it.”"

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To be fair, Rivers never directly said the Dubs were lucky. He later recanted and clarified his statements, and technically speaking, he’s kind of right anyway; a rivalry matchup against the Clippers in the Western Conference Finals would have provided a different challenge for the Warriors, as a matchup with the experienced Spurs also would’ve done.

But confusing being fortunate with being lucky is a mistake no one should fall into. While “luck” implies a lack of skill, “fortune” speaks to having the right breaks go your way, which is what every championship team in the history of this association has enjoyed.

The Warriors were the best team in the NBA last year, hands down, bar none. It wasn’t even close. Look at the Dubs’ overall record, top ranked defense, second ranked offense, league-best point differential, defensive field goal percentage, home record or any other decisive stat that the Warriors dominated. There are too many to mention.

Golden State was THE team of 2015-16 and deserved their title, no matter the path they took to get there.

In the Finals, you could argue that with Love and Irving out, the Cavaliers were a vastly improved defensive team — one that played the exact kind of game to give the Warriors problems by slowing down the tempo to a grind and letting the world’s greatest player go to work. It needed to be an ugly series for Cleveland to contend, and that’s exactly what it was.

As for the Clippers, they have no right to complain after choking away a 3-1 series lead. And though the Spurs lost on a Game 7 game-winner in a hard-fought first round series, they essentially lost to the team that lost to the team that the Warriors handily beat in the WCFs.

In any event, reigning MVP Stephen Curry basically said as much when he responded to those types of comments with a sarcastic apology:

But the Warriors didn’t stop there. Curry wasn’t even the first Warrior to speak out on this subject, with teammate Klay Thompson having kicked things off a few days before:

Klay Thompson hasn’t spit fire that hot since his 37-point quarter. Coming off a championship and All-NBA Third Team honors, it’s no wonder Thompson was feeling bold. The Warriors have a great chance of running it back this season and it’s no secret that the Warriors and Clippers have become one of the best new rivalries in the NBA.

But with the Splash Brothers getting in on the act, it was only a matter of time before the Bay Area’s living legend Draymond Green spoke his mind. As always, Green was delightfully and brutally honest all at once:

Once Draymond Green had gotten his chance to respond, the Dubs had basically said everything that needed to be said short of “They hate us cause they ain’t us.” And you no what? It’s absolutely fantastic.

These recent luck comments have been festering for weeks now, and it’s not only hot take grenade that’s been lobbed into the Warriors’ camp over the summer. Last week, James Harden provided his own take on last year’s MVP results:

They played Grizzlies team with a hurt Mike Conley. They faced a Rockets team with no Donatas Motiejunas or Patrick Beverley. They barely beat a Cavaliers team with no Kevin Love or Kyrie Irving. Jump shooting teams can’t win championships, that was just a fluke. James Harden deserved MVP. The Spurs are going to win it all now with LaMarcus Aldridge.

These are all things the Warriors have been hearing for weeks now. Instead of accepting that this historically great team absolutely deserved its success last season, critics are already looking for the weak spot in their championship campaign and their hopes of running it back next year.

The Spurs will be a brutal competitor in the West next season, and yes, the Warriors enjoyed the kind of healthy season that a few other contenders didn’t. But with these comments bordering on outright disrespect, it was nice to see these young defending champs stick up for themselves.

An organization like the Spurs that’s already proven itself probably would’ve let those kinds of comments carry into the night without a rebuttal. The wiser NBA fans know that the 2014-15 Golden State Warriors were the rightful NBA champions, and some of those fans may be inclined to wonder about the maturity or class of this team for even responding to their critics and trolls.

But like it or not, trash talk makes the NBA more enjoyable. After this crossfire, that Warriors-Clippers matchup on Nov. 4 has gone from excellent game to must-watch television, and that’s without even taking into account their other nationally televised game before that, a preseason contest on Oct. 20.

Blue Man Hoop

There’s a chance this wouldn’t be happening with Steve Kerr around, but this kind of playful, off-court chatter is exactly what makes NBA rivalries so intriguing, provided they don’t go too far. The Spurs will always be respected for their class and poise, but let’s face it: the Warriors are a young team with a few players with big mouths. This approach may not be as mature, but it’s definitively more fun.

Back in the 1990s, before Michael Jordan‘s insanely aggressive competitive streak was labeled as a bad thing, he was continuously praised for his ability to turn the smallest slight into motivation used to decimate and devastate his opponent. For those labeling the Warriors’ talk as a cheap tactic to put a chip on their shoulders heading into the new season, why is that such a bad thing?

Isn’t harnessing all those comments as motivation an effective method for channeling negativity into the kind of excellent play that thrilled so many basketball fans last year? The rest of us may know that the Warriors have no legitimate reason to feel slighted, but who cares where the motivation comes from as long as it leads to more superb play?

Coming off such a magical season where everything went right, it might have been easy for these young Golden State Warriors to grow complacent in 2015-16. Thanks to a summer of double-edged comments and lingering doubters, the defending champs have found their motivation.

Next: NBA: Top 10 MVP Candidates In 2015-16

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