Why Does Everyone Keep Hating On The Revolutionary Golden State Warriors?
How The Warriors Are Revolutionizing Basketball
It’s no secret that the league is diving headfirst into the pace-and-space era that’s predicated on positional versatility and three-point shooting. Last year, the 30 teams in the association combined for an NBA record of 19,300 made three-pointers over the course of the regular season. Heading into Friday’s batch of games, this year’s teams are on pace to obliterate that record with approximately 20,623 made threes.
This is not some newfangled trend that will die down after Stephen Curry and Klay Thompson retire. This is the course the league is heading in, even if most teams don’t have the kind of two-way Swiss Army knife that Draymond Green has become, which allows the Warriors to blitz opponents on offense and “get away with it” on defense.
And that’s what makes the Warriors special. For those who actually watch the games, the Dubs play defense. They’re ranked fourth in defensive rating, holding opponents to 100 points per 100 possessions. The only reason teams are averaging 103.9 points per game against them is their frenetic offense (second fastest pace in the league) creates so many extra possessions.
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That’s exactly how the Dubs want to play. They want to push the tempo, buckle down for stops when they need to and shoot a s**t-ton of threes. They’ve buried the “live by the three, die by the three” adage under a barrage of corner threes, and the way they make it look so damn easy serves as a direct middle finger to the older generation that never played so “irresponsibly” or “carefree.”
Take a look back on the stars of the 90s and even the 2000s and every champion is remembered for their Herculean feats. We saw the blood, sweat and tears of their labors, and in watching players like Magic Johnson, Larry Bird, Isiah Thomas, Michael Jordan, Hakeem Olajuwon and Tim Duncan attain championship glory, their trials and tribulations were a testament to what it took to win it all.
Winning championships isn’t easy, as the failed labors of Dominique Wilkins, Charles Barkley, John Stockton and Karl Malone taught us. It takes a ton of hard work, physicality, fundamentally sound play, an interior post presence, smart shots, hard-nosed defense and the right dose of hero-ball down the stretch of close games to reach the NBA’s Mount Olympus.
The Warriors don’t exactly play that way. Though they work hard and play tremendous defense, they make it look unbelievably easy, even when they fell behind in two playoff series last year. When the older generation watches this team play, they see a bunch of three-point-happy youngsters coasting past inferior teams, having way more fun than it takes to win games.
It’s only natural that their first inclination would be to blame the “weaker competition” or “soft defenses” of today when, in reality, any defense in NBA history would have had these same problems trying to bottle up Steph Curry.
Next: The Inevitable Conclusion