The Golden State Warriors are and have been a special team for several years now. After capturing their third NBA Finals Championship in the last four years, they are officially a dynasty in my eyes. They’ve build this dominant team through the draft (with the exception of Kevin Durant) and also acquired some key veteran role players over the last few years such as Shaun Livingston, Andre Iguodala, Nick Young, and Javale McGee. In life, timing is everything and this scenario certainly applies to this juggernaut of a franchise.
We often tend to give most of the props associated with winning titles to the players, but let’s not forget about the Warriors ownership and their front office and the outstanding work they’ve done. They are owned by Joe Lacob and Peter Guber. Lacob is the more hands on partner who actually handles the day to day operations of the team. He and a group of investors that he headed facilitated buying the team on July 15th of 2010. Prior to making that power move, Lacob owned a minority share of the Boston Celtics.
Once he and his investor group won out over a dozen other bidders to purchase the team, he then sold his minority share of the Celtics. One of the biggest moves he and the Warriors made was in 2011, when they brought in former sports agent Bob Myers. Myers previously worked 14 years as a sports agent, the last five of his then career with The Wasserman Media Group.
He was initially supposed to apprentice the current Warriors General Manager at the time who was Larry Riley. After just one year, Myers did such exceptional work that they promoted him to full time General Manager. After acquiring Steph Curry in 2009 and Klay Thompson in 2011, the Warriors had a good draft in 2012 as they selected Draymond Green in the 2nd round with the 35th pick. During the 2012-2013 season, they advanced to the second round of the playoffs and lost to the Spurs in six games. There was definitely some hope on the horizon as that was the Warriors best season in 36 years.
The word around the league was that the Warriors were no longer a dismal team but were actually a team on the rise from the front office to their floor personnel. Lacob fired Mark Jackson after the 2013-2014 season, a move that raised some eyebrows initially in the bay area. Jackson had guided the Warriors to back to back playoff appearances, but apparently wasn’t well liked in the front office and didn’t get along with anybody within the organization except his players.
Their biggest breakout season was in 2014-2015, when Myers not only hired Steve Kerr to coach the team, but they went 67-15 and had the best record in the NBA. They also went on to win their first NBA Championship since 1975, ending a forty year drought. As a result of these key acquisitions and timely moves, Myers was awarded NBA Executive of the Year in back to back seasons, consisting of 2014-2015 and 2015-2016.
The combination of Lacob, Guber, and Myers has paid off big time for Golden State, as front office and ownership chemistry is just as important as the great chemistry the Warriors share on the court. What’s so amazing and unique about this recent run of dominance in the bay area is that it practically came unexpectedly. When Steph Curry was drafted in 2009 (1st round with the 7th pick) out of Davidson, the only thing many believed was that he could shoot. Steph also had serious ankle issues early on in his career, causing him to miss a considerable amount of time.
Once he finally got healthy, Curry not only proved to be an outstanding shooter, but he was a great ball handler, passer, and rebounder for a guard his size. He virtually changed the league but not intentionally. Prior to his arrival, there had never been a point guard who could handle the ball and then pull up with such a rapid fire quick release at 30-35 feet and hit the shot consistently. It was almost like watching a real life video game of NBA 2K at Oracle. Small ball became the shifting winds of change in the league, as teams started to take notice of how deadly an offense can become when you have two great perimeter shooters.
When you add on the addition of Klay Thompson (11th pick in the first round in 2011) and Draymond Green (35th pick in the 2nd round of 2012) along with some key veteran role players and a player’s coach like Kerr, this all produced a winning formula and pure entertainment at its highest level. Despite going 73-9 and breaking the NBA record for the most wins by any team in NBA history, the Warriors came up short in the 2016 NBA Finals, losing to Cleveland in seven games after blowing a 3-1 series lead.
Myers and the Hamptons 4 (soon to be five) recruited then free agent Kevin Durant to come and play with them in the Summer of 2016. Durant, who himself and the Oklahoma City Thunder had just blown a 3-1 series lead to the Warriors in the Western Conference Finals, decided if he can’t beat them just join them and add on to what was already a dominant team. At that point, he hadn’t won an NBA title, and he felt he needed that validation and taste of what it’s like to win titles.
That move has reaped the benefits of not only back to back NBA titles, but also back to back Finals MVP Trophy’s for KD. The Warriors have the rest of the league on pins and needles, desperately trying to create and build other super teams and duplicate what the Warriors have already mastered. The difference between Golden State and these other teams is that the Warriors by far already have the greatest shooting backcourt in NBA history, a vocal and dominant defensive player down low in Draymond Green, and a man named Durant who has a 7’6” wing span and can pull up from anywhere on the court and beat you. Oh, and let’s throw in Steve Kerr as the final piece of the puzzle.
Whether Paul George and Lebron James both come to Los Angeles to play for the Lakers, or Kawhi Leonard ends up in L.A. via a trade or free agency next year, that will get the Lakers closer to championship status. The Houston Rockets gave the Warriors all they could handle in the Western Conference Finals, and who knows what the outcome may have been if Chris Paul didn’t get hurt. However, close isn’t good enough, as I don’t see the Warriors losing another NBA Finals unless they break that team up or god forbid there’s a serious injury to one of their star players in the postseason. Many will continue to look at Golden State as the villains of the NBA, but you can’t hate on something and a process that happened naturally through the draft and great front office moves.
Even with the acquisition of KD, he’s just one player who joined a team that was already a juggernaut which came at the expense of running an organization the right way. There was no super team or meetings amongst several individual players who decided to pack their bags for the bay area. Regardless of whether you’re a fan, an NBA player on an opposing team, an executive, or just a casual observer of the game, the Warriors have reaped the benefits of running a great organization from the top of ownership to the players who take the court.
I always value the element of competition, rivalries, and being the underdog who may one day come in and pull off an epic upset. However, I’m also a realist and I believe this Warriors team won’t be going anywhere anytime soon. As long as they don’t dismantle the core of the team and they avoid long term injuries, Golden State will fly higher than the bay bridge for years to come.