When a 73-win team signs the best scorer on planet earth, a touch of chaos will ensue. Kevin Durant and the Warriors will win plenty of games this season, but replicating 73 wins will be quite challenging with six new players on the team. It should take at least 20 games for Steve Kerr to recalibrate the Warriors’ offense to redistribute more touches to the 2014 MVP — without overlooking the 2015 and ’16 MVP.
Shared sacrifice will be the rallying cry for Steph Curry, Klay Thompson, Draymond Green and Durant. Warriors GM Bob Myers knows that it won’t be all smooth sailing for the new-look Warriors, though. The added scrutiny will put Golden State under a larger microscope than even the 2011 Miami Heat, as Myers told CBS Sports’ James Herbert recently:
“I think a lot of people think we signed Durant and everything is great, which in reality, that is a really good thing. But we have a lot of new parts. This is not a team like last year’s team, where we could just hit training camp in stride. As much as we like our roster, it’s gonna take some time to evolve with guys like Durant, David West, [Zaza] Pachulia. We lost six guys. So even though we’re happy with the offseason, I do think we’re gonna have some turbulence. Because the other thing is, I think the scrutiny on the team is gonna be so high that any loss, anything that happens in a negative way, is gonna be exaggerated, right? It’s just gonna be, ‘I can’t believe they lost a home game,’ or ‘I can’t believe they lost two in a row, they never did that last year.’ I mean, last year I think we started out 24-0 or something crazy. So if we start out, whatever we start out, it’s not gonna be that, I imagine. So people might write or say, ‘Oh, they’re not as good as last year.’ “
Arrogance seems to be the primary ingredient in the Warriors soufflé by the Bay.
They’ve transitioned from league darling’s to super villains in just two seasons. Myriad factors have propelled to their current position. Their owner, Joe Lacob, does not shy away from the inflated role he thinks he played in his team’s greatness. He infamously referred to the Warriors as being “light year’s” ahead of every team in the league even though a series of lucky breaks helped stoke Golden State’s success. Lacob is the kind of Silicon Valley venture capitalist that’s very easy to hate, and that’s already started to transfer to the Warriors.
Golden State’s blasé attitude toward the Cavs, and specifically LeBron, after they went up 3-1 in the Finals, really ramped up their rogue status as well. Draymond couldn’t avoid his penchant for groin kicks and Klay said a thing about LeBron, he probably wish he hadn’t. It set the Warriors up for an onslaught of slander after they were the first team in NBA history to lose after being up 3-1 in the NBA Finals. The fact the unanimous MVP didn’t play up to his hardware, didn’t help matters. The NBA world will never be distracted from that fact.
The turbulence that Myers alluded to will be amplified tenfold this season. It should be a fun ride, unless your a Warriors unprepared for the venom. Golden State is now Goliath and the league’s followers are already preparing their slingshot.
(Via CBS Sports)
