this post was submitted on 25 Nov 2023
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and (some) people really try to spin in like the Warriors were not the favorites heading into 2017 if they didn't land KD.
They would have been massive favorites. They were already way better than the Cavs, I say this as a cavs fan. We needed LeBron and Kyrie to play the best basketball of their careers and Steph/Klay to underperform while also getting 1 win with Draymond suspended.
They had won 140 games in 2 seasons, and were 1 game away from having the most dominant 2 year stretch in NBA history, arguably NA professional sports history.
A KD-less warriors 2017 & 2018 team is definitely better than their 2015 & 2016 version. They certainly would still be the favorites even without KD.
But the league was already on it's way to figuring them out. The only reason why the Cavs struggled mightily to beat them was because of Kevin Love, who could no longer defend and ate up a giant chunk of their cap.
The Rockets and Bucks were two teams constructed with multiple rangy switching defenders specifically to neutralize the chaos of Steph zipping around the court. It's like the warriors were 50% favorites to 30% favorites. Still the best odds but not overwhelming anymore.
The game is just moving really fast now. Because of shortened contracts, high influx of rookie talent and the fast pace shortening careers, rosters are turning over rapidly, and in ways that are able to adapt to the best teams. This is why even though the Warriors revolutionized the game, they could only hold on to their advantage for so long.
Lol the reason they couldn't "hold on to their advantage" is time. If Dray, Klay and Steph were all in their prime we'd be set.