The Golden State Warriors created one of the most dominant dynasties in basketball history almost exclusively with home-grown talent. With all of the surrounding talent in the league at the time and players constantly on the move, it almost seems mythical that they would manage to reach five straight NBA Finals, winning three in the process.
Predictions today still like the Warriors, some time since their dynasty broke through and won its first title in 2015.
So, now that recency bias has passed, how exactly were the Warriors so successful?
Changing the game
The Golden State Warriors changed the game of basketball potentially more than any other team or player ever had. This change was pioneered by Stephen Curry, but also assisted by Klay Thompson— that change, of course, was the prioritization of the three-ball, and getting rid of the term “bad shot.”
Nothing was a “bad shot” for the Warriors, there were just “good” and “better” shots. Opposing defenses had to have their primary defender applying tight pressure to Curry at the half-court line, which opened up space for other wing shooters such as Thompson, and later on, Kevin Durant, to operate, as well as divers like Draymond Green and Harrison Barnes.
Golden State never needed a dominant interior presence, which allowed them the opportunity to downsize and force opponents to play without a center or risk having him targeted in the pick and roll on defense. Green ultimately became the team’s de facto center, even though he was a small forward-power forward “tweener” in his early years.
Teams around the league saw the Warriors’ effect on the game and went all-in on “small ball, ” sacrificing the brutal big men of the past for silky shooters with soft touches, even if they could not rebound the basketball at seven feet tall.
Fitting a system
Golden State also did something that seemed counterintuitive at the time, which was taking the ball out of Curry’s hands. His early-career coach, Mark Jackson, was heavy into screen-and-roll and isolation work, whereas Steve Kerr, the coach of the dynasty, wanted to create a constant motion offense.
His reasoning for doing so was not that Curry needed the ball, but that the ball would find the shooter. Kerr was soon proven right, as Golden State only needed a couple of years to set the all-time league regular-season record of 73-9.
With Curry and Thompson constantly swinging the ball around the horn, making back-door cuts, and curling off of screens on the wing, they were virtually unguardable.
GSW also gained a significant boost after they lost the 2016 Finals, blowing a 3-1 lead in the process, by adding Durant to their squad. KD offered them something they never had— a reliable low-post presence and bailout shooter— without sacrificing any of their long-range prowess or unselfishness. With him partnering with Curry and Thompson, all they needed were gap-fillers such as Green And Andre Iguodala to make them virtually unbeatable. They won the next two titles with KD and were on track to a three-peat before he and Thompson got injured, and that was the last that Oakland saw of Durant.
Consistency
Fast forward into the 2020s— times were rough for Warriors fans, who watched their team deal with multiple injuries and lose a play-in game, but they have refound their “stuff” with the return of Thompson and emergence of Jordan Poole, among others.
Golden State has the most championship experience of any team in the league, which has allowed it to transition into the late stages of its “dynasty, ” if it is still in one, results depending. The core players are still as unselfish as ever, and their understanding and intelligence have allowed them to overcome a decline in athleticism.
Legacies are meant to be properly understood once players retire and eras come to a close, but it would not be an exaggeration to say the Golden state Warriors’ dynasty is among the greatest in the NBA’s long history.