Hate Fun? Stephen Curry, Golden State Warriors Are Probably Not the Team for You
Fun isn't for everyone, and neither are the Golden State Warriors.
These Warriors used to be universally adored. They were the darling underdogs under head coach Mark Jackson in 2012-13 and 2013-14—a team that, despite its sub-surface warts, liberated a browbeaten fanbase and franchise from decades of inconsistency.
When Steve Kerr supplanted Jackson, Golden State made the leap to surprising juggernaut and eventual champion. And that swift rise has put the Warriors under a different kind of microscope.
They are no longer waiting for a torch to be passed. They have seized it. They are the new guard, even with the San Antonio Spurs challenging them, and their reign is now subject to the hyper-attentive pushback that follows every change in regime.
Can't Please Everyone
Resistance to Golden State's success began last season.
Jump-shooting teams can't win championships. When the Warriors did, they were particularly lucky. They were especially healthy. The Cleveland Cavaliers were especially unhealthy. Not even Stephen Curry's MVP award came without an asterisk.
Winning even more is the best way to eradicate lingering doubt and prevailing envy, and Golden State has done just that.
The Warriors started 2015-16 an unprecedented 24-0. They are on pace to win 74 games and break the 1995-96 Chicago Bulls' record of 72 victories. They have not lost at Oracle Arena during regular-season play in nearly a year—a stretch that's spanned 37 consecutive home victories.
Still, Golden State is different, championing a style of play that pushes the boundaries of even today's malleable standards.
Positions are rusted shackles. The three-point shot isn't a weapon; it's a foundation. Speed and defensive integrity aren't mutually exclusive constructs.
This model is difficult to duplicate, and that's part of the fun. But Golden State's brand of basketball isn't for everyone, and there are those who believe it's not for anyone.
As Jackson, now an NBA analyst with ESPN, said during the Warriors' Christmas Day win over the Cavaliers, per CBS Sports' James Herbert:
"Steph Curry's great. Steph Curry is the MVP. He's a champion. Understand what I'm saying when I say this: To a degree, he's hurt the game. And what I mean by that is that I go into these high school gyms, I watch these kids and the first thing they do is they run to the 3-point line. You are not Steph Curry. Work on the other aspects of your game. People think that he's just a knockdown shooter. That's not why he's the MVP. He's a complete basketball player.
"
Jackson does a nice job of dispersing the blame for the Curry-fication of the NBA to those mimicking his style rather than Curry himself. But his argument rests on the general population viewing the defending MVP as something less than a complete talent.
Masters of Everything
Colin Cowherd of Fox Sports' The Herd went even further:
"If you go to a gym and play basketball, the last guy you ever wanted to play with is the guy that just hoists up threes all game. Basketball was meant to played with more passing and less shooting and less—it's ball movement.
Ball movement is beautiful. Magic Johnson was beautiful. He never shot threes. The most beautiful, artistic players that ever played the game weren't gunners. Now Steph Curry's remarkable at it, but he's going to create a generation of guys who are gunners and don't have his skill set. And I don't find the Warriors shooting three after three after three after three from a variety of players to be that interesting of basketball.
"
Affection for how the game used to be played cannot get in the way of accepting the Warriors as fun—especially when that affection misrepresents what Golden State is doing.
If ball movement is beautiful, the Warriors are beautiful.
They rank in the top five of passes per game and are first in assist percentage. They're also first in secondary assists by a substantial margin, which basically means this tends to happen:
There's no incentive to pretending the Warriors aren't three-point addicts. They're on pace to shatter the record for triples made during a single season.
But that benchmark is obliterated almost yearly. The Houston Rockets did it last season, just like the 2012-13 New York Knicks before them. And the Warriors are doing it while posting the second-highest success rate of all time.
Firing threes is ingrained in the fabric of basketball now. Don't blame the Warriors. Blame math. Golden State isn't even the most trey-reliant squad:
The Warriors attempt more threes overall because they play faster; they make more because they're better. That doesn't mean they're chuckers.
Curry is among the most efficient two-point shooters alive. The Warriors average more shot attempts inside the restricted area per game than the Spurs and score the ninth-most points inside the paint, according to TeamRankings.com.
Drives. Cuts. Pick-and-rolls. Isolations. Transition attacks. Golden State incorporates a little of everything into its offensive arsenal, even the most traditional scoring method: post-ups.
The Warriors, quite simply, are so much more than freelance circus shooters.
Embrace the Fun
At the same time, those freelance circus shots:
Truly appreciating the Warriors entails embracing the absurd. They carry themselves with "because we can" bravado, abiding by popular NBA tenets, yet always operating on a separate plane.
Draymond Green is a 6'7" point center. Klay Thompson is a No. 1 option masquerading as a third fiddle. Andre Iguodala has transformed into one of the Association's deadliest spot-up shooters.
Harrison Barnes, Golden State's fourth-best player, is a max-contract candidate. Curry has made more shots between 25 and 29 feet (125) than nine teams.
Golden State's small-ball "Death Squad" has outscored opponents by 107 points in 93 minutes. If the playoffs started now, eight of the other 15 participants wouldn't be a plus-107 for the season.
Even Ian Clark is playing well enough to get that Stephen Curry money, per Bleacher Report's Adam Fromal:
The Warriors yell. They celebrate shots before they go in. They dance. They bask in the afterglow of their handy work.
"It's one of the greatest moments we've had in our lives, especially for those guys that put in all the work and spent their whole life trying to get there," interim head coach Luke Walton said of Golden State's title run last season, per USA Today's Jeff Zillgitt. "They shouldn't be shy or ashamed of how much they enjoyed winning."
These Warriors are a lot of things.
Are they for everyone?
Of course not.
Fun never is.
Stats courtesy of Basketball-Reference.com and NBA.com unless otherwise cited and accurate leading into games on Jan. 19.
Dan Favale covers the NBA for Bleacher Report. Follow him on Twitter, @danfavale.
.jpg?w=600 "Colts Release Kenny Moore")
