Still Stung by Finals Loss, Warriors Driven by Redemption Kevin Durant Offers

OAKLAND, Calif. — We hate losing more than twice as much as we enjoy winning.

That's the harsh reality according to psychologist Daniel Kahneman, who has extensively studied a concept called loss aversion. In a series of tests, Kahneman told the New York Times:

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There is an asymmetry between gains and losses, and it really is very dramatic and very easy to see. In my classes, I say: 'I'm going to toss a coin, and if it's tails, you lose $10. How much would you have to gain on winning in order for this gamble to be acceptable to you?'

People want more than $20 before it is acceptable. And now I've been doing the same thing with executives or very rich people, asking about tossing a coin and losing $10,000 if it's tails. And they want $20,000 before they'll take the gamble.

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Applying the principles of loss aversion to sports means we'd need to win more than two championships to make it worth gambling on a change to the makeup of a team that lost a title.

That task might seem even more daunting if you'd blown a 3-1 NBA Finals lead to lose that championship and ruin the greatest season in league history.

So it's amazing to think the Golden State Warriors might still come out ahead from their collapse last season.

Their seemingly irredeemable failure wound up producing Kevin Durant via free agency—Durant said he wouldn't have come if the Warriors had won another title—and who knows how many championships the Warriors will now win with Durant.

This is where we must interrupt, however, and acknowledge the addition of Durant comes with the risk of upsetting the well-balanced chemistry of a team that was one minute away from back-to-back NBA titles.

With much of their bench now playing elsewhere, the Warriors, despite being pegged for invincibility with Durant, have started just 5-2. Both losses were unexpected and both were not close: a season-opening 29-point loss at home to the San Antonio Spurs and a 20-point defeat in L.A. to the inexperienced Lakers.

Again, however, we must interrupt to explain how the Warriors' approach embodies the concept of loss aversion and dictates their attitude so far.

Consider what Warriors general manager Bob Myers told Draymond Green back when things were going so great early last season: "You know what I like most about you, which I think is a skill? Your hatred of losing."

"It's not even liking to win," Myers explained later. "When we win, it's checking a box. It's avoiding losing that drives him. I think some of the best competitors and professional athletes, they will do anything to avoid losing. And I admire that, because that's the type of people you want out there."

Andrew D. Bernstein/Getty Images

Green had a great 2015-16 season, but he had his share of missteps—especially getting suspended for Game 5 of the NBA Finals, the home defeat that started the tailspin after Golden State's 3-1 lead.

There are layers to this.

Of course, the feeling of losing last season motivates Green and the Warriors this year. But how they lost last season—pushing so hard, being their best for the longest time they could in achieving 73-9 in the regular season, then faltering in the end—makes them averse to repeating anything like that process.

Consequently, the Warriors don't really want to dominate this regular season—even with Durant—the way they did last season. After the loss to the Lakers, Stephen Curry was prideful about not caring that much anymore.

"You didn't hear any of us talking about chasing the record before the season," Curry said. "So stuff is going to be said around us that we have to ignore to get to where we want to go at the end of this year.

"There's going to be some bright spots like [beating the Oklahoma City Thunder]; there's going to be some duds like tonight [losing to the Lakers]. You've got to be able to not get too high, not get too low, and understand where we want to be come April, May and June."

This is traditional thinking. We are used to a season's bumps teaching and motivating a great team to roll to the finish line. Curry and the Warriors bounced back up with his NBA-record 13 three-pointers Monday night in beating the New Orleans Pelicans. What's difficult to gauge is how much any previous season affects the next, and in this particular case, Warriors coach Steve Kerr assesses it as inconsequential.

"Last year has nothing to do with this year," Kerr said. "I don't care about last year. It's a different team."

Those words strike a different tone than usual. Kerr is curious and kind with regard to almost all things, but his defensiveness sounds a lot like someone whose hurt from last year will never heal, so he knows better than to examine the wound.

Yet the fact Kerr has Durant gives him hope that this team will do something different.

Ezra Shaw/Getty Images

That's a different world than Oklahoma City is living in after its 3-1 collapse with Durant in the Western Conference Finals was followed by Durant's switching to the other side. For all the good the Los Angeles Clippers have done in recent years, blowing their 3-1 series lead to the Houston Rockets in the West semifinals two years ago remains their most memorable moment. It's hard to see how the Cleveland Indians will redeem the 3-1 lead they just lost in the World Series.

That's how unique it is that the Warriors' catastrophic ending could turn out to be a silver lining.

The ultimate point to loss aversion is that we so deeply dislike losing that our reflex is often not to play at all—and thus we lose out on what is likely pleasure or profit. With Durant, though, the reward has the potential to outweigh the pain of June. Eventually.

These Warriors are more talented but not nearly as ready to win as their evolved team that started last season 24-0. Durant has accepted that, saying, "We're not going to be perfect every game—as much as you want us to be."

It takes time to integrate individuals into a cohesive group—especially compared to a defending champ with soaring momentum and confidence, as seen by the Warriors' start a year ago and the Cleveland Cavaliers now being the league's lone unbeaten in beginning their title defense.

According to Kerr, the Warriors' start has been slowed by three elements: execution, defense and toughness. Those are areas where this Warriors team will build itself up as time goes by.

Yet the process is going to take longer if the Warriors aren't trying their hardest.

"We'll get better," Green said. "I know we'll get better. Nobody [is] losing hope or anything like that."

Agreed. It's just that they are so determined not to repeat the steps that led to their epic loss last season that they aren't going to give it anything close to their best early this season.

Kevin Ding is an NBA senior writer for Bleacher Report. Follow him on Twitter: @KevinDing.