Exploring the Golden State Warriors' Regular-Season Ceiling
The Golden State Warriors have spent the last few seasons playing catch-up, blessed with talent but cursed with a Western Conference as strong as it has ever been. With the quarter mark of the season barreling toward us, however, the Warriors have emerged as the premier team in the Association.
Currently riding a 13-game winning streak, the Warriors have made a seamless transition from the unstructured regime of Mark Jackson to the deadly attack of Steve Kerr. The result? A league-best 18-2 record.
As the season progresses, the question for the Warriors will be how they respond to no longer being the hunters, but rather the hunted.
For as much praise as the Warriors have received during this impressive start, they have met just as much skepticism over the quality of many of those wins. During the win streak, all but one of their victories have come against opponents with sub-.500 records.
All of that skepticism is silliness at its finest. While it’s true that the Warriors have not been dealt the most daunting schedule thus far, they are winning the games they have to win, and they are doing it in impressive fashion. With a plus-11.2 point differential, no team has come close to matching their dominance so far.
Even when faced with stiffer competition, the Warriors have excelled, going 5-2 against teams with winning records. With victories over the Los Angeles Clippers, Houston Rockets and Portland Trail Blazers, the Warriors have handled some of the best the West has to offer.
If that wasn’t enough, the Warriors have proved to be deadly regardless of where they play. Like most young teams, the Warriors did most of their damage last season in the comfort of their own home, in front of their raucous crowd and away from the heckling road fans.
This season the Warriors have exerted their dominance on the road, picking up 11 wins already. Their sole loss came at the hands of the pesky Phoenix Suns, a game that the Warriors controlled for three quarters but gave away at the end because of sloppy play.
Naysayers can nitpick all they want, but when looking deeper into the schedule, signature wins are easy to find and it’s clear that the Warriors have built an efficient model of success.
Homegrown talent has carried the Warriors, as four of the five players in the starting lineup were drafted within the last five years. The fifth member, Andrew Bogut, was brought in via trade in 2012. The player traded? Monta Ellis, another player the Warriors drafted and developed.
The core of the Warriors has grown and developed together, and the result is the chemistry we are currently seeing. The fast start the Warriors are on is no fluke. It is the result of good drafting and years of playing together.
The next few games for the Warriors are ripe with challenges, as a slew of playoff-caliber teams are waiting in the wings. The next six games will be the Warriors’ toughest stretch to date. With the Rockets, Dallas Mavericks, New Orleans Pelicans, Memphis Grizzlies, Oklahoma City Thunder and Sacramento Kings all on the horizon, the time is now for the Warriors to truly make a statement.
The winning streak won’t last forever, and it doesn’t need to. If the Warriors’ young stars continue to develop, they will be a force to be reckoned with not just this season, but for the foreseeable future.
As formidable as the Western Conference is, the Warriors have all the pieces in place to churn out a strong run, one that could see them holding onto their perch at the top. Their staunch defense that made them a good team last season is still in place, as they are No. 1 in the league in defensive efficiency, per Basketball-Reference.com.
What has made them elite is the arrival of Steve Kerr. He has transformed the offense, doing away with Jackson’s tedious isolation offense and transforming it into a free-flowing, triangle-based, pick-and-roll juggernaut.
Warriors owner Joe Lacob commented recently to Sporting News' Ray Slover on the upgrade at the head coach position, and while he might have come across a bit crass, the words themselves could not have been more true. Kerr is a significant upgrade over Jackson, and the proof is in the results.
With Kerr at the helm and Stephen Curry pouring in buckets, the regular season is the Warriors’ to lose.
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