Sansterre's Top 100 Teams, #91-95: 2008 LAL, 2018 HOU, 1995 HOU, 2009 ORL, 2019 GSW

[Outside]

Just found this series. Excellent job. The effort that goes into putting something like this together is huge. Much appreciated.

Being a Warriors fan, I'm looking at those installments first. I'll quibble somewhat with the assessment of the 2019 unit. To me, their loss to the Raptors in the finals is not surprising, given the circumstances. With the addition of Durant, they went from "strength in numbers" to a top-heavy roster. That in itself is not insurmountable, but multiple events coincided to expose the downside of that construction.

Key components of the rotation they had relied on in previous title runs were showing their age precipitously, both in performance and durability. This was Livingston's final season. They picked up Andrew Bogut in March after is obligations in Australia ended, but it was the last gasp of his NBA career. Kerr continued the pattern of saving Iguodala for the playoffs, and while he was able to up his minutes in the postseason, his defensive impact was degraded, and while his playmaking and IQ were pluses, his shooting was not.

Filling out the roster were signees DeMarcus Cousins (coming off injury and injured again to miss most of the playoffs) and Jonas Jerebko (last NBA season), plus Kevon Looney, Jordan Bell, Quin Cook, Alphonso McKinnie, Jacob Evans, and Damian Jones (whiffs except for Looney).

Add that together, and you have the weakest bench in their title runs. They were still an excellent team because of the strength at the top of the roster, but that left them vulnerable if any of those top players got injured. And got injured they did. Taking away Durant was obviously a huge blow. You pointed out that Klay missed game 6, but he also missed game 3. Looney was hurt in game 2 of the finals -- what the team called "a non-displaced first costal cartilage fracture" -- and was ruled out for the rest of the finals, but after missing one game, he came back and gutted it out.

With a roster dependent on its top four stars to be without Durant made them mortal. They were still good and could contend if the rest of the roster stepped up, but instead they mostly disappeared due to injury, age, or just not being good enough. When Klay went down, that turned them into the 2020 Warriors -- Steph, Draymond, and a pickup squad.

Durant's flirtation with the Warriors was over and he was already looking elsewhere, the tension between Durant and Draymond grew as a result, and everyone was physically and mentally spent after a five-year finals run. Those are definitely factors that brought their ceiling down. But the most important reason for them falling short of the championship was a top-heavy roster that got hit by injury. They were built around three of the best shooters of all time. Losing one (Durant) for essentially the entire finals was a huge blow, and taking out another (Klay) for two of the six games was devastating. I think they actually had a shot if Klay hadn't gotten hurt, but that's not how it played out.

This was not, as is often said, the 73-win Warriors plus Durant. Far from it. To expect them to still be the 73-win Warriors and still win the title after losing Durant isn't reasonable, especially considering the injuries to Klay, Cousins, and Looney and that the rest of the roster was paper thin.

Having said all that, I think their placement in this top 100 list is probably fair. It's just the write-up that I disagree with. It's a team that could've been more but wasn't. This spot on the list seems about right.

[sansterre]

Just found this series. Excellent job. The effort that goes into putting something like this together is huge. Much appreciated.

Being a Warriors fan, I'm looking at those installments first. I'll quibble somewhat with the assessment of the 2019 unit. To me, their loss to the Raptors in the finals is not surprising, given the circumstances. With the addition of Durant, they went from "strength in numbers" to a top-heavy roster. That in itself is not insurmountable, but multiple events coincided to expose the downside of that construction.

Key components of the rotation they had relied on in previous title runs were showing their age precipitously, both in performance and durability. This was Livingston's final season. They picked up Andrew Bogut in March after is obligations in Australia ended, but it was the last gasp of his NBA career. Kerr continued the pattern of saving Iguodala for the playoffs, and while he was able to up his minutes in the postseason, his defensive impact was degraded, and while his playmaking and IQ were pluses, his shooting was not.

Filling out the roster were signees DeMarcus Cousins (coming off injury and injured again to miss most of the playoffs) and Jonas Jerebko (last NBA season), plus Kevon Looney, Jordan Bell, Quin Cook, Alphonso McKinnie, Jacob Evans, and Damian Jones (whiffs except for Looney).

Add that together, and you have the weakest bench in their title runs. They were still an excellent team because of the strength at the top of the roster, but that left them vulnerable if any of those top players got injured. And got injured they did. Taking away Durant was obviously a huge blow. You pointed out that Klay missed game 6, but he also missed game 3. Looney was hurt in game 2 of the finals -- what the team called "a non-displaced first costal cartilage fracture" -- and was ruled out for the rest of the finals, but after missing one game, he came back and gutted it out.

With a roster dependent on its top four stars to be without Durant made them mortal. They were still good and could contend if the rest of the roster stepped up, but instead they mostly disappeared due to injury, age, or just not being good enough. When Klay went down, that turned them into the 2020 Warriors -- Steph, Draymond, and a pickup squad.

Durant's flirtation with the Warriors was over and he was already looking elsewhere, the tension between Durant and Draymond grew as a result, and everyone was physically and mentally spent after a five-year finals run. Those are definitely factors that brought their ceiling down. But the most important reason for them falling short of the championship was a top-heavy roster that got hit by injury. They were built around three of the best shooters of all time. Losing one (Durant) for essentially the entire finals was a huge blow, and taking out another (Klay) for two of the six games was devastating. I think they actually had a shot if Klay hadn't gotten hurt, but that's not how it played out.

This was not, as is often said, the 73-win Warriors plus Durant. Far from it. To expect them to still be the 73-win Warriors and still win the title after losing Durant isn't reasonable, especially considering the injuries to Klay, Cousins, and Looney and that the rest of the roster was paper thin.

Having said all that, I think their placement in this top 100 list is probably fair. It's just the write-up that I disagree with. It's a team that could've been more but wasn't. This spot on the list seems about right.

Thank you so much for the feedback, and I'm glad you've found the articles!

Let the record show that these early articles were, well, the first articles I wrote. Looking back on them is a little painful not only because I think that I've gotten a lot better at writing them but because this tour through history has really developed my grasp of context.

This is a long way of saying that I'm not surprised that there are possible improvements to that writeup