Are the Warriors contenders?

[FNQ]

They weren't a deep team about a month ago

Got players who are a great fit, and now have a rotation thats 11-12 players deep, and thats not including the imminent return of Klay (and I guess Wiseman, though I doubt that matters much now)

#1 DRtg team in the league and outrebounding our opponents by 5+ a game.. they have effectively gone to a 48 minute death squad lineup, running PF sized Cs with + BBIQ in Looney and Nemo out there.. this is how we've won for quite some time, but we've never done it full time like this in the past. From 2016 with Bogut/Speights/Ezeli manning the C spot nearly full time, we've slowly transitioned away from regular sized Cs.. 2017 it was Zaza/McGee (28mpg, Dray and West getting the rest).. 2018 was Zaza/Mcgee again (24mpg; Looney/Dray/West getting the rest)... 2019 had Looney starting full time after the Cousins experiment flamed out, and since then big Cs have only had very small part-time roles on the team, because we've been clearly better with quicker, PF sized ones instead

There is of course mismatch concerns and playoff series to consider - Wiseman can theoretically help against the Jokics, the Goberts, the Vucevic's and other big Cs who are legitimately impactful - but I dont think W's fans are too surprised. We're a perimeter-based team on offense and a switch-heavy team on defense that relies on BBIQ and versatility, and our roster construction this year lines up with that well

[baldur]

I am convinced that they are. they have a really good supporting cast, it is the best in the past few years.

[GregOden]

Warriors went from the worst rebounding team in the league last year to 5th in rebounding rate. That's quite a jump. The question is that sustainable over an entire season with such an undersized team.

[BoatsNZones]

Warriors went from the worst rebounding team in the league last year to 5th in rebounding rate. That's quite a jump. The question is that sustainable over an entire season with such an undersized team.

With no Kelly Oubre, anything is possible.

[WarriorGM]

As of this post, 172 people have voted in this thread's poll that the Warriors are not contenders. Can someone give me the argument for why they aren't contenders?

[Crazy-Canuck]

As of this post, 172 people have voted in this thread's poll that the Warriors are not contenders. Can someone give me the argument for why they aren't contenders?

They will probably say its because of wiggins.

[ecogen]

They look like contenders imo, they're good. It also helps that the western conference as a whole seems to have taken a step back this year.

[Roger Murdock]

With a healthy Klay? Hell yeah

Right now I think they’d be heavy underdogs if playoffs started due to too much reliance on one guy

But Klay and Curry scale perfectly together

[Peregrine01]

So when I first started this poll, it was 30/70. Now closer to 50/50.

Another thing that should get mentioned is that the rule changes have really benefited the Warriors vis-a-vis everyone else. Their system was always built off of movement and not endless pick and rolls and isolation. Other teams that just spam the latter are finding it more difficult to score because defenders can actually play individual defense again whereas the rule changes have had little effect on how the Warriors play.

[floppymoose]

Warriors went from the worst rebounding team in the league last year to 5th in rebounding rate. That's quite a jump. The question is that sustainable over an entire season with such an undersized team.

With no Kelly Oubre, anything is possible.

Oubre was bad, but it was Wiseman that was the rebounding problem. We are seeing the difference between Wiseman and Looney.

[Raonak]

Yes. Regardless of opponent, 11-1 is damn good by any metric.
Eye test backs up the warriors as the most cohesive team.
They have a top 2 superstar. A deeeep bench. And the 2nd best shooter still to come.

[warriorschamps]

Interesting during the summer, many were saying the Warriors couldn't sign anyone but Bjelica, OPJ, and Iguodala, because no other teams wanted those guys.

Now everyone is saying the Warriors got all the talent and are a deep team.

The trash the Warriors signed during the summer suddenly smells good.

What's crazy is those guys fit exactly how Golden State wants to play. For instance Bjelica is a poor man Jokic. Bjelica is shooting 50% from three.

Also this also didn't take into account Golden State has great leaders in Steph, Dray & Klay AND a great coach. So that's going to make it easier for those guys to succeed.

That's why the Dubs are different. They have a "great" pretty much everything. Great organization, great GM, great coach, great players.

[Rapsalot]

10-15 games after Klay returns will be a better time to ask.

So you think the Warriors are going to get alot worse with Klay on the floor? If they are contenders now which they are having win 10 of their last 15 last year, going 5-0 in the preseason and 10-1 to start the season. And they aren't just winning they are blowing teams out. Yes they haven't had the toughest schedule but we've seen teams with the same schedule do a lot, lot worse. More to the point the Warriors have championship DNA to rely on something most teams don't have. If the Warriors are like 40-5 are we still going to be asking if they are contenders?

I doubt any team in the league will finish within 5 games of the Warriors 60+ wins this year.

I always want to see chemistry, Def and heart of a team at full strength. I think they are contenders but I always want to see the product. This is the same for every other team. I’m not saying you are wrong but, like MU I’m still evaluating. LOL

[Warriors Analyst]

Warriors went from the worst rebounding team in the league last year to 5th in rebounding rate. That's quite a jump. The question is that sustainable over an entire season with such an undersized team.

This team is excellent on defense, which helps them be in position to rebound. Our worst defender is probably Jordan Poole? After a terrible defensive preseason, he’s been fine on that end and has had a few nights of genuinely good defense against tough assignments like De’Aaron Fox. Otto Porter Jr. or Bjelica are probably the next two weakest defenders. Bjelica is probably worse in a vacuum but he’s position locked at the 5, whereas OPJ was playing some 3 to start the year before Kerr started using him exclusively as a 4/5. At the 3, OPJ is helplessly slow defending small guards and even though he’s in the right place, he lets small guards waltz by him to the lane because he has no physical ability to keep up with them. The flip side though is that OPJ has been a great rotational defender and he’s made some heads up plays as a weak side rim protector and he’s hitting the boards hard, which is letting Kerr run him as the 5 alongside Juan Toscano-Anderson or Iguodala for short stints.

OPJ, Curry, Iguodala, GPII, Looney, and Bjelica have all hit the boards at an above average rate for their positions. It’s been lovely to see and it’s letting this team get away with long stints of small ball.

[Badly Browned]

When Klay comes back I figure we'll see him mostly in lineups with at least 3 of Curry, Draymond, Iguodala, and Looney. All guys who are familiar playing with Klay already.

What I want to see when Klay gets back is how his legs handle the quick dashes and change of direction from moving around screens off-ball.

I have every confidence Klay can still spot up and shoot post-injury, but what made Klay special was shooting off movement.

[cdubbz]

Imagine Klay or Poole off the bench. We don't know what Klay looks like, but having one of those guys in the second unit will be a huge boost. If James Wiseman can be a factor defensively off the bench or at least give productive minutes then the Warriors will be scary.

[jokeboy86]

I want to lean towards yes but I got to see them against the really good teams first. The Laker win at the time did impress me but everything else so far is against bad to meh teams. I think they're clearly better than a healthy Bulls team but it sucked that Vučević was out for yesterday's game. Next Tuesday will be interesting because they're currently more balanced than Brooklyn but Brooklyn still have Harden/Durant who can takeover at any time to counter Curry who can do the same thing.

[EliteSmarts]

Contenders? lol... They're not even a lock for the playoffs...

This needs to go down as one of most funniest comments in Real GM 2021

[xdrta+]

im not still convinced warriors beating up weak ass teams. if they beat bkn, cleveland in a row, i will concede they are a title team.
the hottest teams warriors faced none of them.

There are 70 games to go. Whether they win or lose those two games means nothing, let alone if they are a title team or not.

I’m honestly surprised people still quote and converse with this drose character

You're right, my bad.

[EliteSmarts]

Bumping this thread. Warriors have the best record in the league and have been absolutely smacking teams. They're first in defense so far and are getting just about anything they want on offense - and all this without Klay. Heavy 73-9 season vibes so far.

Thank you for bumping this thread because there are a lot of great analysis from both sides of the argument fantastic content!