Mark Cuban: Warriors being the bad guy will be good for NBA

[NBAfan3024]

This team has holes. A lot of the bellyaching is silly. we saw LeBron bully the dubs physically, Durant doesn't solve that. Plus we lost Bogut who was a bigger factor than given credit for, and bench strength.

Stop whining.

Doesn't change the fact the team on paper is certainly strong due to having another go to guy.

[MrBaynes]

It will be good for the playoffs if there are teams that can challenge them in a series.

As far as the regular season goes, I can't imagine a worse thing for your average team. Outside of local fans, who will be watching a game that does not involve Golden State or Cleveland?

[Vee-Rex]

Classic WWF/WWE stuff in play.

A strong heel team is great for the NBA.
An unbeatable heel team is not.

GS already became the bad guys, that's what they were last year. They got away with breaking the rules, and they still won. People believed they were unbeatable, but the face overcame the insurmountable odds.

Now they actually are unbeatable. Its the equivalent of a tape delay PPV where everyone already knows who wins. That's not good for basketball.

Here we go again.

Pre-Durant the Warriors were a team that barely made it past OKC (and who knows if they would've beaten the Spurs). Post-Durant they are clearly the favorites and best team (assuming they gel and don't collapse), but that doesn't mean they can't lose.

No one is unbeatable.

[Hangtime84]

I am a long time dubs fan (~60 years old, grew up in the bay area, I remember, mostly, the old teams with Thurmond, etc), I have watched every game for the last several seasons (thanks csnbayarea!). This last season a growing number of dubs fans were present in every road game. To think these people will suddenly stop being dubs fans after the team gets better seems like a ridiculous construct to me.

It's not like the Warriors are pronouncing themselves "America's Team" or they are promising "not one, not two, not three" championships. All in all they are a confident yet humble group. I believe they will become more popular as more people are exposed to their talent and exciting style of play.

As was pointed out in another thread, popularity and being hated are not mutually exclusive. I believe the number of fans will far outweigh the number of haters. Of course that will not be reflected on sites like this one.

Warroirs added one of my favorite players and brought a fun style of basketball to the NBA to see them be successful with it is even more enjoyable.

There's no hate from me and I'm excited to how the season plays out

[Throwback24]

I don't know if I agree with this. I have a lot of friends who are on the fence about liking and watching the NBA and my feeling from them is they lost general interest when Durant signed with GS.

When LBJ teamed up with Wade and Bosh I took pride in watching one of the greatest teams of all time dawn the court. I feel the same way about KD joing the GSW.

I love it and will watch every game sans the blowouts.

[Throwback24]

This team has holes. A lot of the bellyaching is silly. we saw LeBron bully the dubs physically, Durant doesn't solve that. Plus we lost Bogut who was a bigger factor than given credit for, and bench strength.

Stop whining.

Doesn't change the fact the team on paper is certainly strong due to having another go to guy.

KD doesn't have to stop LBJ, Draymond can now guard him full time.

[sfhand]

I am a long time dubs fan (~60 years old, grew up in the bay area, I remember, mostly, the old teams with Thurmond, etc), I have watched every game for the last several seasons (thanks csnbayarea!). This last season a growing number of dubs fans were present in every road game. To think these people will suddenly stop being dubs fans after the team gets better seems like a ridiculous construct to me.

It's not like the Warriors are pronouncing themselves "America's Team" or they are promising "not one, not two, not three" championships. All in all they are a confident yet humble group. I believe they will become more popular as more people are exposed to their talent and exciting style of play.

As was pointed out in another thread, popularity and being hated are not mutually exclusive. I believe the number of fans will far outweigh the number of haters. Of course that will not be reflected on sites like this one.

I think you are kidding yourself on multiple accounts. This whole "confident yet humble" persona that the media played up, and many people such as yourself bought into, is gone. This team will be the villain. They will not be loved. Most will hate them.

Now, whether they actually are this "confident yet humble" group, we'll never truly know one way or the other. They are a collection of individuals and there are endless facets of who each of them are that we will never be privy to. All I can say is the media and narrative will be "The Warriors are the bad guys." Just own it. It's not a moral issue, it's just the narrative that will be put on them.

So, I should ignore my years (decades) of exposure to the team and NBA ball and buy into your Cleveland perspective? No thanks.

[Zvaart]

Well, i think warriors were rather the good guys for Mark. He has two of their starters for the next season.

[sfhand]

I am a long time dubs fan (~60 years old, grew up in the bay area, I remember, mostly, the old teams with Thurmond, etc), I have watched every game for the last several seasons (thanks csnbayarea!). This last season a growing number of dubs fans were present in every road game. To think these people will suddenly stop being dubs fans after the team gets better seems like a ridiculous construct to me.

It's not like the Warriors are pronouncing themselves "America's Team" or they are promising "not one, not two, not three" championships. All in all they are a confident yet humble group. I believe they will become more popular as more people are exposed to their talent and exciting style of play.

As was pointed out in another thread, popularity and being hated are not mutually exclusive. I believe the number of fans will far outweigh the number of haters. Of course that will not be reflected on sites like this one.

That team is anything but humble. And I'm not talking about their on-the-court antics at all. Strictly off-the-court.

It's funny how much the media has warped and distorted reality for a lot of people.

another Cavs fan heard from...

[metafisical]

It will be good for the playoffs if there are teams that can challenge them in a series.

That's why Toronto signed Fred Van Vleet.

[Vee-Rex]

I am a long time dubs fan (~60 years old, grew up in the bay area, I remember, mostly, the old teams with Thurmond, etc), I have watched every game for the last several seasons (thanks csnbayarea!). This last season a growing number of dubs fans were present in every road game. To think these people will suddenly stop being dubs fans after the team gets better seems like a ridiculous construct to me.

It's not like the Warriors are pronouncing themselves "America's Team" or they are promising "not one, not two, not three" championships. All in all they are a confident yet humble group. I believe they will become more popular as more people are exposed to their talent and exciting style of play.

As was pointed out in another thread, popularity and being hated are not mutually exclusive. I believe the number of fans will far outweigh the number of haters. Of course that will not be reflected on sites like this one.

That team is anything but humble. And I'm not talking about their on-the-court antics at all. Strictly off-the-court.

It's funny how much the media has warped and distorted reality for a lot of people.

another Cavs fan heard from...

The team I root for doesn't change the off-the-court arrogance that has been displayed by Curry, Green, and Klay.

[NyCeEvO]

He says this because he had a hall of fame player ascend to greatness and win a championship for him over the Heat. If that had never happened he wouldn't feel this way. No one in the East or West (even Lebron) is beating the Warriors. What they did is terrible for the NBA and guarantees that there will be a lockout next summer.

Agreed what the heat did was different as they were villians but at least beatable villians. GS was the favorite to win it al lbefore they got Durant, the league was in a reallty good place with 4 legit contenders and exicting players spreadout throughout theleague. There was no need for this.

To be fair, no one thought Miami was legitimately beatable when they first assembled. No one brought up Wade's knee and shoulder issues. Bosh's blood clot problems weren't even in the picture.

It wasn't until Dirk put on a herculean display, LBJ didn't play up to par, and everyone saw the clock hit 0:00 at the end of Game 6 in 2011 Finals that people breathed a sigh of relief and considered them to be "beatable". And yet even after that loss, fans of opposing teams were already talking about how unlikely it would be for another player to duplicate Dirk's Finals performance. In essence, people were worried about MIA coming right back to the Finals with Dallas (and in particular, Dirk) being unable to duplicate their performance.

GSW won't be considered beatable until someone beats them. If they don't win once, it will make opposing team fans very happy since they won't be able to claim perfection but with more cap increases, people will be afraid of the Warriors signing more players that help them with fit.

[oikosnomos]

So, I should ignore my years (decades) of exposure to the team and NBA ball and buy into your Cleveland perspective? No thanks.

You don't have to ignore anything. I am giving you a different perspective that I think is less bias than the "confident yet humble", rah-rah mentality. I think the Warriors are going to be fantastic and one of the all time great teams, but your view that everybody is going to love them as well has a tinge of delusion to it. This past Finals media coverage flipped and started pegging them as the bad guys instead of the golden boys they had been before. Why would adding Kevin Durant make that momentum shift?

Again, I'm not talking about whether they are actually lovable, humble etc, I'm talking about the narrative and general fan perception.

[JDR720]

I love it and will watch every game sans the blowouts.

so what you're saying is you won't watch any warriors games?

Spoiler:

0-82 record here they come!!

[DiscoLives4ever]

Whether this is good or bad business will depend on how beatable the Warriors end up being. If they click right away and steamroll their way to 65-70 wins (with most losses coming from rest) and reach the Finals without much of a challenge, then we will see interest start to dip until the team breaks up.

If they take a month or two to get into sync, only win 60-ish games, and have a couple series in the west go 6-7 games then it will be good for business because fans will feel like there is a chance to beat them and be the hero team.

Most likely is somewhere in between: the Dubs will lose enough that fans of other teams will think there is a path to building a GS-beater, but we won't see many/any actually come close.

[oceanlife]

This team has holes. A lot of the bellyaching is silly. we saw LeBron bully the dubs physically, Durant doesn't solve that. Plus we lost Bogut who was a bigger factor than given credit for, and bench strength.

Stop whining.

I agree with you, and it's also an interesting parallel to what OKC went through with James Harden half a decade ago. The Warriors and Thunder both had a similar decision as to whether they should give up their interior defense to keep (or acquire) another superstar perimeter player when they already had enough offensive firepower.

The Thunder were so worried about their inside presence that they let go of a very good young player in Harden for what amounted to Kendrick Perkins. They figured Durant and Westbrook could handle any offensive scoring load but they just didn't want to be beaten in the post. We know know how that played out.

Golden State also knew how much Bogut meant to them defensively and they knew they already had enough perimeter scoring. But unlike the Thunder, they took a not so insignificant risk in sacrificing their interior defense to add that additional superstar. It's crazy to think of adding a top 3 players as risky, but any significant change to a team as successful as the Warriors is a risk.

For example: Durant is only a 38% three point shooter as opposed to Curry who regularly connects at 45%. It could be argued that every three pointer Durant takes away from Curry next season will cost the Warriors .21 points per possession. Then there are potential chemistry issues, potential defensive issues, and potential injury issues with Durant's foot.

Personally, I think this years Warriors will shape up to be one of the most amazing teams to play in the past 20 years. I'm also aware though that many super teams from the 1999 Rockets to the 2004 Lakers to the 2011 Heat to the 2012 Lakers all had problems integrating their (on paper) unbeatable teams. In other words, don't cancel your NBA Pass subscriptions just yet, it's going to be an interesting year.

[JohnnyNightrain]

I don't know if I agree with this. I have a lot of friends who are on the fence about liking and watching the NBA and my feeling from them is they lost general interest when Durant signed with GS.

That is purely anecdotal. It would be absurd to think that the quantitative data will say otherwise at the end of the season. The exact same thing happened this year. The debate wasn't about whether the Warriors would beat Cleveland, it was about are they the best team of all-time, better than the 72-win Bulls. To illustrate my point... this year's finals were the most-watched since the Jordan days and, of course, the ratings were high during the Heat's "big three" run. People absolutely love watching seemingly unbeatable teams.

[NyCeEvO]

So, I should ignore my years (decades) of exposure to the team and NBA ball and buy into your Cleveland perspective? No thanks.

You don't have to ignore anything. I am giving you a different perspective that I think is less bias than the "confident yet humble", rah-rah mentality. I think the Warriors are going to be fantastic and one of the all time great teams, but your view that everybody is going to love them as well has a tinge of delusion to it. This past Finals media coverage flipped and started pegging them as the bad guys instead of the golden boys they had been before. Why would adding Kevin Durant make that momentum shift?

Again, I'm not talking about whether they are actually lovable, humble etc, I'm talking about the narrative and general fan perception.

I wanted the Warriors to win in 2015. At the time, I did view them as confident but humble.

However, this past season changed the narrative for me. In the quest to prove those who questioned the merit of their 2015 championship, they changed into a cocky group IMO. Many believed that the Warriors' on-court success was further enhanced by the use of moving screens. Things didn't change for me in the postseason as I felt Draymond got away with several unsportsmanlike actions and even Klay who rarely critiques other players talked about LBJ "getting his feelings hurt".

With that said, I still respect and appreciate the Warriors. I like Curry as a person. I'm still left speechless by the shooting and dribbling exhibition he puts on along with Klay hitting supernova hotness levels from 3. Draymond is a fantastic man-to-man and weakside defender. I love his versatility on the offensive end as well.

I can appreciate and respect their greatness while disapproving of their attitude as well as the KD's decision to make the core of one of the ATG teams even better.

I do think more people will end up watching the NBA as a result but I don't think it's because they like the Warriors. People like underdogs and hate villains. Just like the Heat, people will want to see the Warriors fail.

[improper]

He says this because he had a hall of fame player ascend to greatness and win a championship for him over the Heat. If that had never happened he wouldn't feel this way. No one in the East or West (even Lebron) is beating the Warriors. What they did is terrible for the NBA and guarantees that there will be a lockout next summer.

I really don't get this logic that no one can beat the Warriors. There's no such thing as a paper champ. What if Durant's foot injuries pop up again? What if there's discord in the locker room because certain players aren't getting touches any more? What if Curry hurts his ankle again? What if Durant just doesn't fit as well as anticipated? What if their lack of depth comes back to bite them over the grind of another long season? There are just so many variables and injuries to account for that crowing Golden State the champs in July is absurd.

People said the same thing about the Heat when they came together in year one. They ended up going 2-2 in the Finals, and lost in year one to a team with one star. And that Heat team had prime LeBron, who was better than either Curry or Durant right now, and prime Wade, who was arguably better than Curry and Durant right now. Not to mention that LeBron and Wade when the Heat came together were both elite defenders and athletes, unlike Curry who is hot garbage on defense and Durant who is mostly mediocre.

The Warriors will be good, to be sure, but crowning them champs in July is moronic.

[Edrees]

It's good for basketball because the warriors are a 3 point shooting team. Casual fans will find this more entertaining than a slower pace. When the team on top plays that way it's good for the NBA's popularity. Being good for the product is a different beast, but it's definitely good for the popularity as cuban said.