Ladies and gentlemen, we are witnessing history this year. The Golden State Warriors have started out this season at 23-0, and are playing so well on both ends of the floor that it bears asking the question: will they ever lose?
Of course they will eventually, but the sheer fact that they haven’t yet is mind-boggling. This team could well be on its way to a place among the NBA greats, so let’s see just how well they measure up to the NBA’s best teams of all time and see if they can keep this streak going.
It’s difficult to compare apples to apples with this year’s Warriors team and previous years’ NBA greats. The 1995-1996 Chicago Bulls come to mind as the most compelling comparison, along with the 1985-1986 Boston Celtics and the 1986-1987 Los Angeles Lakers. The 1996-1997 edition of the Bulls was also an incredible team, and the one thing these teams all have in common is they were champions that season. However, the Bulls in the 90s played in a different era of basketball as the Lakers and Celtics of the 80s, and all of those teams played in a different era as the Warriors do today.
None of those teams would have thrived to the extent they did if they played in a different time. The Warriors are no different, as the physical nature of years past would not suit this team well. However, comparatively speaking, what Golden State is doing today ranks high among the list of greatest accomplishments in NBA history.
They are the league’s highest-scoring offense, they shoot the best field-goal percentage, two-point field goal percentage and three-point percentage, have the most assists per game, and hold their opponents to the a league-worst field goal percentage.
While their overall defense hasn’t played as well as last season, one factor in that statistic is that so far, the Warriors have often been so far ahead in the first three quarters of a game that the second and third units play a majority of the fourth quarter.
This skews the overall numbers in a negative way, but watching this team play shows that they can more than handle their own defensively. Throw in a versatile and deep bench and you find yourself with a team that never stops coming at you for 48 full minutes.
Depth and versatility is important, of course, but what matters most in today’s NBA is how good your best player is. Well, the Warriors have the best of the best. Last year’s NBA MVP, Stephen Curry, just so happens to be playing at a superhuman level this year.
He can score wherever and whenever he wants, and leads the league in scoring while accumulating a 35 PER, which is just insane. Comparatively, Michael Jordan’s highest PERs were before the 1992 season (31.7), and he didn’t break 30 again in the final five championship seasons for the Bulls. Magic Johnson in 1986-1987 had a PER of 27, and Larry Bird in 1985-1986 had a PER of 25.6.
Many will discount this Warriors team for playing a “weak” schedule in a “watered-down” NBA. I say that those sentiments are complete nonsense. What we are witnessing is nothing short of unbelievable, and Golden State should be commended for its play regardless of how the season ends. This team is doing all this despite, oh yeah, having their HEAD COACH on the sideline! Steve Kerr, a championship member of those Bulls teams in the late 1990s, will hopefully re-join the team, and that could even propel the Warriors to greater heights.
The greatest feats that the best teams in NBA history pulled off were knowing that they had a target on their backs and winning it all anyway.
As the reigning champions, Golden State knew that going into this season. The fact that they show up every night looking like the hunter instead of the hunted shows us all just how serious they are to proving last year was no fluke.
A hungry champion is a force to be reckoned with, and it’s time that the doubters woke up and realized that this Warriors team is exactly that, and what we are witnessing is a sight to behold. We may never see anything like this again.