How the Warriors became a great team: 12 easy steps

Posted on January 20, 2017 by Steinmetz

If you ever decide to write a book about the Warriors, but you want to start AFTER their turnaround began, feel free to use this as a guide. It’s not quite up to date — as it doesn’t include the acquisition of Kevin Durant — but it’s got what I think are the 12 most important times/moments/decisions that made the Warriors what they are today.

Like I said in my earlier post about the Warriors’ past and how it was nothing like the present, maybe I’ll start sharing some of my notes for — as Bob Dylan would say — a “book that nobody will write.”

No doubt about it, you’ve got to start with the drafting of Stephen Curry in 2009. Below photo will be translation of this draft, which might help.

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  1. Curry drafted — June ’09
  2. Lacob buys team — Nov. ’10
  3. Curry’s early adversity (ankle)
  4. Lacob missteps (2010-2012)
  5. Monta Ellis traded — March 2012
  6. Tanking, leading to draft of 2012 (Lacob booing March 2012)
  7. The 2012 draft
  8. Mark Jackson/Mike Malone
  9. Jerry West/Bob Myers
  10. Curry extension
  11. Iguodala — July 2013
  12. Kerr — May 2014, Livingston, Barbosa, Speights
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The Warriors weren’t always this good; remember Curry was drafted by team relying on Monta Ellis and Corey Maggette

Posted on January 20, 2017 by Steinmetz

Last year, as the Warriors were on their way to what would become an NBA-best 73-9 regular season, their fanbase was growing by leaps and bounds. There were lots of … “novice” Warriors’ fans should we say — though we’re not here to criticize.

Somehow, on the heels of the 2015 NBA Championship, the Warriors put together an astonishing an unmatched regular season, one that started with 24 consecutive wins. Stephen Curry, the reigning MVP, somehow found a way to be better than he had in 2015, and won his second MVP, this one the first unanimous one in league history.

A disappointing NBA Finals loss to Cleveland was parlayed into the acquisition of free-agent Kevin Durant, ensuring the Golden State bandwagon — a very diverse group — was going to keep picking up passengers and rolling along.

Last year, I wrote about Warriors’ fans and how you can break them into four different types.

I’ve been around the Warriors now for more than 25 years and sometimes I feel like two groups of fans — the “new and arrogant” and the “well-meaning but naive” — sometimes needs to remember this team’s past and how it wasn’t always like this. Not even close. Then I realize a lot of these fans don’t even know about the Warriors’ past. They don’t know the 12 straight seasons of missing the postseason; the hope Larry Hughes once brought; the draft lottery and how it became this franchise’s friend; the constant coaching carousel, and so much more.

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‘Warriors WrapUp’: 2nd-half blitz finishes OKC, 121-100; Durant’s efficiency off charts; Westbrook all over map; Kanter a puzzle for McGee; West injured, out two weeks minimum

Posted on January 18, 2017 by Steinmetz

Kevin Durant played a phenomenal game on Wednesday night, and the Warriors played a phenomenal quarter. That parlay was good enough for the Warriors as they ran away from the Oklahoma City Thunder, 121-100, at Oracle Arena.

Durant finished with a season-high 40 points on 13-for-16 shooting against his former team. But he was all too happy to throw in 12 rebounds and four assists and three blocks. The Warriors were brilliant in the third quarter, turning a tie game into a 15-point advantage heading into the fourth.

Link to “Warriors WrapUp,” the postgame show on 95.7-FM The Game. That link has the sound from what OKC’s Russell Westbrook said postgame …

Here are some topics we discussed:

–The Warriors shot the ball extremely well in the first half (22-for-39 for 56.4 percent), but they went into the locker room tied 56-56. The reason? It was that old standby: turnovers. Golden State committed 13 turnovers in the first half, which led to 12 points. Now, 12 points might not sound that bad, and it’s not, really, but the bigger issue is those are still possessions where you lose possible shot attempts. Had OKC not been turning it over also — it had 11 first-half turnovers, leading to 17 points — the Thunder might have been up at the half.

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