The Golden State Warriors won their 4th NBA title in the last seven years a week ago. Led by their talisman Stephen Curry, the Dubs outclassed the red-hot Boston Celtics and beat the reigning Eastern Conference champions in six games.
But before the 2021-22 season started, the Warriors were nowhere to be seen in the title contention. Given the lack of a number of moves they had made and that Klay Thompson was still not back, it was understandable why critics were counting them out.
It seems like their head coach, Steve Kerr, also counted out the team back then. In a recent press conference, Warriors’ general manager Bob Myers revealed that Kerr was unsure whether the roster he had at his disposal was enough for a title push right before the playoffs.
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“Steve said to me at one point before the playoffs. He goes, ‘I don’t think this is a championship team. We know what a championship team is. I don’t know if this is a championship team.’ So we were laughing about that like, ‘What do we know?'”
The Warriors saw some major improvements among their team this season. While Jordan Poole did not impress much last season, he unexpectedly popped off during the second half of the season and was a candidate for the Most Improved Player award as well.
Andrew Wiggins, meanwhile, became a potent two-way player and, in the Finals, effectively guarded the Celtics’ best players, Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown. Some of these surprising improvements to a player like Poole and Wiggins certainly changed the dynamic of the Warriors.
While the last two championships that the Warriors won were centered around their overly dominant offense boasting the likes of Klay Thompson, Stephen Curry, and Kevin Durant, the Dubs’ firepower was nowhere near at that level in this title run. This meant that coach Steve Kerr had a real test to figure out how the Warriors will be successful. Defense was the answer.
With Draymond Green and now a player like Wiggins in their ranks, the Dubs suffocated their opponents. The games were surely not the prettiest to watch, but ultimately the Dubs got it done.
Steve Kerr might have won four titles as a coach, but this fourth one might have taken the cake for the former Bulls’ guard.
