The Golden State Warriors are the best team on the planet after winning the 2022 NBA Finals against the Boston Celtics. Following a two-year playoff drought, the Dubs returned to the postseason and showed that they aren’t done yet, going all the way to the Finals and winning the championship once again.
Stephen Curry, Klay Thompson, Draymond Green, and co. were on a mission, and they didn’t stop until achieving their goal. After an entertaining offseason that saw many players leave the Warriors, many think they are weaker than last season, but the truth is that the Warriors are ready to defend their title, and it’ll be hard for the rest to dethrone them.
Less than one month before the start of the 2022-23 NBA season, the predictions are starting to come, and one of them was really weird. Using a combination of my SCHOENE player projections for box score stats as well as three-year, luck-adjusted Regularized Adjusted Four Factors (RAPM) from NBAshotcharts.com, Kevin Pelton of ESPN shared the win projection for every team this season. The Warriors were ranked 8th, with a win average of 41.9.
The two years Golden State spent in the lottery between losing in the 2019 NBA Finals and reclaiming the title in June have thrown this and many other stats-based projections off the scent of their true talent. Last year’s FiveThirtyEight projections opened with the Warriors at 37 wins on average, and even after Golden State reached the Finals, the Dubs were still listed as huge underdogs to the Celtics. A full season of contention helps the Warriors’ ratings, naturally, but losing Otto Porter Jr. and RAPM superstar Gary Payton II works against them. Despite those losses, I expect Golden State to outperform this projection and be back near the top of the West.
As expected, Dubs Nation wasn’t happy at all with this, and many fans decided to call out ESPN for disrespecting them with such a low prediction.
Warriors Fans Roast ESPN For Their Prediction About The Dubs
Even though some knew that this wasn’t a prediction made by an analyst, but a combination of systems, fans still were upset with this. After Warriors Nation shared a post criticizing the prediction, many other fans joined.
Another year of proving ESPN wrong
8th SEED ? Fresh offa chip ohh wow
From champs to play in?
At this point, they should post who making these predictions so the world knows who the s are
Some clowns also thought Miami was a play-in team
we gotta be underdogs again??? The disrespect is crazy say less then, we just keeping receipts now ♂️
They think the warriors are gona move like the lakers
They hating on us
i feel like they would be in the 5th or 6th seed
I really like this so when we win they just look dumb #warriors in 6
They love being wrong.
41 wins hhahahaha
This sh*t gotta be fake no way
Whatever system they’re using isn’t working
It’s ESPN. What do you expect??
Dude at this point warriors can 10-peat and they’ll still have them not making the playoffs
If last season taught us something was that the Dubs get fueled whenever somebody doubts them. Their fans are taking it personally against ESPN and now are rooting to see their players demolish the competition on the way to their 5th title of the modern era. Stephen Curry is always paying attention to this, and he’ll be keen to prove doubters wrong once again.
