When we last left off, the Golden State Warriors were riding high.
Golden State captured two back-to-back NBA Finals wins with the help of Stephen Curry, Klay Thompson, and Kevin Durant. Two consecutive Finals MVPs went to Durant, erasing the stink of a lost 73-9 season and a blown 3-1 lead to the Cleveland Cavaliers in 2016.
The ceiling had yet to be reached–or so we thought. Curry, Durant, and Thompson were still in their prime, and Golden State looked poised to make another deep playoff run ending in another NBA Finals victory.
Enter the 2018 offseason.
To say the Toronto Raptors put an end to the Golden State Warriors dynasty isn’t…exactly true. Toronto was merely a stop-gap between Golden State and a few years of futility before, finally, the Warriors reached another NBA Finals in 2022.
The road to 2018 wasn’t easy for Toronto. Decades of futility and wasted talent with the likes of T-Mac and Vince Carter led to some truly awful years in the late 2000s and early 2010s. The Raptors couldn’t put it together. Kyle Lowry and DeMar DeRozan could only do so much in the Eastern Conference. Ultimately, Toronto became rebranded as “LeBronto” because of their early playoff exits to a LeBron James-led Cavaliers squad.
Entering the 2018 offseason, rumors were swirling about Kawhi Leonard wanting to leave the San Antonio Spurs. Leonard was allegedly disgruntled over the way the Spurs front office treated a nagging quad injury, which led to the embattled star rehabbing away from the team.
Not a good look, especially if you’ve helped a team stay relevant after their core retired. It can be interpreted in one of two ways: Leonard was tired of being dismissed over the severity of his injury, or he was quitting on the team.
Leonard addressed the latter and said that these claims weren’t true. Looking at the past few seasons, Leonard’s health has been the subject of many a conversation about the league’s injury history.
Regardless, Leonard was looking for a new start. San Antonio shipped him and Danny Green to the Great White North in exchage for Derozan, a top-20 protected pick, and Jakob Poetl.
To Raptors faithful, this one hurt. Derozan was an unheralded and often underrated player who was a solid contributor in Toronto.
The hurt, however, was short-lived. We’ll get to that one later.
It looked like Golden State was NBA Finals-bound; after two consecutive chips, who could blame anybody who thought that?
It’s not like the Warriors were cursed with a post-finals hangover in 2018. The Durant-Curry-led squad boasted a league-high 49% team shooting percentage for the whole year and came in third when it came to three-point percentage. While their defense was middle of the road, ranking 16th in PPG allowed, Steve Kerr’s offense was just too damn good to expose their defensive shortcomings.
Plus, Golden State acquired DeMarcus “Boogie” Cousins that same offseason. The concerns that they’d be bullied in the paint were no longer relevant.
The Warriors looked to become the first three-peat champions since Kobe Bryant & Shaquille O’Neal’s Lakers in the early 2000s. It was hard to argue against Golden State winning a third NBA Finals in as many years. When the season began in October, Curry said a three-peat was “attainable.” The general attitude in the Warriors’ locker room wasn’t one of arrogance, but self-belief.
Golden State was that good.
By this time, the Warriors were drawing the ire of NBA fans who were desperate for league parity. For four straight years, Golden State and the Cavaliers had done battle in the NBA Finals. Three of those four contests had gone to the Warriors, two of which came after Durant’s signing.
It’s not safe to say that Golden State was the new “bad boy” of the league, but Draymond Green certainly didn’t help their reputation. Green’s a dirty player. He always has been, always will be. The Warriors were two years removed from signing one of the greatest forwards in basketball in Durant. Combine this with Green’s antics, and Golden State quickly became the new antagonistic face of the NBA.
People were quick to jump on the 3-1 bandwagon in retaliation. Youtube was notorious for comments like “Don’t forget the Warriors blew a 3-1 lead”, even on videos that had nothing to do with basketball. What made things worse was that fans and media alike speculated that Durant left the Thunder to form a super team. They surmised that Golden State signed him to get revenge on LeBron for the 3-1 fiasco.
In short, many thought both sides were playing petty. The reality is that’s just how basketball works. You play to win the game by any legal–or illegal–means necessary.
In baseball, you have the Los Angeles Dodgers who’ve acquired gobs of big-name talent because of their massive bankroll. Shohei Ohtani, Freddie Freeman, Blake Snell–the list goes on. Teams like the Warriors and Dodgers don’t just “steal” talent from the league for the sake of stealing.
Dynamic teams like Golden State and Los Angeles want to beat the competition, which just so happens to be the best in the world.
Next on our breakdown of Golden State’s deteriorating dynasty, the 2019 NBA Finals and how injuries and departures kept the Warriors from regaining championship momentum.
It’s been a fun look back for me; I hope it’s been the same for you all.
If you enjoyed this article, subscribe to our newsletter here. Check out Stadium Rant Original shows on our Youtube channel and subscribe! Give our socials Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, TikTok a follow for more great content!
