Before Stephen Curry was named the Golden State Warriors’ first Most Valuable Player in 55 years…
Before the miracle 20-point fourth quarter comeback against the New Orleans Pelicans, which came within a point of the most dramatic in playoff history…
Before Draymond Green earned more first place votes for Defensive Player of the Year than anyone else in the NBA the same week…
Before Golden State claimed the best home record in the league and the second best in NBA history, the best overall record for 2014-15 and led the league in both offensive and defensive efficiency…
Before the Warriors made the playoffs in 2013, for the second time in 19 years, and then did it two more times in a row…
Way back then was a time for experts to predict Golden State would do what they’d done for decades: suck.
Sports Illustrated decided it’s “a safe bet that… [the] Warriors aren’t going to make the playoffs.” After then coach Mark Jackson and new GM Bob Myers played against prisoners at San Quentin, Bleacher Report added this: “The Warriors and their supporters need to believe there’s something better out there than season after season of lottery picks… just like the inmates have to believe there’s a reason to be optimistic about the future. And if you think it’s a stretch to compare prison inmates to Warriors fans, you obviously haven’t been around the Bay Area for the last 20 years.”
But not everybody was predicting futility. The Weekly saw something that would lead not just to the playoffs but to perennial contention. A new culture.
“Current standards are insufficient to get the national and international reputation our organization needs to be one of the top in professional sports,” Warriors Vice President Jim Weyermann told the Weekly in 2012. “That’s our goal. This whole experiment is a direct testament of understanding that to be in the elite, you have to be best in everything, from top to bottom. Not easy to do coming from the starting place we were coming from.”
Then the Ws made the playoffs and stunned the Denver Nuggets and almost clipped the heavily favored Spurs. Two years later the Warriors are the number one seed in the playoffs and into the second round. You don’t have to be an NBA historian to know what’s happening in Northern California is unprecedented. But if you are a true Warrior fan you should understand how they went from a mess to blessed. The five major steps:
1. Joe Lacob-Peter Gruber group purchase of the team.
Lacob’s real introduction to Warriors fans got ugly, fast. So many booed him on a night honoring Chris Mullin that fellow Warriors legend Rick Barry said, “Seriously. C’mon people.” His new ownership group – which bought the team for $480 million in 2010 – had famously traded explosive leading scorer Monta Ellis for an injured Andrew Bogut (see #3). What was less apparent: How deeply they were changing the DNA of the team. Lacob was saying things like “Transparency is something we view as a hallmark” and “There’s more than one way to do things.” Those ways included acquiring a farm team, The Santa Cruz Warriors, and new Moneyball-style analytics to go deeper into player effectiveness. Myers said this early on: “He comes from a venture world where a 23-year-old has the best idea in the room so it’s not a caste system. Our company embraces new thoughts and ideas, not old-time hierarchy.”
2. The Myers hire.
The GM is known for parlaying his background as a former player at UCLA and high-powered agent into shrewdly evaluating talent. But beyond the draft picks (see #4), the complicated trades for studs like Andre Iguodala and the refusal to include Klay Thompson in any trade for Kevin Love, he reveals a knack for finding key role players like clutch reserves Leandro Barbosa, Marreese Speights and Shaun Livingston. And talent is only a piece of the puzzle: He wants upstanding guys. He wants hard-workers. “When we draft or sign a player,” he says, “we’re asking, ‘Do they have room for growth; are they competitive; do they care about the craft?’” The result speak for themselves, and through Golden State’s league-best 27.4 assists. Like Curry said at his MVP press conference coronation, “There’s a reason my man Bob Myers has a trophy for NBA Executive of the Year. He’s made all the right decisions.”
3. Ellis trade for Bogut.
The old Warriors won – or more often lost – with exciting guard play, outside shooting, and occasional iffy character. (Sorry, Latrell Sprewell and Stephen Jackson.) The new Warriors, by contrast, win with depth, defense, rebounding and character. That started with this trade, which brought in one of the premier defenders in the league – note Bogut’s nearly season-long place above the defensive efficiency rankings – and cleared the way for the best shooter in the world to develop into an MVP. Curry’s unprecedented .33-second shot triggered comebacks from deficits of 26 (to the Boston Celtics), 20 (to the Dallas Mavericks) and then 20 versus the Pelicans, but his leadership means as much to Golden State. “We very much believe in each other and the process and the team,” Kerr says. “Steph embodies that, and makes it easy to buy into the fact that we can achieve great things together.”
4. The Warriors 2013 Draft.
First round pick Harrison Barnes has contributed from the get-go, starting as a rookie and returning to the starting lineup in year three. Third rounder Festus Ezeli has come on to contribute big minutes against sizeable teams like Memphis. But it’s second rounder Draymond Green who has done nothing but wow everyone outside his own locker room by seizing the opportunity created by a David Lee preseason injury to transform into the most feared 6’7” “big” man in the league and Golden State’s vocal and emotional leader. Says Myers of the draft pick: “We saw a winning player. And we believe winning is a skill.”
5. Signing Steve Kerr.
Kerr learned every lesson consensus best-coach-in-the-league Spurs coach Greg Popovich taught him playing for two world titles, and he built those upon a Phil Jackson-forged foundation. After five championships as a player, Kerr knows the importance of humility, resilience, humor, quality assistants, communication and prioritizing things besides basketball. His management of minutes mean the Warriors have the healthiest roster and the freshest legs. Kerr’s ability to scheme on the level with his old coaches marks the team’s biggest playoff improvement. His steadying influence was apparent immediately after Tuesday’s Memphis loss, which pushes Golden State back toward its old underdog role. “It’s been a dream season,” he said. “Things have fallen into place over and over again. It’s not always going to work that way. When you get outplayed by a good team, you’re gonna lose at home or on the road, and you move on.”