Whether or not one of the Golden State Warriors teams would make The Ringer’s list of top five teams of the decade wasn’t the question so much as how many of them would be listed.
Well, to allow for more variety, Zach Kram and The Ringer limited it to just one Golden State rendition.
“Had this list allowed for multiple Warriors teams, they might have placed three or four in the top five for the decade,” Kram wrote.
Unsurprisingly, it was the 2016-17 Warriors team that topped the list.
In Kevin Durant’s first season in Golden State, the Warriors demolished competition, winning 67 regular season games and then going 16-1 in the postseason.
Durant, Steph Curry and Klay Thompson all averaged at least 22 points per game. Draymond Green was an All-Star, and Andre Iguodala continued to be a high-level contributor.
Though the roster wasn’t as deep as the year prior, the Warriors still had other role players including Shaun Livingston, Zaza Pachulia, Ian Clark and David West.
Kram wrote:
“What happens when a team wins a record number of regular-season games and then, thanks in large part to an unprecedented salary cap spike, replaces Harrison Barnes with the best individual scorer in the league? It produces arguably the greatest single season in NBA history.”
If Kram had listed multiple Warriors teams, the 2017-18 version certainly would’ve been on as well, seeing as that same year’s Houston Rockets team that lost to the Warriors in the Western Conference Finals made the list at No. 5.
Though the 73-win 2015-16 Warriors team didn’t win the championship, it has a case as one of the best teams of the decade. The first championship year of 2014-15 would have also had consideration.
But this first year with Kevin Durant was the easy decision.
Behind the Warriors was the 2012-13 Miami Heat, 2013-14 San Antonio Spurs, 2015-16 Cleveland Cavaliers and the Rockets.
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