The Warriors are showing us the new NBA, and the Celtics better be taking notes

[guava_wrench]

The most important thing to do is maximize your talent. Trying to copy a team that has different kinds of players than you is futile. General principles are fine, but are teams actually winning titles by copying the play of other teams?

There is a tendency to think that when a team wins, it means others should copy their approach. But the main reason teams win is that they have elite players and a system that maximizes their effectiveness.

Look at the Spurs. They have won titles as a slow-paced half-court team and as a fast-paced pushing the action team.

Doing the same as another team but worse doesn't seem to me like the key to a title.

[Surferdad]

For a litle while after they won, it was trendy to think that the 2004 Pistons were the new model:  Lots of above-average players, an all-star or two and DEPTH.  Never caught on.

[86MaxwellSmart]

Still SMH that "Coach of the Year" Kerr had Curry on the floor, Up 30+ points with 7 minutes left in the game.....Has he never seen JR Smith in action--?

[GreenWarrior]

cool! all we need is steph curry and klay Thompson and we'll be the warriors.... cool...

[Neurotic Guy]

TP to the  OP -- really good post.  The title caused me to think this might be one of those "we are so far away" threads.   But the analysis was a great read.  Thanks.

[spikelovetheCelts]

I think if Golden State never became this good, Cleveland might have a title by now. I understand that's a useless hypothetical, but in general, Cleveland's team construction is fine. You can hide Irving and Love's defensive deficiencies against most teams, just not the Warriors. I'd say not even San Antonio can abuse those two like Golden State can.

The thunder and Spurs would win. The clips would go 7.
Cavs are not a team. GSW has grown together. Irving and Love have just found adversity in this series. GSW was in awe in the first few games last year. They are not any more. They are playing great and deserver the praise.

[PaulP34]

I thought there were gonna be good matchups in this series. I was really excited to see Lebron working Green, Irvin and Stephen going head to head and I thought Love was gonna be a good matchup defending Thompson on the perimeter. The Warriors are exposing every flaw the Cavs got. Cleveland has no answer and I'm beginning to think that the Celtics are almost a mirror image team n all we need is a Thompson and Green and we could be title contenders. We are really not that far away. Two players

[Donoghus]

My two biggest takeaways from this series so far is 1) that CLE's defensive strategy is absolute crap; clogging up the perimeter is just opening everything up underneath for GSW.  Warriors are a pretty solid passing team to begin with (when they're not getting lazy) and they're finding the open looks through the seams.  It's killing CLE & Lue doesn't seem to have a clue how to combat it. 

The 2nd being that CLE's bench is being exposed big time and GSW has a ridiculous edge when it comes to depth.  CLE's bench is giving them nothing on both ends of the floor. 

First two games have been an absolute basketball clinic by Golden State on exposing & capitalizing on a team's weaknesses & inability to adapt.

That being said, a series really isn't a series until the home team loses a game but I don't see any way in heck that CLE wins 4 of the next 5 games. 

[LarBrd33]

Bottom line is you aren't replicating golden states success without curry and klay. The same way you can't replicate the mid 90s Bulls success without Jordan and pippen. And you aren't replicating the early 00 lakers success without Kobe and shaq.  And you aren't replicating the Miami heat's success without Lebron, wade and bosh.  And you aren't replicating the 80s Celtics success without bird and Mchale.  And you aren't replicating the show times lakers success without magic and Kareem, you aren't replicating the Spurs success without Duncan.

Superstars gonna superstar.  The most superstary team is winning right now.  There's little to be learned from it.   If you are the wolves you can hope towns develops into a superstar and try to build around his talents.  If you are Philly you can hope Ben Simmons and/or Embiid is the next big thing.  Everyone else can pray Kevin Durant chooses them and try to build a champion around him - but nobody is simply copying golden states style and philosophy to win.   Step 1:  acquire a legendary player. 

[GC003332]

TP to the OP , quality stuff man.

[PaulP34]

Well let's hope we find that legendary player in the next few years via draft. I know Danny likes to find hidden talent from other teams bench. If that's how we find the next great player so be it. I just hope we strike gold in the next few drafts. #3-016, 017 swap, 018 unprotected and the Memphis 019. Even if we use them picks in a trade to grab young talent that's gone unrecognised. I just hope we strike gold in next years draft. I'm not impatient. I don't expect a championship next year but the year after that would be nice.

[footey]

Bottom line is you aren't replicating golden states success without curry and klay. The same way you can't replicate the mid 90s Bulls success without Jordan and pippen. And you aren't replicating the early 00 lakers success without Kobe and shaq.  And you aren't replicating the Miami heat's success without Lebron, wade and bosh.  And you aren't replicating the 80s Celtics success without bird and Mchale.  And you aren't replicating the show times lakers success without magic and Kareem, you aren't replicating the Spurs success without Duncan.

Superstars gonna superstar.  The most superstary team is winning right now.  There's little to be learned from it.   If you are the wolves you can hope towns develops into a superstar and try to build around his talents.  If you are Philly you can hope Ben Simmons and/or Embiid is the next big thing.  Everyone else can pray Kevin Durant chooses them and try to build a champion around him - but nobody is simply copying golden states style and philosophy to win.   Step 1:  acquire a legendary player.

While there is some truth to this point, that you have to utilize the talents of what you have, it misses the bigger point of the OP: The game is changing, based on how GS plays ball. They have made it clear that guys with practice can hit 30 foot shots almost as consistently as 24 foot shots. The repercussions of this are revolutionary to the game of basketball, requiring defenses to be able to switch at a far more frequent rate than before.

I know you are stuck in the mind set that Philly drafted the best player available each time they selected in the draft. But their talent meter may prove to be anachronistic, especially with the drafting of Okafor over Porzingis (this will only become clearer in the next two years, in my estimation, when Zinger takes over from Anthony as the man in NYC).  I will never fault them for drafting Embiid, who, if healthy, has the athleticism to adapt and thrive in the new NBA. 

[Ilikesports17]

Bottom line is you aren't replicating golden states success without curry and klay. The same way you can't replicate the mid 90s Bulls success without Jordan and pippen. And you aren't replicating the early 00 lakers success without Kobe and shaq.  And you aren't replicating the Miami heat's success without Lebron, wade and bosh.  And you aren't replicating the 80s Celtics success without bird and Mchale.  And you aren't replicating the show times lakers success without magic and Kareem, you aren't replicating the Spurs success without Duncan.

Superstars gonna superstar.  The most superstary team is winning right now.  There's little to be learned from it.   If you are the wolves you can hope towns develops into a superstar and try to build around his talents.  If you are Philly you can hope Ben Simmons and/or Embiid is the next big thing.  Everyone else can pray Kevin Durant chooses them and try to build a champion around him - but nobody is simply copying golden states style and philosophy to win.   Step 1:  acquire a legendary player.

While there is some truth to this point, that you have to utilize the talents of what you have, it misses the bigger point of the OP: The game is changing, based on how GS plays ball. They have made it clear that guys with practice can hit 30 foot shots almost as consistently as 24 foot shots. The repercussions of this are revolutionary to the game of basketball, requiring defenses to be able to switch at a far more frequent rate than before.

I know you are stuck in the mind set that Philly drafted the best player available each time they selected in the draft. But their talent meter may prove to be anachronistic, especially with the drafting of Okafor over Porzingis (this will only become clearer in the next two years, in my estimation, when Zinger takes over from Anthony as the man in NYC).  I will never fault them for drafting Embiid, who, if healthy, has the athleticism to adapt and thrive in the new NBA.

Okafor at 3 was a no-brainer.

[mctyson]

Bradley isn't great on switches, but he's so good at getting around picks that it doesn't really matter

Yep, he is probably the best pick-n-roll defender in the league.

[SHAQATTACK]

Curry is as rare as Bron, MJ or Kobe ......unique special players .   

I don't look to see another Curry anytime soon.    Not even his brother comes close.

It maybe be his great great grandson or never

You can never tell what incredible skill the next great comes along with.