Leave it to Andrew Bogut to offer up the sobering truth for the Golden State Warriors this season. Amidst raised expectations, heavy media coverage, and an increasingly talented and healthy roster, perhaps some have forgotten that the Warriors are still a team needing to prove itself as more than a one-year wonder.
The often blunt Australian center highlighted that fact Friday before the team took off for China, in what looks to be yet another enormous marketing opportunity for a team that is quickly becoming one of the most watched and well liked units in the league.
Bogut told Bay Area News Group beat reporter Marcus Thompson that the Warriors are team with something to prove, not one basking in all the extra limelight.
“Everyone is blowing us up,” Bogut said before the team took off to China. “But we’ve only had one good year the last five or six. We still have a lot to prove. … We’re not going sprinkle some dust on the roster and sweep everybody in the playoffs and win a championship. There’s a process, and it takes a lot of hard work and commitment.”
As much as all of us expect from this roster in the coming season, Bogut’s probably right. The hype surrounding the Warriors has gotten to the point where some have now questioned whether the Warriors themselves are now the league’s most overrated team, coming off a season in which they finished just 6th in the Western Conference.
Their performance through three preseason games hasn’t helped to distill that idea, either. It’s easily argued that preseason performances aren’t indicative of much other than how much, but even the Warriors looked frustrated with their most recent performance against the Utah Jazz.
Last year, the Warriors benefited from playing a banged up and possibly overrated Denver Nuggets squad in the first round. They went on to pull the upset in the series, but that may have said as much about the Nuggets as it did the Warriors.
Golden State’s performance against the San Antonio Spurs in the Western Semi-Finals was also encouraging, but they also struggled when it mattered most, twice blowing large leads in San Antonio and losing two out of three at Oracle Arena.
There are rightfully high expectations for the Warriors this season. Bogut is far removed from version of himself that struggled to get up and down the court last season. Stephen Curry‘s ankles haven’t showed the same proclivity to bend with ease.
Festus Ezeli is expected to be out until at least December and Harrison Barnes is mending a foot he injured against the Sacramento Kings less than a week ago, but the Warriors health has been a big plus so far in the preseason.
Hopefully, the rest of the Warriors’ roster are also taking Bogut’s stance. They need to maintain a chip on their shoulders if they want to compete with the growing list of Western Conference teams who consider them contenders.
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