Doing any sort of prediction on how the Golden State Warriors will finish this season has been met with controversy. Not only does predicting the number of wins (e.g., fifty seems to be the oft-referenced number by the media), but also the playoff seed are not necessarily helpful in projecting whether the franchise can be considered among the NBA’s “elite”.
To further complicate the issue, predictions of when from the 2014 NBA Playoffs the Warriors will be ousted, the discounting of that because of the team’s track record with injuries to key players, the offseason acquisitions made by Western Conference rivals such as the Houston Rockets and the Los Angeles Clippers, and the fact that Golden State has a young team, have NBA writers using words ranging from as drastic as “6th seed” to as praiseworthy as “contenders”.
While an NBA player claiming to fight for a championship is cliche, when you talk directly with the Warriors players, you get the sense that they feel they have a roster that can make it all the way to the NBA Finals. The word “championship” or “Finals” seems to always come up.
Knowing that there’d be a target on their backs, Andre Iguodala, prior to a break-out performance the following night in Shanghai last week, was quick to point out the up-and-coming teams in the West:
There’s a lot of good teams. Every team is a great team in the West. Minnesota (Timberwolves) is good this year, Houston made the Dwight (Howard) deal, the (Los Angeles) Clippers have a new coach who’s won a championship, (the) New Orleans (Hornets have) made a lot of moves to strengthen their bench. All the other teams that made the playoffs last year as well will be better, so every game’s going to be important. Teams are trying to get a win and we gotta try to keep a winning streak going.
When asked directly about the Rockets, Iguodala said, “Our focus is to get there and not them. There’s going to be some really good battles. Not just them, but all the other good teams in the West.”
“Everybody thinks that their own team’s gonna win it, so everybody has the same goal, try to go out and compete and try to improve throughout the season, try to win a championship once playoff time comes,” Iguodala said, “We got a long way to go, trying to build, take baby steps, try to get to that point.”
Jermaine O’Neal weaved in the goal of The Finals while in Beijing discussing his role on the Warriors this year, which he said would be his last.
“We don’t have a whole lot of playoff experience and we only have a couple guys that have been to the first round. I’ve been on teams who are very good, who were projected to win it all, but couldn’t win it all, for whatever reason,” said O’Neal.
“People have a lot of expectations for our team this year but we can never achieve those things if we don’t do the necessary things to go to the Finals,” he added, “It has to be a huge sacrifice that all of us have to have. If you’re worrying about shots, then we’re never gonna win…That’s the only way you can win a championship.”
There are those words again. Finals. Championship.
Stephen Curry defined success in broader terms.
“Every team at one point or a other started a legacy or some kind of notoriety when it comes to competing for a championship every single year,” Curry said in Beijing, “Why not now, why not this year’s team, last year’s team and this year’s team be the group that solidifies our presence at the top of the West and be a perennial playoff team that’s always in the conversation every year to win a championship.”
Finally, Andrew Bogut took a more “Zen master” approach.
“You know, we accomplished something, but we didn’t. We still got eliminated out of a playoff series and probably could’ve done a little bit better. We have to come into the season with the mindset of trying to better ourselves,” Bogut said in Shanghai last week.
“And wherever that takes us, takes us.”
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