Okay, well, the 2-time Western Champs added (arguably) the best free agent signing of all time (Kevin Durant). This made the greatest single season team of all time much much much better and made their prime rival (OKC) much much much worse with one stroke of the pen (mightier then m'fuck'n sword, ain't it?). And their core of star players remains perfectly intact...and they're still under the salary cap...and the guys they did get rid of were not much of a sacrifice: their oldest player (Bogut to Mavs), their most unreliable player (Barnes to the Mavs), their most expendable contract (Ezeli to...?). If I were a Warrior fan I'd be bummed about losing McAdoo and Rush (hungry youngsters used to winning and serving the MVPs, those guys are great to have around) but otherwise the roster parings are positive rather than negative. And then they get David West (1yr/$free) and Pachulia (1yr/$2.9m), they're playing footsy with Ray Allen, probably others (you know Kendrick Perkins is gonna show up on day one and just pretend like he's on the team and everyone just goes along with it, I dunno, that's how I imagine it anyway).
Jeez, it ain't fair the team they're putting together. There are no off-nights against the Warriors this year. Their B- game should still pretty well smoosh most any team on any given Tuesday night. Coach Kerr is gonna have so much to work with, 'he's got more spice than the Frugal Gourmet', he might be able to phone it in for Coach of the Year (again). And they've still got money to spend (how about a super cheap year of Josh Smith as a makeover project for the veterans?).
The Warriors have the most elusive quality in all of sports: it is every bit as much fun to watch them lose as it to watch them win, and vice versa. Only a handful of competitors can say that: Brazil soccer, Tiger in his prime, Serena, the Shaq-Kobe Lakers, (probably lots of Olympic-type athletes), a few others (some might include Duke basketball or the Jeter/Rivera Yankees but I would not).
The downside of this move for the Warriors: I don't know how to quantify it but I suspect there is a maximum of star power that can exist in one locker room, the Yankees blew the wattage many times over the years, Real Madrid had a habit of signing strictly for expensive star power which only watered down everyone's game and made them all slightly worth less. It could get ugly if they don't mesh on/off the court but I don't anticipate that will be a problem because they'll be winning so often that bad feelings won't have time to intrude.
For the next year--oh, we'll be going through all this weird shit against next summer, maybe '18 as well--I expect the Warriors to crush everyone they see. I don't think this team gets to 73 wins but I think they could if they wanted to. I'll put them at 68, with a thought they could go over, depending on how many wins the #1 seed needs. In the playoffs, they'll be a damn near impossible matchup with anybody for 48 minutes, with tons and tons of scoring options, all the popular stars, and home court advantage. I expect them to be better than each and every team in the league in a 7 game series, The best just got bester.
The disappointing part of this for me is I wanted to see OKC challenge the Warriors for at least one more year. Now that's gone. I do not begrudge KD going where he wants or the Warriors luring in the biggest bestest stars, not at all, I'm not a fan of superteams but I can live with it for a year or two (seems like a natural by-product of the cap gap era). But the Thunder-Warriors match is one I was already looking forward to seeing next year...now that's gone. Long gone, not coming back. Too bad.
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