Are the Warriors Still Fun to Watch?

The Warriors don't have to play well to beat teams by twenty and that is a problem.

The NBA season has finally arrived and the Open Floor Podcast duo discussed their least favorite teams to watch this season. Little did Ben Golliver know, Andrew Sharp stated the unthinkable and topped his list with the reigning champs.

(This transcript has been edited and condensed for clarity.)

Andrew Sharp: My final team is a longer story. I had the Warriors in here just as the team that I am not interested in. 

Ben Golliver: Oh come on!

Sharp: I know, I know. But I really mean it. Warriors-Rockets on opening night, I really don't care about that game. I just can't get excited to watch Warriors games. Quick story, I was on the beach this summer and I was talking to an older guy, like a family friend and we started talking about basketball and he asked 'what do you think about the Warriors?' And I was like 'well I don't know' and he said 'well I am a fan of the Warriors because I appreciate greatness.' And that is what a lot of people say about this team and it f**king annoys me because I appreciate greatness too. The problem with Warriors games is for most of the games they are not really engaged. They don't have to play well to beat teams by twenty and it just gets pretty repetitive after a while.

Golliver: You are spoiled rotten! Go back to 2004 and try to sit through some games then. This is what we lived for. We have been waiting a decade to see this level of brilliance and casual brilliance is still brilliance.

Sharp: I guess I would rather them be in a situation where there is a credible threat to force them to play as well as they could but for the most part those guys kind of go through the motions and it is boring. However this afternoon an hour before we started recording this podcast, I read this Draymond Green interview with GQ. Have you read it?

Golliver: No I haven't, and honestly I am getting to the point where I am pretty angry so you're going to need to stop asking rhetorical questions or I am just going to use those pauses in the conversation to come back at you right now.

Sharp:It is too early in the year for us to be arguing about the Warriors. I am just telling you how I feel and I am telling you I read this Draymond Green interview and I completely reversed course and I am willing to tolerate the Warriors.

Golliver: Thank you.

Sharp: He's talking to Clay Skipper of GQ and he says:

“It’s so funny sitting back and watching this sh*t,” he starts, before pausing to pull his phone out of his jeans, looking through the Golden State Warriors’ group chat. (The team has one, and the Hampton Five—Green, Steph Curry, Klay Thompson, Andre Iguodala and Kevin Durant, the five guys that were in the Hamptons in the summer of 2016 to recruit KD—has another.) He wants to relay something that Houston Rockets GM Daryl Morey had said in an interview, reacting to the Warriors' title. The team had texted it to each other: "They are not unbeatable. There have been bigger upsets in sports history. We are going to keep improving our roster. We are used to long odds. If Golden State makes the odds longer, we might up our risk profile and get even more aggressive. We have something up our sleeve."

Then he pauses, scoffing at Morey’s comments.

“What the f*ck are you talking about?” he says to me. “They are really trying to rethink their whole strategy”—here he bumps a table repeatedly with his hand for emphasis, getting excited—“because teams know they don’t have a fucking clue.”

On a roll now, he remembers the Warriors’ lone playoff loss, in Game 4 of the Finals, when the Cavs sank twenty-four three-pointers, an NBA Finals record.

“That’d never been done!” Green exclaims. “They don’t come out and hit twenty-four threes and they’re swept. And that’s the second-best team in the world. It’s pretty f*cking sick to see how everybody is just in a f*cking panic about what to do. You sit back and think, like, these motherf*ckers, they know. That’s the fun part about it: They know they don’t stand a chance.”

And so that interview brought me back. Draymond Green brought me back. There is a lot more on GQ. I will have fun with the Warriors regardless. 

Golliver: Good because first of all the other 29 teams are the other 29 teams that are not as exciting as the Warriors. The Warriors are on that level and maybe they don't get pushed as much as you want but when they do get pushed there is nothing better in basketball. Houston, OKC and a whole bunch of other teams, I would even add Cleveland spent their summers positioning themselves to push Golden State harder. You will never ever find me saying that a team that wins 70 games is boring—and they have a chance to win 70—and I am almost offended by your original opinion and I am very glad you came back to the good side.