2015 Warriors vs. 2019 Raptors

[dankok8]

One thing to keep in mind is the adaptation by the league when it comes to understanding the Warriors offense and how to defend against it in 2019 compared to back in 2015. The death ball lineup with Dray at the 5 is a lot less of a trump card in 2019. Fast forward to today and almost every team has thrown out a lineup without a big and has experience in running an offense with it and also defending against it.

It's strange to say but in that sense it's almost like a comparisons from different eras.

This is a good point and I saw something similar posted on the RealGM thread too.

2015 Warriors may have been a novelty and caught teams by surprise. They played in a new revolutionary way of basketball that overwhelmed opponents. Thus they would have a big leg up over prior champs (2012 and 2013 Heat and 2014 Spurs) and be heavily disadvantaged vs. recent champs who adapted tactically. They have no schematic advantage vs. the 2019 Raptors that they had vs. teams just a few years earlier. There may be some truth to that.

[Phoenix]

This is a good point and I saw something similar posted on the RealGM thread too.

2015 Warriors may have been a novelty and caught teams by surprise. They played in a new revolutionary way of basketball that overwhelmed opponents. Thus they would have a big leg up over prior champs (2012 and 2013 Heat and 2014 Spurs) and be heavily disadvantaged vs. recent champs who adapted tactically. They have no schematic advantage vs. the 2019 Raptors that they had vs. teams just a few years earlier. There may be some truth to that.

That is why the Rockets took them 7 in 2018. They weren't as talented overall as the Warriors but were talented enough. They were by far the top 3 point shooting team that year in attempts and actually shot 16 more per game than GS. The league was definitely catching up by 2018/2019.

But that said, while schematically they wouldn't have an edge today, you'd assume that the 2016 Warriors would be shooting 40 a night like everyone else and Steph/Klay are still the two best 3point shooters of the last decade( and obviously 2 of the top 5 all-time). They wouldn't break the 73 win mark in 2025 but they'd still be a heavy title threat. I mean they just won the title 3 years ago with worse versions of Steph/Klay/Dray.

[dankok8]

That is why the Rockets took them 7 in 2018. They weren't as talented overall as the Warriors but were talented enough. They were by far the top 3 point shooting team that year in attempts and actually shot 16 more per game than GS. The league was definitely catching up by 2018/2019.

But that said, while schematically they wouldn't have an edge today, you'd assume that the 2016 Warriors would be shooting 40 a night like everyone else and Steph/Klay are still the two best 3point shooters of the last decade( and obviously 2 of the top 5 all-time). They wouldn't break the 73 win mark in 2025 but they'd still be a heavy title threat. I mean they just won the title 3 years ago with worse versions of Steph/Klay/Dray.

Agree with everything you posted here. Just want to say this about your take. The 2015/2016 Warriors dropping from like a top 10 team of all time to a heavy title threat is a pretty damn big drop.

[Phoenix]

Agree with everything you posted here. Just want to say this about your take. The 2015/2016 Warriors dropping from like a top 10 team of all time to a heavy title threat is a pretty damn big drop.

It is but as we all agree the league caught up to that style within 5 years. They had two of the greatest 3point shooters on one team and pretty much caught everyone off-guard, both personnel wise and strategy-wise. I do maintain they'd still be a serious championship threat today because as I said, they would scale up their 3point shooting in line with everyone else and we saw a lesser version of the team win in the past 5 years. So they'd absolutely be elite today, but not winning 73 games and looking like they were dropped out of an alien ship like they did in 2016. The 3point volume they shot in 2016 would be at the bottom of the league today. That's insane.

[999Guy]

People forget how much trouble the KD-less Warriors gave the 2019 Raptors.

People also forget Klay was in game 6 mode and was lighting Toronto on fire before he blew his knee out. That series was about to go to 7 without KD.

The Warriors had a much younger, athletic and defensively dominant team in 2015.

I think the Warriors win this in 6. They were much better in 2015 top to bottom and it would be enough to win.

[Phoenix]

People forget how much trouble the KD-less Warriors gave the 2019 Raptors.

People also forget Klay was in game 6 mode and was lighting Toronto on fire before he blew his knee out. That series was about to go to 7 without KD.

The Warriors had a much younger, athletic and defensively dominant team in 2015.

I think the Warriors win this in 6. They were much better in 2015 top to bottom and it would be enough to win.

Yes and Lebron pretty much single-handedly took them to 6. The 2019 Raptors are pretty underrated I think, everyone looks at them for how Kawhi played in that playoff run but that team won 58 games with Kawhi missing 22 games and Lowry 17. Their core 7 players with the aforementioned, Siakim, Green, VanVLeet, Ibaka, Gasol match up with the Warriors well.

[Axe]

People forget how much trouble the KD-less Warriors gave the 2019 Raptors.

People also forget Klay was in game 6 mode and was lighting Toronto on fire before he blew his knee out. That series was about to go to 7 without KD.

The Warriors had a much younger, athletic and defensively dominant team in 2015.

I think the Warriors win this in 6. They were much better in 2015 top to bottom and it would be enough to win.

Lol that series would have been finished in just five games. It was only extended to six because of a huge timeout mistake by nick nurse in the last three minutes, in which the warriors took a huge opportunity to come out and take over without wasting anything. Also, remember that they haven't won a finals series without hca.

[kawhileonard2]

Raptors because of Kawhi.

[999Guy]

Lol that series would have been finished in just five games. It was only extended to six because of a huge timeout mistake by nick nurse in the last three minutes, in which the warriors took a huge opportunity to come out and take over without wasting anything. Also, remember that they haven't won a finals series without hca.

You think a single timeout counts more than Curry, Thompson, Iguodala, Bogut and Draymond all being dramatically better players.

Your opinion is silly here.

And like I said, they may not have even needed that. The game 6 was a 4 point win in a shootout and the Warriors second best shooter didn’t see the 4th quarter.

Just a reminder: Klay Thompson had 30 points on 8/12 shooting through 3 quarters. He hasn’t even started to get his volume up yet. He would’ve likely buried them to close the game in classic GSW fashion.

Young Warriors close that shit out in 6. They would’ve maintained the ability to light the Raptors defense up, but had way more options to show the Raptors offense down.

[SouBeachTalents]

You think a single timeout counts more than Curry, Thompson, Iguodala, Bogut and Draymond all being dramatically better players.

Your opinion is silly here.

And like I said, they may not have even needed that. The game 6 was a 4 point win in a shootout and the Warriors second best shooter didn’t see the 4th quarter.

Just a reminder: Klay Thompson had 30 points on 8/12 shooting through 3 quarters. He hasn’t even started to get his volume up yet. He would’ve likely buried them to close the game in classic GSW fashion.

Young Warriors close that shit out in 6. They would’ve maintained the ability to light the Raptors defense up, but had way more options to show the Raptors offense down.

Curry & Klay were absolutely not "dramatically better players" in 2015 than in 2019, what a ridiculous take

[999Guy]

Curry & Klay were absolutely not "dramatically better players" in 2015 than in 2019, what a ridiculous take

It would be easy to get into a real tit for tat low common denominator argument from here.

So I’ll make this very simple, who what how and why were the Warriors so much worse in 2019 than 2015? Make your answer make sense. Because you have to remember, they had a full season of KD in 2019, while they didn’t in 2015.

And they had Curry and co. Resting a ton of 4th quarters from blowouts in 2015. Which means they actually statistically took it easy that year and didn’t even full court press for the most dominance they could get. They did that the next year and won 73.

But again, why were they winning by 11 points in 2015, and only 6.5 in 2019 with KD?

You are overrating or underrating the shit out of someone, at some point in this equation. To a ‘dramatic’ degree. You just need to decide who.