One reason we might be overrating these Warriors: Their schedule
The 2015-16 Golden State Warriors are on pace to be a historic team. At this rate, in fact, they might end up with the best regular-season record ever. Last season's championship-winning version was also an historic team. This collection of players, coaches and executives is an all-time group. No team sets an NBA record for most consecutive wins to start a season -- 16-0, where the Warriors stand after Tuesday's win over the Los Angeles Lakers -- without being one of the most elite squads in history.
But.
The Warriors aren't perfect. They will lose eventually. And in the coming months, the likelihood of a Golden State loss is going to grow exponentially. Because there's a dirty little secret to the Warriors' record-breaking start: They've avoided the league's toughest competition.
It's important to be clear. None of this is to denigrate the Warriors. A team can only beat the opponents the schedule offers. Golden State's not ducking anyone. And 16 wins is impressive against professional competition no matter who those teams are.
Look at the Warriors' schedule, however, and a glaring omission jumps out. More precisely, three names are noticeably absent. Golden State hasn't played the Cleveland Cavaliers, the defending champion's final opponent from last season. Stephen Curry & Co. have yet to see Russell Westbrook, Kevin Durant and the Oklahoma City Thunder. And the team that stands the greatest chance of dismantling these Warriors won't come to town until late January, when Oracle Arena will play host to the San Antonio Spurs.
According to Basketball-Reference's strength of schedule metric, the Warriors have played the easiest slate this season, and it isn't particularly close.
There are huge caveats here, of course. For starters, Golden State can't play itself. Simply facing the Warriors is enough to buoy a team's strength of schedule -- just ask the Memphis Grizzlies. This early in the season, strength of schedule as a metric is descriptive at best, as well. And the Cavaliers, Spurs and Thunder rank in the bottom six of strength of schedule as well; the Cavs have avoided the rest of the teams in this grouping, while the Spurs and Thunder have played each other once.
No one, though, is ready to crown those teams as one of the greatest of all-time.
That's where we are with the Warriors. And there's every chance that they'll earn it. But for now, which of the teams that they've played would scare anyone in the postseason? The Los Angeles Clippers are a mess. Ditto for the Houston Rockets, and to an even more alarming degree. The Memphis Grizzlies are good -- lest we forget, they led the Warriors 2-1 in last year's playoffs -- but this season's version simply can't keep up with Golden State. The Toronto Raptors, then, might be the toughest opponent the Warriors have faced. And Golden State barely made it out with a win.
Maybe these Warriors will win 73 games. Maybe they are great on a level rivaled by only a few teams to ever play the game. The Warriors have the talent and the coaching to reach that level, and they exploit the current rules and basketball environment to a degree unrivaled in NBA history. This is a team that knows what it must do in every aspect to win.
It's just too bad we have to wait until Christmas at the earliest to see the Warriors take on a team that might actually stand a chance.
