Right now, the state of the NBA can be distilled into one sentence.
Even after the Lakers signed LeBron James, with a potential Kawhi Leonard trade hanging over everything, with the Rockets having pushed Golden State to seven games sans Chris Paul in the Western Conference Finals, the Warriors are still the team to beat. Stephen Curry knows it.
“You’ve still got to beat us,” the superstar told USA Today.
Yeah, that’s pretty much it. Until someone does beat the Warriors, they are the NBA’s unstoppable force, even more so after signing DeMarcus Cousins.
“So everybody says how we’re ruining the NBA — I love that phrasing; it’s the dumbest phrase ever,” Curry said. “We are always trying to find a way to get better. If we were just happy with winning a championship and staying stagnant, we wouldn’t be doing ourselves justice. Obviously with KD [Kevin Durant], with DeMarcus this summer, with the bench guys that we’ve been able to sign, everybody is trying to get better and we just happen to be the ones who set the pace and the narrative about how you need to structure your team to beat us. That’s great. I love that vibe, because it keeps us on edge seeing the ripple effect around the NBA and where guys are going and that type of stuff.”
The Warriors have won three of the last four titles and are massive favorites to take home a third straight next season. Unless the Lakers can add Leonard, it’s hard to see how they can be a formidable challenge, and the Rockets may have just wasted their best chance.
James adds an extra ripple, but Curry’s words are undoubtedly fact. They’ve still gotta beat the Warriors and until that happens, everything stays the same.