On July 4th of last year, Kevin Durant sent shock-waves through the sports world when he announced he’d joining the Golden State Warriors. The decision hijacked Independence Day; the fireworks dimmed in Oklahoma City and were as bright as ever in the Bay Area. Unsurprisingly, heated discussions began immediately regarding Durant’s legacy, how the Warriors pulled off the move, and how it would shift the balance of power in NBA for years to come.
That power currently resides in Oakland after the Warriors defeated the Cleveland Cavaliers in five games to win the 2017 NBA Finals. Durant fired on all cylinders for the entire series, averaging 35.2 points per game on his way to winning Finals MVP. Durant catapulted the Warriors to the top, exactly what the organization envisioned when they signed the former MVP.
Make no mistake about it – the Warriors didn’t get Durant by accident or luck. They didn’t just happen to have some salary cap space sitting around last July and decide to make a run after the four-time scoring champ for the hell of it. The signing of Durant is the crowning achievement of the Warriors multi-year transformation that turned the Bay’s team into the best-run organization in the NBA, and arguably across American sports.
This all began eight years ago. Drafted in 2009, Stephen Curry’s rise to super-stardom began after the team traded away Monta Ellis in 2012. It was a move that took guts for a relatively new ownership group led by Joe Lacob and then assistant-GM Bob Myers. It was met with criticism from fans who initially saw it as another step back, mercifully booing Lacob at Chris Mullin’s jersey retirement ceremony that took place shortly after the trade. The organization never doubted Curry was their guy, signing him to a 4 year, $44 million contract prior to the 2012-13 season, which some viewed as a risky investment given his numerous ankle injuries. Fast forward to 2017 — Curry just completed year four as the biggest bargain in the NBA. Re-signing Curry and deciding to build around him set the stage for everything that followed.
In the 2011 NBA Draft, 10 teams passed on drafting Klay Thompson. The Warriors didn’t, selecting him with the 11th overall pick. Just as important as the move they did make, was the move they ended up not making. Prior to the 2014-15 season, when the front office was flirting with the idea of trading Thompson for Kevin Love. NBA legend Jerry West, who the Warriors had hired a special adviser, strongly advocated for keeping Thompson, despite the general consensus that Love was the better player at the time. The Warriors took West’s advice, and the rest is history. Curry and Thompson ended up complementing one another perfectly, are now the best back-court in the league and the greatest shooting back-court in NBA history.
Following a first-round exit to the Los Angeles Clippers in the 2014 postseason, the Warriors parted ways with head coach Mark Jackson. Jackson had not only led the team back to playoffs in consecutive seasons for the first team in 22 years, he re-established a defensive presence missing on the team for quite some time. The move to fire Jackson was against the wishes of Curry, who had said publicly he hoped Jackson would return. With a team on the rise that was destined for a deep playoff run, Lacob and Myers put their faith in Steve Kerr, who had zero years of NBA head-coaching experience. It paid off. Kerr put together a top-tier coaching staff, luring away defensive guru Ron Adams from the Celtics, and Alvin Gentry from the Clippers. Kerr’s system allowed Curry to be more free on the offensive end, which opened up the floor for others to do the same. In the first season with Kerr at the helm, Curry won league MVP, the Warriors finished with the best record in the NBA, and won the 2015 NBA Championship. With lingering health problems that have caused him to miss extended periods of time over the past two seasons, the system and culture established by Kerr has allowed the team to not skip a beat — whether it’s himself, Luke Walton or Mike Brown on the bench.
The brilliant work of the Warriors front office doesn’t stop there, though. After Andre Iguodala expressed his interest in wanting to join the team prior to the 2013-14 season, Myers led the maneuvering of cap space to free up the room to sign the veteran forward, who was the first big-name free agent to WANT to join the Warriors in a long, long, time. From there, the team continued to signed veterans that fit perfectly into their system, such as Shaun Livingston, Leandro Barbosa, Mo Speights and David West, just to name a few.
The 2012 draft saw the Warriors select Harrison Barnes, Festus Ezeli and Draymond Green, three players that would all have a significant impact on the organizaiton. Green became the heartbeat of the team, and earned a contract extension in the 2015 offseason. The Warriors did not do the same for Barnes and Ezeli, who were two of the primary casualties when the team signed Durant this offseason, something they had been planning for at least two years. Even when the Warriors were ripping through the rest of the association on their way to the team’s first championship in 40 years, a report in May 2015 surfaced that the team would go hard after Durant in free agency.
Looking this far ahead to the future on how to vastly improve a team that was already the best in the league? That’s what Joe Lacob was referring to when he said the Warriors are light years ahead.
Each move the Warriors made was money. Looking back, it’s no surprise that they were able to sign Durant, arguably the biggest free agent acquisition in the history of the NBA. Durant is smart – he saw from afar how the organization was built into a machine, and he ultimately wanted to be a part of it.
Other teams weren’t able to sign Kevin Durant last summer because they didn’t execute internally over the past several years like the Warriors had. Other teams didn’t draft three stars like Curry, Thompson and Green (all outside the Top 5), and develop them into All-Stars that play a beautiful brand of basketball. The Warriors didn’t get Durant because of a meeting at The Hamptons. They got Durant because of the years of work in crafting a masterpiece before July 4, 2016.
Everything the Warriors have touched over the past five-plus years has turned golden. There won’t be another move with the magnitude of Durant’s for a long time, but don’t expect this long track record of success for the Dubs to change anytime soon.