DEBATE: Can Warriors break their own NBA wins record?

Sport360 staff 04:21 24/10/2016
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  • New Warrior: Kevin Durant.

    The Golden State Warriors begin their 2016 NBA campaign on Tuesday night with the aim of avenging last season’s playoff final defeat to Cleveland in their sights.

    Having achieved a league record of 73 wins last campaign only to face disappointment, the question is whether that mark can still be bettered.

    Sport360’s James Piercy and Jay Asser debate.

    James Piercy, deputy editor, says YES

    If we’re working on the assumption the Warriors are going to get very close to 70 wins – which seems is the consensus opinion – then it doesn’t seem too much of a stretch to envisage them achieving four more.

    Pre-season is pre-season but there’s been enough to suggest from the last few weeks that Kevin Durant will slot seamlessly into a team who share the ball better than most.

    The Warriors have led the league in assist rate for the last two seasons and everyone will be getting most of the shots they want. There will be teething problems but, realistically, how long will it take? With the exception of tomorrow night against San Antonio in Oakland and games in Portland on November 1 and Boston on November 18, they can experiment all they want in the first 20 games and still probably drop three at most.

    By then, any Durant-related chemistry issues should have been ironed out while Draymond Green and Zaza Pachulia will have worked out how to share the burden of replacing Andrew Bogut at centre; they’ll be virtually unstoppable.

    Which leads us onto the potential roadblock of injuries. With an extra All-Star, that problem can be alleviated even more. Even a five-man line-up featuring two of Durant, Steph Curry, Green or Klay Thompson is a match for the vast majority of the NBA, not even taking into account the opposition’s own injury issues or the idea teams will use games against the Warriors – which, effectively, will be written off – to rest starters.

    A Tim Duncan-less San Antonio with Tony Parker another year down the line; an Oklahoma City Thunder needing monumental displays from Russell Westbrook every night; and an LA Clippers team rolling out the same old, same old, also doesn’t exactly present too much of a challenge in the Western elite.

    They won’t be discussing numbers, but taking what they had last year, adding Durant and with rivals having to get their own houses in order, by March, the 74-win conversation will be on the agenda.

    Jay Asser, reporter, says NO

    This season’s Golden State Warriors could potentially be the greatest team of all-time, but they’re still not going to stumble into this record. The word ‘stumble’ is used very deliberately here because as amazing as they’re likely to be, Golden State simply don’t want to go for it.

    This isn’t a case of ‘if it happens, it happens’. Self-sabotage is perhaps too strong of a term to describe what they’ll do, but make no mistake, they’re going to actively try and avoid the physical and mental challenges that come with chasing their own mark.

    The Warriors already experienced this last season. They went for the record and were outspoken about wanting it, but it ultimately ended up being a footnote as they blew a 3-1 lead in the NBA Finals to Cleveland.

    How much did the chase for 73 wins hurt them against the Cavaliers? It’s impossible to quantify, but going for the record didn’t help. And it’s not like they easily broke Chicago’s total of 72 in 1995-96 either.

    After all their dominance, it took until the very last game of the regular season to earn win No. 73. Yes, Kevin Durant makes them even better.

    With their talent, they theoretically shouldn’t lose a single game. And if they came out and said they’re going to pursue 74 wins this season, there’s a better chance they’d get it than not. But they don’t want to go through that ringer again.

    You can fully expect Steve Kerr to be very generous with how much he rests his stars, not just in fourth quarters when the result is in hand, but for full games, pulling a card straight from the deck of Gregg Popovich.

    The expectations of winning a title are too high to be exhausting much energy on the second night of back-to-backs or in the third game in four nights. Everything will be geared towards being in the best possible position when the playoffs arrive.

    It shouldn’t be a surprise to anyone if they still manage 70 wins with this approach, but adding four victories on top of that is something you can only achieve if you really want it.

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