Who wins a series: 2016 GSW (73 wins) or 2017 (16-1 playoffs)?
Relax, this is just to remember some great teams.
I’m not much of a ranker. I find these kinds of tasks, like “who/what is the greatest X of all time” to usually devolve into exposing hidden assumptions and personal formulas.
Having said that, as long as we’re all clear that this is a meaningless exercise, you know what, so is basketball, so let’s do this.
Suppose the 2015-16 (73-wins) team played the 2016-17 (16-1 playoffs) in a 7-game series, AT FULL HEALTH. Who wins?
Zaza Pachulia and Steve Kerr seem pretty clearly on the side of 2016-17.
Reference Materials
Here are some stats from Basketball Reference to help. Teams, then key players.
2015-16
2016-17
Stephen Curry
Klay Thompson
Draymond Green
Andre Iguodala
Kevin Durant
Harrison Barnes
My Take
Give your take in the comments before reading my (not very deeply held) take.
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2016 vs 2017. This is really tough. The 2017 opponents seemed to give up a bit before the series started. But I don’t think 2016 would have been awed, riding their record 73-win season. For playoff play:
Steph 2016 ~ Steph 2017
Klay 2016 >> Klay 2017
Dray 2016 > Dray 2017
Barnes 2016 <<<< KD 2017
Andre 2016 > 2017
Bogut 2016 > Zaza 2017
Shaun, Ian 2016 slightly > Shaun, Ian 2017
Barbosa 2016 > McCaw 2017
Ezeli 2016 << D West 2017
Mo Speights 2016 << JaVale 2017
Don’t sleep on how 2016’s switching defense would give 2017 fits, and also tempt Kevin Durant into more isolation ball. Basically what HOU did to the 2018 team, and they took 2018 to 7 games. 2016 GSW is way more talented than 2018 HOU, but 2017 GSW was way more hungry than 2018 GSW. So I think the series would be much closer than one might think.
The cohesion of 2016 was so strong, it might be enough to overcome the talent advantage of 2017. But I give the edge 2017 > 2016.
That’s pure science for you. Mixed with a lot of handwaving.
Warriors Twitter’s Take
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I think the 2017 team wins in 6.
In the battle of SBDS vs Hamptons 5, KD is obviously a huge upgrade, and 2017 was KD's best year defensively with us, imo, which is another huge plus for H5. 2017 Draymond's 3pt wasn't completely broken yet (he shot 40% 3pt in the 2017 playoffs). Both teams will probably play to give up jumpers to Iguodala. Regular season 2017 Iguodala was slightly better than regular season 2016 Iguodala, but 2016 playoff Iguodala was better than 2017 playoff Iguodala, scoring efficiency wise at least.
Most importantly, 2017 has more bodies to throw at 2016's smallball with McCaw, Matt Barnes, and David West vs Barbosa, Rush, and Speights. Not sure how to count Looney, since he was hurt both years, though did get 50 games in 2017 vs 5 in 2016....
Apricot has 2016 Ian > 2017 Ian, but the West-Clark connection was really good in 2017, and Ian Clark was 30 points better in TS% in 2017.
By 2016 Bogut was already a liability on offense, so I'll take 2017 center rotation of Zaza, West, and McGee over Bogut, Ezeli, and Speights.
This is a real dumb question. A better question would be something along the lines of 2017 warriors vs 2013 Heat or 2016 warriors vs 2018 Rockets.