Green reflects on the dominance of the 2016–17 Golden State Warriors on the latest episode of Network with Rich Kleiman, calling them the greatest NBA team ever.
The basketball world forever changed on Independence Day in 2016. Kevin Durant agreed to leave the Oklahoma City Thunder for the Golden State Warriors in free agency, joining forces with Stephen Curry, Klay Thompson, Draymond Green, and Andre Iguodala less than a month after the Dubs blew a 3-1 NBA Finals lead to the Cleveland Cavaliers following a record-breaking 73-9 regular season.
The Warriors’ revenge tour was epic, going 67-15 in the regular season and 16-1 in the playoffs en route to their second NBA title in three years. The Dubs broke more than 20 all-time NBA individual and team records that season, including a 15-game playoff win streak that still stands.
“It’s the greatest team the NBA has ever seen. No question about it,” Green said on the latest episode of Network with Rich Kleiman. “There was nothing nobody could do to beat that team. Too much skill. Too much everything.”
The Warriors finished first in the league in offensive rating and second in defensive rating that season, not losing consecutive games all year.
“If you thought you were going to put your best defender on Steph,” Green said, “Well, good luck, we’ve got Kevin. If you thought you were gonna put your best defender on Kevin, good luck, we’ve got Steph. Oh my god. Y’all thought you were gonna put two guys [on anyone], Klay’s about to give you 40. You double off me, fine, but I’m gonna use one of these guys to make y’all pay for that double. So good luck with that.”
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As devastating as the Golden State offense was, the defense was just as formidable.
“You got Klay ball-hawking any point guard,” Green said. “Kevin is an incredible rim protector. You got Kevin on the backside, you’ve got me on the backside, you’ve got Andre, who can also ball hawk a guard. Look at the length that we have. The shortest guy we have out there is Steph. It’s a common misconception that Steph is small. Steph is not a small dude. And the effort he gives on defense and the understanding that he has on what’s going on, it was hard for teams to score.”
Even when you did score, Draymond concluded, you weren’t going to score enough to keep pace.
“You’ve gotta get stops, but you can’t stop us,” he said. “So, no question it was the best team anyone has ever seen, obviously the best team I played on.”
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