Betting site says Warriors will be under .500,…
Betting site says Warriors will be under .500, but ESPN analysts more optimistic
BetOnline forecasts Warriors will win 18 fewer games next season, leaving them 39-43
Golden State Warriors' Sgtephen Curry, who finished the game with X points, sits on the floor in the fourth quarter of the Warriors' loss to the Toronto Raptors in Oakland on Wednesday, June 5, 2019. (Jlose Carlos Fajardo/Bay Area News Group)
By Gary Peterson |
PUBLISHED: July 15, 2019 at 12:34 pm | UPDATED: July 16, 2019 at 4:17 am
The tectonic changes that rattled the NBA during free agency have quieted. The dust has cleared. And basketball cognoscenti are trying to make sense of the altered landscape.
Or maybe not-so-altered. Take the Warriors, for example. The poor, poor Warriors.
Not everybody is feeling so sad for the Bay Area's dynastic team.
"They have Steph Curry and Draymond Green and they know how to play together," said Ramona Shelburne, striking an optimistic chord on ESPN's "Get Up" Monday morning. "I think there's not going to be any pressure on the Warriors. They're going to be anxious to prove everyone is wrong in the new building. There's just a part of me that's like, we are sleeping on the dynasty. Klay (Thompson) is going to be back in February, March. I wouldn't be shocked to see them up there."
Nor would Mike Greenberg.
"Were it not for the injury to Klay Thompson — that obviously is the qualifier," Greenberg said. "When he comes back and how healthy he is will change everything. But with Steph, Klay and Draymond Green if they were all healthy, I've seen with my own eyes that team win 73 games. If not for that injury I still would list Golden State right neck-and-neck with the Lakers as the favorites in the West."
And now for a divergent viewpoint from Jalen Rose: "The favorites in the West!?!?!"
Rose isn't alone in his assessment that the Warriors will have a rough ride in 2019-20. BetOnline.AG has predicted win totals for every NBA franchise for the upcoming season. The betting site forecasts the Warriors will win 18 fewer games than last season. That projects to a 39-43 record that would not have qualified the Warriors for a Western Conference postseason berth last spring.
"I appreciate and respect the Golden State Warriors dynasty as much as anyone," Rose said. "I know Draymond Green is going to be in a contract year. He's going to go off this year. D'Angelo Russell alongside Steph Curry, they're going to be a dynamic duo that we should pay attention to. But (opposing) guards are going to look forward to it, too, because neither of those guys lock down defensively."
Rose wondered where the quality minutes are going to come up front when Green's on the bench. And where the rim protection is going to come from.
"You know eventually what they will do," Greenberg said, "they will flip D'Angelo Russell for exactly the kind of player that you're talking about. That's why (the Russell trade) is sneaky genius by the Warriors."
"Sneaky Genius." Not on the order of "Strength in Numbers." But not bad. Not bad at all.