NBA Free Agency: Decoding the 5 Steps To How The Warriors Ended Up With a Line-up of 5 All-Stars

Step 3: 2016 NBA Off-Season & Signing Kevin Durant

Golden State Warriors Introduce Kevin Durant

In the 2015-16 season, Champions Golden State Warriors fielded a starting lineup of Curry, Thompson, Barnes, Draymond & Bogut with 2015 NBA Finals MVP Andre Iguodala coming off the bench. They won 73 games in 15-16 season. 73 out of 82. More than Jordan’s winningest season with the Bulls. Most in the NBA history.

Playoffs time, In the Western Conference finals they were down 1-3 to the Oklahoma City Thunder who had Kevin Durant & Russell Westbrook. They came back and won the series. Though in the finals, they were on the other side of a similar result. Up 3-1 on Lebron led Cleveland Cavaliers, Warriors choked and lost the finals 3-4 causing one of the biggest upsets in NBA Finals history.

What happened next changed the NBA forever. Kevin Durant signed with the Warriors who added Durant by giving up only ageing Andrew Bogut and Harrison Barnes. That aforementioned salary cap spike after the 15-16 Finals made it possible for the Warriors to retain pretty much all of their all-star core and add the second best player in the league.

Imagine if Shaq had joined the 72 win Bulls in 1996 - only if the Bulls had 3 All-NBA players instead of 2 that year - and they were in their mid 20s instead of their early 30s… and if Shaq had just been thoroughly embarrassed by choking a 3-1 lead to the Bulls in the Eastern Conference Finals.

KD become probably the most hated player in the NBA ever but the Warriors would go on to became unstoppable.