Getty Stephen Curry of the Golden State Warriors
The Golden State Warriors could win it all this year.
Just ask retired NBA champion and current TNT analyst, Steve Smith.
“Yes, on paper it tells us they can,” Smith told me.
“Right now they’re just nitpicking until the playoffs start.”
Going into tonight’s game against the Charlotte Hornets, the Warriors were tied for first in the Western Conference. Bluemanhoop’s Nathan Beighle suggested that the Warriors may actually want to be a No. 2 seed in the NBA Playoffs.
There aren’t many situations in which the Golden State Warriors should actually want the No. 2 seed, but in the current state of the Western Conference, it’d be smart for them to drop.
However, they’d be giving up guaranteed homecourt advantage throughout the entire Western Conference playoffs if they did. At the same time, the perk of dropping to the two seed is that they’d eliminate any chance of playing the Houston Rockets in the second round.
The route in which the Warriors take is what’s important when considering seeding. Given how dominant the Warriors are, it’s not the end of the world if they secure the top seed, but it certainly seems ideal if they don’t.
The path they’ll likely take to the finals if they’re the top seed would be through OKC, Houston then possibly the Nuggets. That’s the most difficult three series that the Warriors could manage in the West.”
Smith was the Miami Heat’s fifth pick in the 1991 NBA Draft. Also an Olympic gold medalist, he played a vital role for the San Antonio Spurs when they were crowned NBA Champions in 2003 and beat the-then New Jersey Nets in six games.
Smith believed that the NBA Playoffs is a whole new world and he tells me that he’s interested in what the Dubs will bring to the table in the NBA Playoffs, which begin in the next couple of weeks.
“They’re in first place in the NBA, but they are in the West,” he said. “They have guys they can rest, and they’re still developing chemistry with Boogie.
Million Dollar question, Mr. Smith, will they win? “Yes, they can win it all,” he says.
Smith’s line of thinking is very different from NBA Hall of Famer, Charles Barkley, Smith’s colleague at TNT.
“I know it’s something going on in Golden State,” Charles Barkley told me.
“I like Portland in the [NBA] Finals. With [Damian] Lillard and [CJ] McCollum. The addition of Rodney Hood and Enes Kanter. I like them in the West.”