The year before the Warriors won the the NBA Finals in 2015, I put together what I considered to be the all-time Golden State Warriors team.
I had two rules.
1. The players had to be from the San Francisco/Golden State era.
2. The player had to be on the Warriors for at least four years. It was the Wilt Chamberlain rule since Wilt only played for San Francisco for two-and-a-half years.
The team was also based on a starting five and a bench and you couldn't change the position to adjust the starting lineup. Lakers fans love to put Kareem, Shaq, and Wilt as their front court.
I adjusted the second rule. Let's call it the Kevin Durant rule. Now, the player has to have played for three years to be considered.
Also, I'm just going to put together who I consider the best fifteen person roster. This way, I don't have to choose between KD and Rick Barry for the starting five (shhhh, I'd pick KD).
A couple of other thoughts before I get started:
- Winning flat out matters. Andre Iguodala's statistics with the Warriors won't impress anyone who didn't see his value to the team. But it's meaningful that after the Warriors traded him, he went to the finals with Miami, and then two years later, was back on the Warriors to help them win their fourth title in eight years.
- The losing seasons don't not matter. From the early 1980s through the 2010s, the Warriors only had eight winning seasons. Within that time frame, they had players who still mattered to Warriors fans. We'll call those the "for the culture" picks.
Guards
Stephen Curry
Klay Thompson
When I originally did this list, Rick Barry was the best overall player in franchise history. And that is no longer the case. Steph is the franchise and his brother in splash has become the second overall best guard in the history of the franchise too.
Tim Hardaway
Mitch Richmond
The TM of Run TMC were going to be the future backcourt and maybe even the forefathers in splash. But Don Nelson wanted to get a little bigger and traded Richmond to the Sacramento Kings for Billy Owens. Richmond's stay in the Bay Area was only three years, but in those three years, he was one of the top two guards in the league, so much so that he was on of Michael Jordan's toughest guards. Hardaway was drafted simply because Kevin Johnson killed the Warriors. He gave the Warriors an advantage at point guard almost every night.
Baron Davis
Latrell Sprewell
Jeff Mullens
Jason Richardson
Guy Rodgers
Sleepy Floyd
Phil Smith
Monta Ellis
Šarūnas Marčiulionis
Stephen Jackson
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="en"><p>“<a href="https://twitter.com/roheblius">@roheblius</a>: <a href="https://twitter.com/uograd66">@uograd66</a> - If you had a chance to take Jeff Mullins in his prime or Klay Thompson now, who do you go with?” Klay!</p>— Jim Barnett (@uograd66) <a href="https://twitter.com/uograd66/status/568656186569936896">February 20, 2015</a></blockquote>
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Forwards
Rick Barry
Kevin Durant
When I initially did this list 10 years ago, Barry was the easy
Draymond Green
Andre Iguodala
Tom Meschery
Chris Mullin
Antawn Jamison
Purvis Short
David Lee
Centers
Nate Thurmond
Robert Parish
Andris Biedriņš
Andrew Bogut
<h3>Point Guard</h3>
The Warriors have had some stellar point guards. One of them has his own game and he's not even the second best in team history. Just type my man's name into Google and the game is the second entry.
<a href="http://roheblius.net/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/Screen-Shot-2015-02-24-at-10.49.56-PM.png"><img src="http://roheblius.net/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/Screen-Shot-2015-02-24-at-10.49.56-PM-1024x228.png" alt="all-time Golden State Warriors" width="640" height="142" class="aligncenter size-large wp-image-632" /></a>
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Another's trademark move has it's own YouTube video from the NBA.
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<strong>The pick</strong>: Steph Curry
The next step for Curry is to take the Warriors beyond the second round of the playoffs and hopefully deeper. He's currently one of the top 5 players in the game, which isn't something Hardaway or Floyd were able to say.
<h3>Shooting Guard</h3>
Because of how he left the team, it was easy to forget how good Latrell Sprewell was. I remember the Slam article before Hardaway and Sprewell hated each other, where Hardaway called Sprewell Mike (as in Jordan), with smaller hands. And while Sprewell wasn't that, he was athletic, smart defensively, and had that quiet, yet violent way of playing that hyped you up as a fan.
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I don't know too much about Jeff Mullins except what my dad told me about him. Jim Barnett also had a lot of good things to say about Mullins <a href="http://roheblius.net/2014/05/chat-jim-barnett/">when I had the opportunity to chat with him</a>. Mullins was a great scorer and when Barry left for the ABA, he and Nate Thurmond led the team offensively.
Jason Richardson is in the argument as well. I think he's slightly underrated because of how remembered he is as a dunker, but he was the Warriors' best player in some futile years.
Monta Ellis and Phil Smith are sort of in the argument, but I don't think they have strong cases.
<strong>The pick</strong>: Klay Thompson
He's the real deal as a shooter and defender and in his four seasons with the Warriors (counting this year), he'll be in the playoff for three of those years.
Plus, this is what Jim Barnett said and he played with Mullins.
<h3>Small Forward</h3>
This is the easiest of all.
<strong>The pick</strong>: Rick Barry
Barry is probably one of the 25 greatest players of all-time. He was also the best player on the Warriors' lone championship team.
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Chris Mullin was an excellent player for the team, but he's not in Barry's class.
<h3>Power Forward</h3>
This one is tough. The Warriors' franchise never really had a great power forward. Chris Webber was supposed to be that guy until he finagled his way out of the Bay Area. Many people remember Mr. Mean Larry Smith who was a rebounding machine. Antawn Jamison was more small forward than power forward. You could slide Clyde Lee to power forward since he played both power forward and center. And well, um, David Lee?
<strong>The pick</strong>: Tom Meschery.
I don't think most Warriors fans even know a lot about Meschery. His numbers were more consistent than gaudy, but his prime was in the early the mid 1960s when the game was much different. His number is also retired by the Warriors.
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<h3>Center</h3>
Center position wasn't quite as easy as small forward, but it was still an easy pick. While Robert Parrish had four good seasons with the Warriors, he didn't come into his prime until they traded him away to the Celtics.
<strong>The pick</strong>: Nate Thurmond
He averaged 20 rebounds a game three times in his career and had two seasons where he was a 20/20 guy. It's a shame that he didn't stick around with the Warriors for their championship season as he was traded for Clifford Ray before the season. But, he's the pick.
Steph, Klay, Barry, Meschery, and Thurmond are the starters.
<h3>Bench</h3>
<a href="http://roheblius.net/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/Mullins_Chicago_crop_north.jpg"><img src="http://roheblius.net/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/Mullins_Chicago_crop_north.jpg" alt="all-time Golden State Warriors" width="339" height="416" class="alignright size-full wp-image-629" /></a>Jeff Mullins (SG)
Latrell Sprewell (SG)
Chris Mullin (SF)
Tim Hardaway (PG)
Robert Parish (C)
Jason Richardson (SG)
David Lee (PF)
Sleepy Floyd (PG/SG)
Antawn Jamison (SF/PF)
Clyde Lee (PF/C)
The Warriors are stacked at guard so Hardaway, Floyd, Mullins, Sprewell, and Richardson all made the top 15. Chris Mullin, David Lee, Antawn Jamison, and Clyde Lee all make the team as forwards. And Robert Parish is the backup center.
Who was left out? Phil Smith (SG), Monta Ellis (SG), Joe Barry Carroll (aka Joe Barely Cares), Purvis Short (SF), Clifford Ray (C) and Larry Smith (PF) just missed out on the 15-man roster.
