Sometimes the obvious answer is the right one

The Warriors with Steph Curry have been consistently great. Don't overthink it.

Good morning. Let’s basketball.

Portrait of a Man, Jan van Eyck, 1433

Here are the Golden State Warriors’ annual rankings in net rating since 2013-14. Net rating is essentially (points scored per 100 possessions) minus (points allowed per 100 possessions). It is scoring margin normalized for pace.

• 2013-14: 5

• 2014-15: 1

• 2015-16: 2

• 2016-17: 1

• 2017-18: 3

• 2018-19: 4

• 2019-20: 30

• 2020-21: 15

• 2021-22: 4

Top-five net rating in seven of the past nine seasons. Three of those featured the greatest modern duo playing at very high levels together. The other four elite seasons did not, but the key players were younger and closer to their age-expected primes.

This is regular season performance, mind you, ignoring whatever special sauce the Warriors may or may not have in the playoffs. Consistently elite regular season performance with the exception of the season without Steph Curry and Klay Thompson (2019-20) and the weird Searching For A New Identity 2020-21 campaign. Though, it should be noted that the Warriors were No. 4 in net rating in the final 15 games of that regular season as they found their way. They then started the 2021-22 campaign off crazy good.

Do you think the Warriors, your reigning NBA champs, are more like the 2020-21 team — good but nothing special — or more like almost every other Warriors team we’ve seen over nearly the past decade? To me, this is an easy call and an obvious argument as to why the Warriors should be at the top of every contenders’ list. I actually don’t know that I’m arguing against anyone here: Golden State is the sportsbooks’ favorite to come out of the West. It’s just impressive and notable how consistently great the Warriors have been when Steph Curry is available, with the sole exception of 2020-21. I’m a strong believer in the Grizzlies and think Kawhi Leonard when healthy is a top-5 NBA player. But the Warriors are just so bloody obvious as the team to beat in the West, provided Curry stays reasonably healthy and assuming his game ages well (as most analysts seem to believe it will). Sometimes the obvious answer is the right one. When the Warriors are involved, that’s usually the case.