Yahoo Sports senior NBA analyst Kevin O’Connor and NBA contributing writer Tom Haberstroh discuss Golden State’s rapid turnaround after adding Jimmy Butler and where they sit in the title contender hierarchy. Hear the full conversation on “The Kevin O’Connor Show” and subscribe on , , or wherever you listen.
Video Transcript
Everything feels like it’s slotting in place together for the Warriors right now with Jimmy Butler.
It’s amazing how one player can be added and everything just starts to feel like it makes sense.
The one thing I will say though, Tom, they haven’t faced anybody.
They haven’t really faced anybody yet.
Their best wins so far are probably against the Knicks without Cat, Kings on the road after the All-Star break, the last game before the All-Star breaking against the Rockets.
They, they haven’t had a tough schedule, but their depth looks great.
Quentin post in the starting lineup, Jonathan Kainga looks great off the bench.
Their depth is better than a lot of people, I think, give it credit for.
So that’s where I’m very optimistic about the Warriors, but I still want to see them do this against the best teams in the NBA and their schedule just hasn’t had those games up there yet for them.
Top tier title contender.
I’m saying every one day I’m putting him as a 55 star title contender with Boston, OKC, and Cleveland.
I’ve got 4 teams now on that top tier.
We’ll see.
I, I need, I need to see him next week.
I, I wanna see that Nuggets and Bucks back to back, and then again after that, they’re gonna win a hell of a lot of games, their schedule eases up again, and then in early April they have a run of games.
April 1st, Memphis, then the Lakers, then the Nuggets, then the Rockets, and then the Suns, who knows.
What the Suns look like at that point, they might already be in Cancun, who knows, maybe they’ll be fighting for their lives to get the 10 seed at that point.
But there’s two more stretches for Golden State this year that I think are really going to show who they are, whether they’re like top of the top tier, like even, you know, a favorite, or whether they’re just in that second tier.
Um, but I think it’s bold to put them at number one.
I respect it, Tom.
I’ll just say, I’m not saying they’re the number one team in the NBA that if I was power ranking the, the league, I’m not putting the Warriors at #1.
I’m just saying in the terms of the top tier of title contenders, I have them on the same tier as Cleveland, Boston, OKC, um, and they would be the 4th team on that list.
