I missed anyone saying it's the only reason...but it is BY FAR the most important reason they are where they are. Everything starts w/ the core of Stephen Curry, Klay Thompson, Draymond Green.
Dude your post pretty much said the only major break they had was Steph's extension and then proceeded to talk about their drafting. Then discussing how their actions post-drafting would have been replicated throughout most of the league. If you are saying there are more factors, fine I agree, but I made that assumption based on your argument that besides one bit of good fortune, success is based on drafting and making decisions that most owners would make.
Kevin Durant wanted to play w/ the Warriors...because of THAT core. I'm missing how building a team that players want to play for constitutes as a "break". Working out a sign and trade when he wanted to leave wasn't a break. The Nets had their incentive for why they wanted to do it also.
The Warriors are in the NBA Finals, the Nets are not. And in a pre-Finals report on The Athletic, Tim Kawakami writes about how the Nets willingness to do a sign-and-trade at the time of The Clean...
www.netsdaily.com
I understand why Durant want to play with the Warriors, it was an attractive opportunity. I would give him an easier route to a championship. Durant wanted to play for the Suns with a strong core intact for the same reason.
But in the GSW's case Durant pulling the trigger on such a move was this fortunate for them. Durant still gets criticized for it to this day. That someone in their prime running to a championship contender from a championship contender was not the norm all things considered.
Also in the article....
“Brooklyn could’ve said no,” “Kevin could’ve said no. We’re thankful. It at least gave us a chance,” Myers told The Athletic reporter, a veteran of Bay Area basketball coverage. “Thankfully, we had some equity with Kevin and Rich (Kleiman), his agent,”
If it was purely a wise business decision, then I don't think the Warriors would be making these comments
Yes the sign and trade helped with the Nets long-term prospects but the Nets could have gotten it done without that, not like they were not used to making unwise moves, and KD was dictating the terms of the sign and trade too.
Something broke their way based on the decision of others. Sure there was an incentive for the other parties to do it, but for it to break their way multiple times seems like good fortune to me.
I guess we will just have to agree to disagree on this.
As for Wiggins...we're certainly not about to re-write the book on him. His stock was very low when that trade was made. You referenced his numbers prior to joining GS that year and left out soooooo much context. This is why it's important to look beyond PPG, RPG, APG in a vacuum, because it excludes efficiency. What was supposed to be a fresh start after Jimmy Butler, started off well...and Andrew Wiggins was on FIRE to start the season. He then progressively got worse after the month of November and was getting booed at home.
The 2019-20 NBA season stats per game for Andrew Wiggins of the Golden State Warriors on ESPN. Includes full stats, per opponent, for regular and postseason.
www.espn.com
The overwhelming consensus on here and in general was that Minnesota won that trade and Wiggins was one of the worst contracts in the league, if not THE worst. There certainly weren't teams lining up to trade for Andrew Wiggins. Extracting peak value out him enough to win a championship while revamping his image and reputation was certainly not luck or a break.
I didn't just cite his numbers though. I said people didn't want him at his price tag, and there were questions about his commitment
And in relation to Wiggins, I didn't claim that their getting the full potential out of him was luck or a break. Again, I openly cited Warriors player development, not just their drafting, as the reason for much of their success.
I said what I said because another person said that Wiggins was a player no one wanted. And I pointed out the Warriors got him as a downstream effect of the good fortunes of getting Durant, and then sign and trade when he left.
It was another Warriors fan that strip a ton of context from the pre-Warriors Wiggins situation the most.