What a difference a year makes. For the Golden State Warriors, that means going from the team to beat to near irrelevancy. At least, that’s the message being delivered via the general managers in the league. The 18th annual NBA.com GM Survey was released today and the Warriors and the team’s individual players either do not rank or do not rank highly.
If the team’s on-court preseason struggles didn’t underscore that Golden State 2019-20 is an entirely different team, the Warriors’ slide in the GM Survey certainly will.
Here’s how the Warriors stack up:
Warriors in the GM Survey: Then vs. Now
Team most likely to win the NBA Finals
2018-19: Warriors, first, with 87% of votes
2019-20: LA Clippers (46%), Milwaukee Bucks (36%), Los Angeles Lakers (11%), with Warriors and Portland Trail Blazers “also receiving votes”
Ranking the Western Conference
2018-19: Warriors, first, with 90% of votes, followed by Houston Rockets, Oklahoma City Thunder, Utah Jazz, Lakers, Trail Blazers/San Antonio Spurs and Denver Nuggets
2019-20: Clippers (34%), Nuggets (18%), Lakers (17%), Jazz (14%), Rockets (12%), Warriors (3%)
Most fun to watch
2018-19: Warriors, first, with 60% of votes
2019-20: Nuggets (31%), New Orleans Pelicans (21%), Warriors (17%), Milwaukee Bucks (10%), Trail Blazers (7%)
How do the Warriors rank in terms of new hires? Well, not at all. On the topic of “most promising young core,” GMs went with Pelicans (28%), Nuggets (24%), Hawks (17%), Sacramento Kings (10%) and Philadelphia 76ers (7%), with the Boston Celtics, Chicago Bulls, Dallas Mavericks and Memphis Grizzlies “also receiving votes.”
Survey basics per NBA.com:
The GMs responded to 50 different questions about the best teams, players, coaches, fans, and offseason moves. General managers were not permitted to vote for their own team or personnel. Percentages are based on the pool of respondents to that particular question, rather than all 30 GMs.
