The Golden State Warriors are probably better when they don’t have anyone else picking them to win. Last season, they didn’t have any believers and this season will be the same.
According to John Schuhmann, the NBA.com surveyed the GMs and 53.6% believe the Cleveland Cavaliers will reign as champions after the 2015-16 NBA season. What about the Warriors? Only 17.9% of the GMs chose the Warriors:
The league’s general managers seem to agree that the Warriors aren’t a budding dynasty. Only 17.9 percent of GMs pick the Warriors to repeat as champions, the third lowest percentage for a defending champion in the 13-year history of the NBA.com GM Survey.
The other team with better odds was the San Antonio Spurs. As you may know, they brought in LaMarcus Aldridge and David West while locking down some loose bolts. Apparently the league’s upper management doesn’t see Stephen Curry repeating as the MVP and can’t envision the Warriors winning it all.
There were positives from the polls and they do respect Steph as the top point guard. He gained 55% of the votes as Chris Paul got 24.1% as the runner up.
Other than Curry, Klay Thompson is seen as the 2nd best shooting guard behind James Harden (79.3%). Draymond Green got nearly 7% of votes as he ranked 5th as the NBA’s best defensive player. The players in front include: Kawhi Leonard, Anthony Davis, LeBron James, and Tony Allen. As a whole, the Warriors did rank as the best defensive team in the NBA with 58.6% of votes.
I too will go for Cavaliers for the NBA Season