The Warriors’ dynasty is really a trail of fork-in-the-road moments, and the biggest ones keep pointing to the same place: a run that produced four titles in eight years could have fallen apart before it ever got rolling.
Some of those turns helped Golden State win. Others may have cost them another banner or two. Put them together, and you get the kind of alternate history that hangs over the franchise to this day.
One of the most consequential came when Draymond Green moved into the starting lineup after David Lee got hurt. Maybe Green was always going to become that kind of player for the Warriors, but the injury opened the door.
That shift became one of the defining decisions in team history, right alongside the drafts that brought in Stephen Curry, Klay Thompson and Green. It also sits in the same conversation as the Warriors’ later misfires with James Wiseman and Jonathan Kuminga.
Then there’s the 2018 Western Conference Finals, when Chris Paul’s hamstring injury late in Game 5 changed everything. Houston went up 3-2 after that win, but once Paul was out, the Rockets couldn’t hold off the Warriors’ comeback attempts in Games 6 and 7. Of all the “they only won because of an injury” arguments attached to the Warriors, this one carries the most weight.
If Paul stays healthy, Houston has a much better shot at finishing the series. That likely means no 2018 title for Golden State.
Maybe the Warriors still end up with three championships in this stretch, but the ripple effects would still be enormous. James Harden and Paul might finally have rings.
If not, LeBron James could have added another title in Cleveland. The Rockets might even have stayed a force in the West for longer.
Instead, Harden and Paul remain without a title, that Rockets era fades a year later, and Curry and Kevin Durant get to keep the “never lost a series together when healthy” line on their résumés.
Klay Thompson’s injuries belong high on the list too, and for different reasons. His torn ACL in Game 6 of the 2019 Finals against the Raptors may have cost the Warriors a championship.
He was playing the best basketball of his career before going down, and Golden State lost that game and the series. Then came the torn Achilles in the lead-up to the 2020-21 season after he had already missed all of 2019-20.
Thompson somehow came back from both injuries and helped the Warriors win the 2022 title. But that ring doesn’t erase the bigger what if.
If he never gets hit with those injuries, the Warriors probably remain major contenders every year after Durant left. Instead, Thompson and Golden State ended their 13-year partnership in 2024.
A pair of related moments tie into Durant’s arrival, and they’re too connected to separate. Thompson’s huge Game 6 against Oklahoma City in the 2016 Western Conference Finals helped the Warriors erase a 3-1 deficit and reach the Finals.
If that comeback never happens, Golden State probably never gets the chance to pursue Durant in free agency. Thompson’s performance itself isn’t exactly a what if in the usual sense, but the path it created matters.
The bigger swing came in the 2016 Finals. Draymond Green was suspended for Game 5 after accumulating flagrant foul points following his swipe at LeBron James. Golden State lost that game, then lost the next two, becoming the first team in NBA history to blow a 3-1 lead in the Finals.
Had the Warriors closed it out, Durant probably doesn’t sign with them. Maybe Golden State doesn’t push as hard, and maybe Durant sees joining a back-to-back champion as a nonstarter for his legacy.
Instead, he signed with the Warriors, and they won the next two titles. Green’s suspension helped create one Finals loss and, indirectly, two championships after that.
The two biggest what ifs may have stopped the dynasty before it ever really began.
Before the 2014 draft, the Warriors were considering sending Thompson out as the centerpiece of a Kevin Love deal. It made sense at the time.
Green hadn’t yet become the star power forward he would become, so the idea was to build around Curry, Andre Iguodala, Harrison Barnes, Love and Andrew Bogut. Jerry West pushed hard against it, and Golden State’s immediate reward was a 67-win season and a championship.
There’s no telling whether Curry, Thompson and Green ever reach the same heights if that trade goes through.
And then there’s the one that’s become part of Warriors lore: the near-trade of Curry for Monta Ellis in 2012, with Bogut coming back the other way. How close it really was is still up for debate, but former Bucks co-owner Marc Lasry said the Warriors actually offered Curry first and Milwaukee passed because of his injury history.
If that deal happens, Golden State may still be stuck in the title drought that began after 1975. And if Milwaukee then drafts Giannis Antetokounmpo in 2013, the Bucks could have had Curry and Giannis in their primes for a decade.
Maybe the Warriors could have survived trading Thompson for Love. Trading Curry for Bogut is another story entirely. That’s the one they couldn’t have come back from.
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For Russell, the larger issue is the same one that has shadowed him for a while now: where does he fit, and who still sees a clear role for him? He did not play for the Wizards after signing there, and if Memphis moves on, the next chapter would likely be as a free agent trying to latch onto a veteran team that still wants a backup point guard and believes there is something useful left in his game. [Read more 🡒]