Steve Kerr believed and also made his Warriors team believe that they were there to win it all this season whatever might be their odds.
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When the 2021-22 season started, everyone was expecting the Golden State Warriors to perform well and gradually get back to where they were a couple of years ago.
Los Angeles Lakers had the best odds to win it all in the West, while Brooklyn Nets had the best odds to win it all. Fast-forward seven and a half months, the Nets saw themselves out of the Playoffs in the first round while the Lakers didn’t even qualify.
Meanwhile, the Warriors, who were playing in their first post-season in 3 years, are going to play their 6th Finals in 8 years. That’s obviously the fastest route to the Finals by any team in the history who had failed to make the playoffs for 2-straight seasons.
That impossible ask was never much of a big task for Steve Kerr once his Dubs did well enough to finish 3rd in their conference. The man had never lost a Western Conference Playoffs series as a coach, and he wanted to keep his record clean.
Steve Kerr told Stephen Curry and Co. to win it all this season when they faced Kevin Durant, James Harden, and the Nets for the first time
In November 2021, when the Dubs were just 14 games into the season but were playing against the title favorites Brooklyn Nets led by Kevin Durant and James Harden, there is a clip of the former Bulls and Spurs sharpshooter which shows his clear expectations from his team, it was to win it all.
Even early on in the regular season (11/16/21), Steve Kerr had his sights set on a title run for the Warriors. pic.twitter.com/ucEvMUoOk4
— NBA (@NBA) June 1, 2022
Most of us thought that Dub Nation was just too hyped up to get the other Splash Brother back in the starting line-up, forgetting the fact that Klay Thompson had missed the last two seasons and wouldn’t be available until the year-end.
Apart from that, they just had a young squad of rookies, sophomores, or role players who might just be good enough to make it to the Playoffs and nothing more.
Little did we know that Andrew Wiggins would be an All-Star and Jordan Poole would get shout-outs to be the third Splash Brother. Gary Payton II, Jonathan Kuminga, and Moses Moody would become some of the best role players in the league.
All of that and their core of arguably the best trio of all time has finally given them a strong chance to win it all, once again.