The 10 reasons why the Golden State Warriors will repeat as champions

Steph Curry’s 2017 numbers were better than the numbers he had in his first MVP season in 2015, and he was somehow seen as having a down year. 2017 was his worst year behind the 3-point line, and he still shot 41 percent on 10 attempts per night. At age 28, Curry is in his prime and will be playing to live up to his brand new five-year, $201 million extension.

KD is having a weird summer, but none of that changes the fact that he’s nipping at LeBron James’ heels for the title of best basketball player in the world. KD is the reigning Finals MVP and is only going to get better in his second year playing in the Warriors ecosystem. His team-friendly contract allowed the Warriors to re-sign some key free agents this summer.

With Curry taken care of, Klay Thompson will be looking to shake off the stink of his poor shooting postseason, especially with his free agency looming this summer. Don’t expect Thompson to play outside of his role, but do expect him to excel in everything head coach Steve Kerr asks of him this year.

For everything the Warriors do well on the offensive end of the floor, there’s no way they finish the last three seasons with trips to the Finals without getting stops. The Warriors finished the 2016-17 season with the second-best defensive rating (104.0) and were the best at defending the 3-ball (opponents shot just .324 from deep last year). It starts with Draymond Green, but everyone has bought in on that side of the floor.

The Warriors added Nick Young and Omri Casspi to a bench that was second in the NBA in NetRtg and had the league’s best TS%. The Warriors were already incredibly deep with Andre Iguodala, Shaun Livingston, JaVale McGee, Zaza Pachulia and David West coming off the bench. Young and Casspi are just two more guys who can step in for a scoring punch as a reserve or start on the nights that Kerr rests starters.

Andre Iguodala received a three-year, $48 million deal. Shaun Livingston got 3 years and $24 million. Zaza Pachulia signed a one-year, $3.5 million deal. David West and JaVale McGee are back on a one-year, veteran-minimum deals. All five guys played important roles in the team’s 16-1 playoff run and will be key as a part of the regular rotation or as a part of the culture if the Warriors are to win their third title in four years.

If you were going to pick a single team to take the Warriors down, it would be the team that has faced Golden State in each of the last three Finals matchups, taking one of them. LeBron James, Kevin Love and Tristan Thompson remain, Derrick Rose and Isaiah Thomas are new faces, but Kyrie is gone. And we don’t know what that means for Cleveland yet.

While the Clippers are still a very good basketball team, they’re no longer the Lob City version of themselves without the crafty Chris Paul running the show. This is unquestionably Blake Griffin’s team now, but with his injury history, where does the team go if Griffin misses significant time now? They’ve always played the Warriors tough, or at least gave the appearance that they did. Without CP3 in L.A., there’s one less team out west for GSW to worry about.

With the season starting a week earlier, it gave schedule makers the ability to give players more rest between games. There are 40 fewer back-to-back instances this year, no team will play four games in five nights or 18 games over a 30-year stretch. This is good news for everyone, but especially for teams with championship aspirations. Injuries have been a huge issue in recent years, and if the Warriors can stay relatively healthy heading into April, it’s hard to imagine them losing any seven-game series.

Chronic headaches kept Steve Kerr out of the first 11 games of the Warriors postseason run, and while Mike Brown did an admirable job filling in for Kerr, the team is much better with their head coach on the sidelines. Kerr isn’t back to 100 percent, but he fully expects to be there all year and “for many years to come.”