What We Learned From Celtics-Warriors 2022 NBA Finals
Stephen Curry, Klay Thompson and Draymond Green have been one of the most dominant trios in the NBA over the last several years and on Thursday night against the Boston Celtics, they once again led the Golden State Warriors to basketball immortality.
Winning their fourth title in the last eight seasons, this All-Star trio has cemented the legacy of the Warriors as one of the league’s greatest dynasties and their performance all year long was something special.
Three years ago in the 2019 NBA Finals, Kevin Durant suffered a torn Achilles and Klay Thompson suffered a torn ACL, resulting in the Warriors losing in the Finals. Many thought this would be the end of an era for Golden State, especially since Durant left the team in free agency, Thompson was out the entire 2019-20 season due to ACL recovery and then just a few games into the new year, Curry suffered a broken hand.
The Warriors went on to finish 15-50 during the 2019-20 year, the worst record in the NBA and their worst record as a franchise since they won just 12 games as the Philadelphia Warriors during the 1952-53 season.
The following 2020-21 season, Klay Thompson was forced to miss yet another year after rupturing his Achilles tendon, Draymond Green was forced to miss some time with nagging injuries and Golden State failed to earn a playoff spot, losing in the Western Conference Play-In Tournament.
The 2021-22 season had a chance to be special for the Warriors given that almost everyone was beginning to year healthy and the fact that Klay Thompson would be returning at some point. Now, almost exactly eight months after the start of this season, the Warriors find themselves back on top of the NBA world as champions.
The dominance this team showed throughout this series against the Celtics was legendary and after trailing 2-1 and facing a scenario where they could go down 3-1 in the NBA Finals, the Warriors never looked worried and they were able to rattle off three consecutive victories against one of the league’s best defensive teams.
Stephen Curry is now a Finals MVP for the first time in his career and while they have won three championships prior to this one, this year’s title definitely has more meaning behind it for Curry, Thompson and Green, especially given all of the obstacles that have been in their way the last two seasons.
The Golden State Warriors are now back on top of the NBA and here are some of the biggest takeaways from the 2022 NBA Finals.
This Is The Start Of A New Era For Golden State
Winning four championships in eight seasons is an incredible feat for the Golden State Warriors and this achievement promptly makes them one of the greatest dynasties in NBA history. However, this title does not mean the continuation of an era.
This is the start of something new for the Warriors.
When you look at this group’s first title in 2015, Stephen Curry was only 26-years-old and both Klay Thompson and Draymond Green were 24. While they were the “babies” of their team, they were also the leaders of a team full of veteran talents like Andre Iguodala, Andrew Bogut, Shaun Livingston and others.
Fast-forward to the 2017 and 2018 championships and while this group was older, they also had a guy by the name of Kevin Durant by their sides and he is pretty good at basketball.
Losing in the 2019 NBA Finals presented a hard “reset” for the Warriors not only because of injuries, but because many teams in the league were beginning to catch up to them. The Warriors’ lack of depth and sudden disappearance of their youth due to Curry, Thompson and Green getting older was definitely a concerning sight.
Management and ownership did a fantastic job during the dark years of this franchise from 2019-2021 putting the pieces in place to make sure they could be a contending team during the 2021-22 season. Everyone knew this team could be really good if they were at full-strength, including the Warriors, but very little thought it was actually possible that they could get back to the NBA Finals and actually win another title.
Well, here we are, the Warriors have won yet another title and they not only did so with their now veteran core of Curry, Thompson and Green, but they did so with their depth of young, rising talent.
Former No. 1 overall pick and 26-year-old forward Andrew Wiggins was absolutely fantastic all season and postseason long for the Warriors. Jordan Poole and Gary Payton II were both in the G League not too long ago and proved to be vital parts of this championship equation this season. Jonathan Kuminga and Moses Moody barely played in the postseason, but they each showed massive potential during the regular season in their rookie years.
Oh, and we cannot fail to mention that James Wiseman, a 7’0” athletic big man who was taken No. 2 overall in 2020 will be back and healthy next season!
This championship by the Warriors was not the continuation of an older era, it was the coronation of a new era in Warriors history.
While this era is still going to be led by Curry, Thompson and Green, slowly but surely, this wealth of young talent in Wiggins, Poole, Kuminga, Moody, Wiseman and others will begin to take over and be the new faces of the Golden State Warriors as they look to be championship contenders for at least the next decade.
The Warriors are back and quite honestly, they are better than they were before, which is scary to think about!
No Rebuild In Sight For Boston
Following their loss on the road to the Atlanta Hawks on January 28, the Boston Celtics were 25-25 and with the NBA trade deadline just two weeks from that loss, many were calling for the Celtics to blow things up.
At .500 on the year through 50 games, Boston looked like a team that was on the verge of missing the playoffs altogether in the Eastern Conference with the rise of teams like the Charlotte Hornets, Cleveland Cavaliers and Chicago Bulls.
From this point on, the Celtics went 26-6 to close out the regular season, claiming the 2-seed in the Eastern Conference and going 12-6 in the postseason to reach the NBA Finals for the first time since 2010.
Rebuild? Are you kidding me?
There were actually well respected people around the league calling for the Celtics to rebuild their roster and more specifically, they wanted the team to split up their All-Star duo of Jayson Tatum, who is 23-years-old, and Jaylen Brown, who is 25-years-old.
This would have been the biggest mistake in NBA history… Worse than J.R. Smith forgetting how much time was on the clock in the 2018 NBA Finals, the Minnesota Timberwolves passing up on Stephen Curry twice in the 2009 NBA Draft and the Charlotte Hornets trading Kobe Bryant for Vlade Divac in 1996.
Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown are two of the better two-way wings in the NBA right now and being as young as they are, reaching the NBA Finals this season was a major accomplishment for them and the Boston Celtics as a whole.
The job Brad Stevens has done in the Celtics’ front-office in just his first season was highly impressive and now, this team has a massive foundation to build off of heading into the offseason.
The Celtics are nowhere near having to a rebuild right now and heading into the offseason, they are going to be ranked as the No. 2 team in the league only trailing the Golden State Warriors!
Having a handful of draft capital through the next few seasons and a ton of trade exceptions to play around with, Boston will be in the playoffs once again next year and will undoubtedly be a team to beat in the Eastern Conference.
Kevon Looney Is Truly One Of The Best Role Players In The NBA
Stephen Curry, Klay Thompson, Draymond Green, Jordan Poole and Andrew Wiggins are all the top-tier players on the Warriors’ roster and they all led this team at different points in the season, but perhaps the team’s most important player is Kevon Looney.
Not only is he the definition of consistency, but Looney really stepped up when it mattered most in the postseason this year, posting a career-high 22 rebounds in Game 6 of the Western Conference Semifinals against the Memphis Grizzlies and really making an impact on the offensive glass all postseason long.
Not to mention, Looney played in all 82 games for the Warriors during the regular season and he played in all 22 playoff games for them this year.
That’s 104 games that Looney played in this year!
From defending taller, stronger centers in this league to being able to switch out on the perimeter to guards and wings to being able to rebound on both ends of the court to really proving that he can be a starting center in this league, Kevon Looney did everything for the Warriors this season.
The Warriors would not have been a championship contender without Kevon Looney this year and with his play on both ends of the floor, he has really proven to be one of the better “glue guys” in the entire league given his ability to hold things together for Golden State.
He may be undersized for a center and may not be the most skilled big man in the league, but Looney plays his role to perfection and because of that, he is now a three-time champion with the Warriors.
Celtics Must Address Depth In The Offseason
If there is one thing we learned from the 2022 NBA Finals besides the fact that the Warriors are a dynasty, it is that the Boston Celtics really need to get some help for Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown.
Andrew Wiggins really did a fantastic job defending Tatum all series long and taking him out of his comfort zone, leaving the Celtics’ offense almost non-existent at times. Brown can only do so much by himself when Tatum is not hitting shots, and vice versa, which is why the main goal of the Celtics in the offseason should be to add talent across the board.
Al Horford is now 35-years-old, making his upside heading into next year worrisome, and both Marcus Smart and Derrick White are solid secondary scoring options, but they have been very streaky shooters at times.
Of course you could float the idea of adding a third star to this roster, but at the end of the day, all the Celtics need are a couple of extra shooters and scorers that they can turn to off-the-bench.
Boston ranked 26th in the league in bench scoring during the 2021-22 season and in the NBA Finals, their bench averaged just 20.7 points per game. This is including points scored in “garbage time,” when the game has already been decided, by the end of their bench.
The Celtics have a handful of trade exceptions they could look to utilize in the offseason and they will likely have to do so if they are to prove that they can actually win a championship with Tatum and Brown.
Every championship team is led by All-Star talents, but they always have key scoring weapons around them.
All of the teams in Celtics’ history that won a title were built like this and the team the Celtics just lost to in the 2022 NBA Finals was built like this!
With a little more depth and production from their bench, the Celtics could absolutely turn themselves into the best team in the NBA and win a title.
