Everybody has an opinion about the new-look Warriors with Kevin Durant in tow — how they’ll mesh together, how many championships they’ll win, and everything else. David Robinson, one of the greatest big men in NBA history who won two titles with the Spurs in 1999 and 2003, thinks it can work, but he doesn’t know for how long.
From Zach Frydenlund of Complex:Of course, with the Golden State Warriors signing Kevin Durant in July, the team in Oakland will be heavy favorites to come out of the West, but that’s not stopping “The Admiral” from believing in the team that he won two titles with. “It takes time, you look at what happened with LeBron, Wade, and Bosh. It took them a year or two to get their legs underneath them and figure things out and even then that run was relatively short,” he mentioned. “So if you’re able to put together a team like this, you’re generally going to have a short window because you can’t pay all those guys to keep them together. There’s the short window that’s going to end relatively quickly and it’s not as easy as going out to play.”
In particular, Robinson brought up the Warriors losing a few key role players this summer in the pursuit of Durant, which might mess with chemistry early on. “It’s not that easy and people can say what they want to say, but it’s still up in the air,” he said. “Nobody thought Cleveland would win the championship this year. There were four teams in the West they said they couldn’t beat and they were down 3-1 and they came back and won so you just never know. You can’t write the script.”Robinson isn’t wrong — especially with the new CBA negotiations looming, there’s no telling how long the Warriors will be able to keep this group together, and there’s a chance it could take some time for the different pieces to blend together. And the loss of Andrew Bogut and Festus Ezeli leaves them somewhat thin up front. But the presence of Durant and his fit with Stephen Curry and Klay Thompson should be enough to mitigate that.