Dominance in the NBA can be recognized not just in how much a team wins, but in how far its ideas spread. The Warriors remade the entire league in their image. By the end of last season, most teams with a hope of contention were either imitating Golden State’s systems, tailoring their rosters in direct response, or both. The highest levels of professional basketball were effectively styled to a single team.
There were echoes in Houston, where the Rockets acquired players for the explicit purpose of countering what the Warriors do best; in Boston, where the precedent set by the Warriors led the Celtics to stack their roster with wings; in Denver, where the Nuggets riffed on the kind of ball and player movement that the Warriors made trendy; in Milwaukee, where the three-point revolution continued apace; and even in Toronto, where the Raptors turned some of the Warriors’ own tricks against them on their way to the championship.