Why the Big-3 Boston Celtics are not a good comparison to the present-day Warriors

For an inexplicable reason, the potential fall of the Steve Kerr-era Golden State Warriors is being compared to what happened to the “Big-3” era Boston Celtics. Here’s why that’s a poor comparison.

For some reason, the lull of the quarantine and lack of an NBA season had some NBA executive making a flawed comparison of the dynastic Golden State Warriors of the last half decade to the “Big-3” era Boston Celtics.

The quote in question:

"“There is no guy you’d give up the No. 1 pick and Andrew Wiggins for,” the executive said. “I don’t know that that guy is available. Besides, if you do go all in and trade Wiggins and the pick for some 30-year-old star, now you’re looking at your core all aging out at the same time. You don’t want to wake up and find yourself like the Celtics.”"

Excuse me…you don’t want to wake up and find yourself like the Celtics? Was that a member of the Los Angeles Lakers organisation stirring the rivalry pot or a foolish general manager jealous of the rebuild that Danny Ainge and co. were able to engineer when he saw the writing on the wall for the end of the Doc Rivers era?

Anyway, waking up like the Boston Celtics would be a win for most teams. After the team fell to the #7 seed in the 2012-13 season after Ray Allen‘s departure in the summer of 2012, Ainge restructured the roster with the losses of Paul Pierce and Kevin Garnett.

After losing their entire core–and dealing with the injuries and eventual locker-room troubles their last star Rajon Rondo had–the C’s returned to the playoffs in 2015 after just one season. In addition to drafting in the mid to late first round for the years following the tear-down, they drafted two franchise cornerstones in Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown with the picks they received from the Brooklyn Nets.

The thing is, the Warriors will have already had their 2013-14 equivalent season–otherwise known as a year without a playoffs. Lucky them, they had the year where every team might not have playoffs too.

On the other side of this gap-year, though, is a team that can still contend. Steph Curry, Klay Thompson and Draymond Green have all had various ailments throughout the last year, but they will all be returning in their early 30’s for the 2020-21 season.

The Warriors are still competitive, if not outright contenders. This isn’t the end of their careers. When that time does come, the circumstances will also be different. The Golden State trio all were drafted by the Warriors and have three titles and five Western Conference titles to their name.

The likely end of this dynasty will likely involve the team going all in, and given the way things tend to fall in line for Golden State, succeeding in adding another franchise changing star. Whereas the Boston Celtics were left with Kris Humphries, Gerald Wallace and MarShon Brooks when they transitioned into a new era, the Warriors may have Curry, Thompson and Green carried to the ends of their careers with a new marquee name in tow.

With all of that said, I’ll wake up and find myself like the Celtics any day of the week!