It's Warriors vs. the rest this season

OAKLAND, Calif. -- Days after the Golden State Warriors capped off what is perhaps the best three-year in run in NBA history with their second championship in June, Houston Rockets General Manager Daryl Morey made a proclamation:

"We are used to long odds," Morey told ESPN.com. "If Golden State makes the odds longer, we might up our risk profile and get even more aggressive. We have something up our sleeve."

What was up their sleeve was a clever and league-rattling trade for Clippers point guard and eight-time All-NBA selection Chris Paul.

"I guess he took some risks," Draymond Green chided Monday.

And Morey wasn't the only NBA general manager who "upped his risk profile" in response to the Warriors.

Simply put: Golden State's dominance led the NBA to lose its mind this past offseason.

From the second the confetti fell at Oracle Arena up until now, there hasn't been a quiet moment.

The NBA became a year-round league this year -- the drama and intrigue and pandemonium of this offseason guaranteed that.

And the Warriors' success guaranteed that.

When this Warriors team won their first title in 2015, no one saw it coming -- including the Warriors. Their 73-victory season the next year was capped by an unprecedented squandering of a 3-1 NBA Finals lead, but that laid the groundwork for the acquisition of Kevin Durant and last year's title.

The Warriors' rise to dominance happened so fast, but the Warriors are a known commodity now -- a steady target for the rest of the league.

Make no mistake, it really is the Warriors vs. the World.

And even with everything that happened, you have to like the Warriors' chances.

To recap: Over the summer, the Boston Celtics signed Gordon Hayward and traded for Kyrie Irving, the Oklahoma City Thunder traded for both Carmelo Anthony and Paul George, the Minnesota Timberwolves traded for Jimmy Butler, the Cavs added Isaiah Thomas, Derrick Rose, Jae Crowder and Dwyane Wade, and the Rockets traded for Paul.

Important moves like Paul Millsap signing with the Denver Nuggets barely registered with the public amid the bizarre game of musical chairs that was played around the NBA summer.

"That's the beauty of competition at the highest level," Warriors Coach Steve Kerr said. "Other teams make us better and vice versa."

But what else was the rest of the NBA supposed to do but go crazy this past offseason? The Warriors ran through the competition with ease last year -- after a 67-victory season where they never really figured things out, their only loss of the postseason required their opponents to make an NBA Finals record 24 three-pointers.

And there was no outward sign that the Warriors were going to fall back to the pack.

"These teams aren't just sitting back," Klay Thomson said. "Teams aren't waiting for something to happen. They're not waiting to get lucky. They're out there doing something about it and we take notice. And that's what keeps us on the edge, and it doesn't allow us to relax one bit."

Sure enough, the Warriors bolstered their roster this offseason, locking up Stephen Curry for five years, re-signing Kevin Durant, and adding solid bench pieces in both free agency and the draft.

Golden State enters this season with perhaps the best roster in modern NBA history and something they didn't have at the start of last year: Continuity.

While everyone else (save for the Spurs, because... well, they're the Spurs) is trying to figure out how to play together, the Warriors are going to be adding new wrinkles and concepts.

And while Kerr is advocating something different, the deep-down truth is that the Warriors aren't concerned with the competition -- they're concerned about complacency. The tired adage that every team uses -- well, it actually applies to the Warriors: The Warriors are the only team that can beat the Warriors.

Sports on 10/19/2017

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