It’s easy to look at the NBA today and think that 30-foot jumpers and positionless lineups have always been the norm. They haven't. Honestly, the shift started in earnest back in June 2015. If you were watching the Finals that year, you witnessed a clash of philosophies that felt like a glitch in the matrix. On one side, you had LeBron James, basically a one-man army trying to brute-force a win for Cleveland. On the other, a skinny kid with bad ankles and a group of "undersized" wings who decided that math was better than muscle.
The Golden State Warriors won the NBA championship 2015, and while it sounds like ancient history now, that six-game series against the Cavaliers was the literal birth of the modern era.
Why the 2015 Warriors Were Such a Weird Story
People forget how much skepticism surrounded Steve Kerr’s team. Before that season, the "experts" were pretty much in agreement: jump-shooting teams don't win titles. It was a league of big men. You threw the ball in the post, you got fouled, and you ground out wins. Then came Steph Curry and Klay Thompson.
The Warriors finished the regular season with 67 wins. That’s insane. Yet, going into the postseason, plenty of folks still thought a "real" team like the Spurs or a LeBron-led squad would bully them off the court. Steph was the MVP, but he didn't look like an MVP from 1995. He looked like a guy you'd see at a local YMCA, right until he started pulling up from the logo.
Cleveland wasn't exactly a healthy opponent, though. This is the big "what if" that Cavs fans still bring up at bars. Kyrie Irving broke his kneecap in Game 1. Kevin Love was already out with a dislocated shoulder from the Boston series. It left LeBron James playing with a supporting cast of Matthew Dellavedova, Tristan Thompson, and Timofey Mozgov. It was ugly. It was gritty. And for a second, it actually worked.
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The Moment the Series Flipped
Cleveland actually took a 2-1 lead. It felt like the Warriors were suffocating. Steve Kerr knew he had to do something radical because his traditional center, Andrew Bogut, was getting killed in the pick-and-roll.
Enter the "Death Lineup."
Kerr moved Andre Iguodala into the starting lineup for Game 4, benching Bogut. They went small. Draymond Green moved to center. At the time, this was basketball heresy. How do you win a title without a seven-footer on the floor? You do it with speed. You do it by making the other team’s big men run until their lungs burn.
Iguodala was the X-factor. He didn't just hit shots; he was the primary defender on LeBron. Look, nobody "stops" LeBron James. He averaged 35.8 points, 13.3 rebounds, and 8.8 assists in that series. Those are video game numbers. But Iguodala made him work for every single inch. He made him inefficient. Because of that defensive effort, plus his timely scoring, Iguodala became the first player to win Finals MVP without starting a single game during the regular season.
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Steph Curry’s Role in the NBA Championship 2015
There is this weird narrative that Steph Curry played poorly in the 2015 Finals because he didn't win the MVP trophy. That’s just flat-out wrong.
Curry averaged 26 points and 6 assists. In the pivotal Game 5, he dropped 37. He was the gravity that pulled the defense apart, allowing guys like Shaun Livingston and Leandro Barbosa to find open lanes. Without Curry’s threat from deep, the small-ball experiment would have failed miserably. He changed the geometry of the court.
- Game 1: Warriors win in OT (108-100)
- Game 2: Cavs grind out a win (95-93)
- Game 3: Cleveland takes the lead (96-91)
- Game 4: The adjustment. Warriors blow them out (103-82)
- Game 5: Curry goes off (104-91)
- Game 6: The clincher in Cleveland (105-97)
Watching Game 6 was surreal. The energy in Quicken Loans Arena sucked out of the building as the Warriors realized they could just outrun the Cavs. Draymond Green put up a triple-double. The "Strength in Numbers" slogan wasn't just marketing fluff; it was how they played.
The Legacy of the 2015 Finals
You can trace almost every current NBA trend back to this specific series. The obsession with the three-pointer? That's 2015. The death of the traditional "back to the basket" center? 2015. The rise of the "3-and-D" wing player? 2015.
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The Warriors proved that skill could beat size. They showed that a high-IQ defense that switches everything is more valuable than one giant guy standing under the rim. It sparked an arms race. Teams like the Rockets spent the next five years trying to build "Warriors-lite" rosters, basically trying to out-shoot the masters.
What You Should Take Away
If you’re a basketball fan or even just someone interested in how dynasties start, the 2015 Finals is the blueprint. It wasn't just about talent; it was about the courage to change the system when the old way wasn't working.
To really understand the impact, look at how teams are built today. You don't see many "Twin Towers" lineups anymore. You see guards who can shoot from 30 feet and forwards who can guard five positions. That is the Golden State effect.
Next Steps for Deep Diving into NBA History:
- Watch the Game 4 Mini-Movie: The NBA’s official YouTube channel has "Mini-Movies" for the 2015 Finals. Watch Game 4 specifically to see the tactical shift when Iguodala joined the starters.
- Analyze the Box Scores: Check the shooting percentages for LeBron James versus the rest of his team. It highlights just how much heavy lifting he was doing without Irving and Love.
- Compare Shot Charts: Look at a shot chart from a 2010 Finals game and compare it to Game 6 of 2015. The "mid-range" area effectively disappears in the latter, replaced by a cluster of shots at the rim and behind the arc.
- Study the Salary Cap Spike: The Warriors winning in 2015 set the stage for the massive cap jump in 2016, which eventually allowed them to sign Kevin Durant—a move that arguably wouldn't have happened if they hadn't proven their system worked first.
The 2015 Golden State Warriors didn't just win a trophy. They ended one version of basketball and started another. Whether you love the "three-ball" era or miss the old-school grit, you have to respect the team that had the guts to prove the world wrong.