Dynasty Warriors: Golden State proves unstoppable in title run

CLEVELAND -- Before the Hamptons, before light-years ahead, and before Jurassic basketball thinkers had to concede that a small team could actually win an NBA championship with jump-shooting, finesse and defense, nobody spoke of the Golden State Warriors as a squad with multiple Hall of Famers, let alone one.

The Warriors are celebrating their third title on Friday night after beating the Cavaliers 108-85, with a signature third-quarter run that buried their beleaguered opponent. For the Warriors dynasty -- and it's now a dynasty -- the sweep is yet another achievement. But it's easy to forget that, four years ago, they were a team that couldn't survive a first-round series against the LA Clippers.

Stephen Curry was an impish one-time All-Star, a novelty shooter who could delight with a 54-point outburst at the Garden, but nobody you'd ride deep into the playoffs -- certainly not on those ankles. Klay Thompson was potential trade bait for Kevin Love, which was just as well because who wants to pay a shooting guard with an indifference to defense and a limited game off the dribble a max contract?

In the summer of 2014, the Warriors' basketball operations brain trust sat in general manager Bob Myers' office to sketch out what the team's rotation might look like in the upcoming season. Alongside each player on the whiteboard written in dry-erase ink was a designated number of minutes. Next to Draymond Green's name was scrawled: "12."

Time moves quickly in the NBA, and even before the arrival of Kevin Durant, the Warriors transformed themselves from a collection of imperfect pieces into basketball's Bolshoi Ballet, a nightly exhibition of oohs and ahhs that won a championship in 2015, then followed it up with a 73-9 season. For the better part of the past two weeks, LeBron James has highlighted these accomplishments repeatedly for everyone within earshot, then reminded them that the Warriors -- a team he says has "four Hall of Famers" and is basketball's equivalent of the New England Patriots -- added an all-time great in Durant.