Can Stephen Curry, Klay Thompson, Draymond Green, Harrison Barnes and the rest of the Golden State Warriors prove that last season was not a fluke? Throughout the 2015 offseason, some NBA players took a shot at the Warriors and how they had an “easy” run to the NBA title last season.

There’s the Houston Rockets new starting point guard Ty Lawson saying that Curry, who won the league’s Most Valuable Player award, was just “chilling on defense” for most of the year and was never really challenged on that side of the floor.

“Steph Curry needed someone to go back at him. I thought Steph was just chillin’ on defense – and then going crazy on offense. He looked like he was just putting shots up and not working so much on the defensive end,” Lawson said to Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo Sports. “He would just come down and hit three or four 3s. He can shoot when he’s got his legs under him.”

There’s also Doc Rivers, the head coach of heated rival Los Angeles Clippers, who claimed that the Warriors had an easy time in the playoffs by not playing the supposed strong teams like his team. “You need luck in the West. Look at Golden State. They didn’t have to play us or the Spurs,” Rivers told Zach Lowe of Grantland.com.

The Warriors key players, Curry, Thompson and Green have all responded to the criticisms. Curry via a sarcastic apology for their “luck”; Thompson by talking trash against Rivers; and Green by showing them their rings.

All three and the rest of the Warriors will now enter the season as motivated as ever in wanting to prove that they can repeat and defend their title. All three players are expected to carry the load for the Steve Kerr-coached Warriors again in the upcoming season.

In his MVP year, Curry averaged 23.8 points, 4.3 rebounds and 7.7 assists per game in the regular season but more importantly, he shot 44.3 per cent from behind the arc and averaged 3.6 made threes per ballgame, which makes him one of the most difficult players to guard in the league.

Curry’s MVP season helped the Warriors to a league best 67-15 win-loss record in the regular season and along with Thompson (21.7 points per game) and Green (11.7 points and 8.2 rebounds) made Golden State one of the most dynamic teams on both ends of the floor.

The Warriors’ supporting cast is also deep led by Barnes, who had career-highs of 10.1 points and 5.5 rebounds per game last year. The veteran presence of Andre Iguodala, who was the key guy in slowing down the Cleveland Cavaliers’ LeBron James in the 2015 NBA Finals and Australian centre Andre Bogut, who serves as the team’s rim protector and inside banger, will also return for the upcoming season.

2015-2016 Golden State Warriors Projected Depth Chart
Point Guards: Stephen Curry/Leandro Barbosa
Shooting Guards: Klay Thompson/Shaun Livingston/Brandon Rush
Small Forwards: Draymond Green/Andre Iguodala
Power Forwards: Harrison Barnes/Marreese Speights
Centres: Andrew Bogut/Jason Thompson/Festus Ezeli

Other 2015-2016 NBA Season Team Previews:
Dallas Mavericks, Dirk Nowitzki try to survive tough Western Conference
Memphis Grizzlies to continue ‘Grit N’ Grind’ style in new season
Houston Rockets, James Harden ready for another deep run in the new season

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