5 reasons the Warriors should be big championship favorites

4. Steph Curry is on another planet right now

If the 2021-22 Warriors were ever going to be in contention to win another title for the franchise, much of the onus was always going to fall on Stephen Curry. Suffice it to say, he’s been more than up to the challenge thus far.

On the most basic level, his numbers have been unreal. Coming into Tuesday, he was averaging 28.1 points, 6.7 assists, 6.2 rebounds and 1.7 steals in 33.9 minutes per game this season while shooting 44.2 percent from the field and 38.7 percent from 3-point range. But it goes beyond that.

Curry, entering the Nets game, ranked fifth in the NBA in net rating (+18.6) among players averaging more than 15 minutes per game. And of those players in the top five of that category, he was the only one averaging more than 22.8 minutes per contest. The Warriors have been thriving and feeding off their superstar and he keeps giving them sustenance to take in.

3. Depth contributing in major ways

One of the big areas in which the Warriors have struggled in noticeable ways of late has been with the depth on the roster. Without Klay Thompson on the floor, the depth has been sorely lacking for Golden State and they haven’t totally had the bodies on any part of the roster to make up for that. So far this season, though, we’ve seen that start to change in a substantial way, particularly with guys like Jordan Poole coming off the bench and being major factors.

While several of Golden State’s blowout wins have contributed to this, the Warriors ranked seventh in the NBA in bench scoring coming into Tuesday’s matchup in Brooklyn and fifth in field goal percentage from bench players on the season. Oh yeah, they also lead the league in rebounds and assists off the bench, furthering how well the depth has been performing and showing that this isn’t just Green, Steph and then everyone else this season.