The Golden State Warriors are making general manager Mike Dunleavy Jr. for his belief in their ability to turn things around when he opted not to make any moves at the trade deadline.
Things are going so well for the Warriors right now that Draymond Green said on the latest episode of his podcast they are "100 percent" title contenders and there's no team in the league "that we couldn't beat."
The Volume @TheVolumeSports"I 100% believe that we are legit title contenders … I don't see any team out there that we couldn't beat"<br><br>—<a href="">@Money23Green</a> isn't worried about the Warriors slow start to the season 🗣️ <a href="">
There was an assumption the Warriors would make at least one notable move ahead of the deadline in an attempt to at least shake things up amid their ongoing struggles.
Instead, Dunleavy told reporters after the trade deadline that while they did explore potential moves, they liked where the team was heading.
"We feel like we're getting better," Dunleavy said. "And we didn't want to do anything that we felt would be any rash or an overreaction to anything."
Since Feb. 5, three days before the trade deadline, the Warriors have won eight of nine games. Their only loss was to the Los Angeles Clippers on Feb. 14 in a game they led by 14 going into the fourth quarter.
Head coach Steve Kerr's team is three games over the .500 mark (29-26) for the first time since starting the season 6-3.
If there is one hole to poke in this recent hot stretch for the Warriors, it's their strength of schedule. They have wins over the Philadelphia 76ers without Joel Embiid and Los Angeles Lakers without LeBron James.
Golden State's best victories during this run are over the Indiana Pacers and Phoenix Suns.
Per Tankathon.com, the Warriors have the sixth-easiest remaining schedule with their opponents owning a combined .478 winning percentage.
Sunday might be the most important game the Warriors have left in the regular season as far as evaluating them as true title contenders. They host the reigning NBA champion Denver Nuggets at 7 p.m. ET.
The Nuggets have won all three head-to-head matchups against the Warriors this season, but those games have been decided by a combined total of 12 points.
Green didn't play in any of those previous three games. He sat out the first meeting on Nov. 8 for personal reasons and was serving a suspension for the Dec. 25 and Jan. 4 games.
