“I was on the Beatles back in ’96. I guess it’s fitting that I’m now with the Stones. Either way I was just a roadie setting up the stage for both teams.” 

That was Steve Kerr’s response to Rick Carlisle’s comparison between the Rolling Stones and the must-see attraction that is this year’s Golden State Warriors. But while the Rolling Stones certainly had a few momentous years, they’ve prospered off 50 years of longevity together. They’re still out there performing for thousands of excited dads. 

The Warriors are on the verge of the most impressive season in NBA history, and yet their future might end up being more historic than their present. Their core of Stephen Curry, Draymond Green and Klay Thompson would have seemed an unlikely dynasty even two years ago, but combining their likelihood of continued dominance with the opportunity to keep that core intact could lead to those three players becoming more successful than any trio in the modern NBA. 

It’s first worth looking at why Golden State will have an opportunity to maintain dominant status for years in a league where parity has kept even the most promising dynasties in check.

The Warriors are seen as representing a shift in how basketball is played. But history has proven these things to be cyclical. The NBA looks different every decade. What people fail to realize is that the shifts aren’t necessarily so prevalent because they are unquestionably the best way to play basketball; they are merely mastered by a select team or teams and copied by everyone else, which is how that style ends up epitomizing an era.

Eventually this style of basketball will evolve (in a small or big way) into whatever follows it. In a copycat league influenced by the criticism of stat-heavy writers and analysts who watch every game, the Warriors will enjoy the advantage of every team trying to replicate them instead of discovering what might be able to dethrone them. They misconstrue the Warriors as the unquestionable future of basketball when, in reality, they are actually the model or prototype for a type of game that only they have the personnel to play. That’s not to say that teams can’t be really successful doing things that the Warriors do, it’s just that the only way to be better than them at what they do is to have three players on the level of Curry, Thompson and Green. In other words, it’s a bit like studying the moves of a Powerball winner and trying to follow his or her path to wealth.

The most important part of basketball might be forcing your opponents to adjust to you. Great teams do it every game. The Warriors are doing it off the court. Teams are building their rosters in hopes that their versatile big man can be the next Draymond, coaching their young wings to be like Klay, and considering the notion of letting their shooters take shots only people named Steph should ever take. And we are only in the beginning stages of this trend.

The Spurs and their big men might be the only team willing and potentially able to take down Golden State playing an entirely different style as them. But if the Warriors are able to force them to bench Tim Duncan in crunch time while knocking San Antonio out of a series, then it might be seen as a deathblow to an antiquated form of basketball. What follows may be the Warriors dominating a lot of teams that are trying a lot harder to be them than they are to beat them. 

And all of this is accentuated by the possibility of internal improvement. Watching Steph knock down 40-footers and asking if it’s even possible for him to get better is fair. But what is possible is Curry, Thompson and Green improving upon their chemistry. The longer they play together the more they will understand about each other’s games. Improvement through continuity is universal, even within the best team the league has ever seen. It also helps that they seem to really, really like each other. 

In order to enter the conversation of historical dynasty, you might need more than one hand’s worth of rings, and Golden State actually has that type of potential. Obviously, any number of factors can prevent that. Westbrook and Durant, Lebron, or even the Spurs could put a wrench in it soon. The point, though, is that the Warriors are currently atop the league and have a more promising future than the greatest threats to dethrone them.

Their biggest threat might be a team stumbling into the league’s next evolution through a potentially transcendent player like Karl-Anthony Towns or maybe (but probably not) Ben Simmons.

This is all based on the assumption that Curry, Green and Thompson stick together. Green signed a max contract through 2020. It’s silly to call Green a system player, considering he’s the guy that makes the entire system function defensively. But Green’s unique skillset is only fully realized when everyone else is pulling their own weight. Call that a “system player” if you want, but the point is he wouldn’t benefit from trying to be “the man” on another team.

Thompson is signed through 2019. It’s not crazy to think that he might want to become a team’s best player. But among other qualities, Thompson can establish himself as one of the best shooters in NBA history. Big shots in big games will reflect much better upon him than gaudier stats on another team. And he has to be completely aware of the number of open looks he gets from playing with Curry.

And the idea of Curry walking away from this team after next year seems entirely unfathomable at the moment.

If the often-cited “Disease of More” is as real as many people think then perhaps it’s strong enough to eventually break this core up. And sure, we should all probably just live in and enjoy the moment. But these three players might have a future that involves them having over a fifty percent chance of winning the championship for five-plus years. That would obviously change how the history of the NBA is written and the legacy of a lot of different people.

The NBA always has and always will be impossible to predict with the slightest certainty. But right now it feels easier than it ever has been, and that might be the most impressive thing about the Warriors.