Sam Amick

USA TODAY Sports

CLEVELAND – When the Golden State Warriors won it all a year ago, there was a scary sense in NBA circles that this would become the new norm.

There was, most agreed, some potential for a dynasty here.

Stephen Curry, Klay Thompson and Draymond Green – all budding stars in their prime – each had contracts that weren’t expiring anytime soon. Coach Steve Kerr had proven adept at pulling all the right strings. And when the time came to make sure their core stayed put, Joe Lacob and the rest of the Warriors’ ownership group had made it clear at every turn that they’d pay up.

But as the past few weeks have shown, it’s not quite that simple.

After the 73-win regular season that had the Warriors looking so far ahead of the pack, the Oklahoma City Thunder shattered that air of invincibility with a Western Conference Finals slugfest. The margin of error, the basketball world could see, wasn’t quite what we may have believed.

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Then came the NBA Finals rematch with the Cleveland Cavaliers, a one-sided series that has reaffirmed yet again that the Warriors need more than the Curry-Thompson-Green trio to remain at this elite level in the years to come. Backup point guard Shaun Livingston was the unofficial MVP of Game 1, scoring 20 points while super subs like Andre Iguodala and veteran speedster Leandro Barbosa played pivotal roles. Role players were huge yet again in Game 2, when big man Andrew Bogut put a lid on the rim early on and so many of “the others,” as TNT analyst Charles Barkley always refers to the non-superstars, turned in key performances.

There’s a reason the team motto is “Strength in Numbers,” but it won’t be easy for the Warriors to live up to that mantra after this season.

For all the talk of how free-agent-to-be Kevin Durant might leave Oklahoma City and come the Warriors’ way this summer, the overlooked part in the discussion about the defending champions is how they have eight players who are set to be free agents. All it takes is a few wrong moves, and perhaps some altered team chemistry, and this dominant group could be on the decline.

Say what you will about restricted-free-agent-to-be Harrison Barnes, who is sure to command huge dollars on the open market with the league’s salary cap about to spike from $70 million to $92 million, but he’s a productive puzzle piece on an all-time team. Backup big man Festus Ezeli (also restricted) is a puzzle in his own right, especially when one considers the impact of starting center Andrew Bogut in the Finals and his desire for an extension this summer that he has long since made public.

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Barbosa, the 33-year-old who scored 21 points in 29 minutes through the first two games, is an unrestricted free agent. Big man Marreese Speights, whose scoring punch off the bench (7.1 points and 11.1 minutes per game) was such a luxury during the regular season, is also an unrestricted free agent. Ditto for center Anderson Varejao, who came their way midseason and had a few memorable postseason moments.

Veteran small forward Brandon Rush, who was the starter during an early season stretch in which the Warriors went 13-2 while Barnes recovered from an ankle injury, is also unrestricted. Ian Clark (promising young shooting guard who scored 21 points against the Dallas Mavericks on Dec. 30) and James McAdoo (a 23-year-old forward who came through their D-League system) are both restricted free agents.

These are all questions to be answered next month as the Warriors’ repeat effort remains the priority for now. But the future, and the degree to which it’s promising, is more unclear than you might think.