When the 16-17 Warriors put their five best players on the court and get into an offensive groove they will be the least containable team in NBA history, and I’m not sure that is even up for debate. Whether or not there’s some unforeseen chemistry issue that prevents them from consistently clicking with each other or figuring out the right shot distribution is all that some believe could stand between them and an easy championship run.

But there might be something else, and it’s at the center position.

The upgrade that Kevin Durant represents is so blindingly obvious that it overshadows how much of a downgrade Zaza Pachulia and Anderson Varejao are from Andrew Bogut and Festus Ezeli. The degree to which the Warriors’ centers are ineffective could have a ripple effect that leads to perhaps their only kryptonite.

Grabbing Pachulia at less than $3 million is a steal for his locker room leadership alone. Pachulia willingly shouldered a massive burden for the Mavericks early last season. It was admirable, and he put up some great numbers in the process. He even almost found himself in the All-Star game. Pachulia is truly a great guy by any locker-room metric, and he deserves credit for giving Dallas everything he had.

Unfortunately, the Mavericks might have broken him in the process, and the sad truth is that it was never sustainable in the first place. Pachulia’s nice start to last season earned him a feel-good narrative all year, but the reality is that his performance in the second-half of the year was an absolute train wreck. He was a shell of what a starting center is supposed to look like. Per NBA Stats, post All-Star break Pachulia shot 52.6 percent in the restricted area, and 14 of the 78 shots he took in the restricted area during that time were blocked. Take a second to process that. If Pachulia attempted a field goal directly under the basket it was essentially a coin flip whether he was going to make it. He was the team’s biggest offensive liability, and with little-to-no defensive value he had mostly played himself out of the rotation by playoff time.

If the Warriors plan on putting Pachulia in the starting lineup, don’t expect that to last. The weak link he’ll represent will be glaring. He can’t come close to offering what Bogut did on the defensive end. Offensively, Pachulia is a decent passer at center, but not nearly as skilled as Bogut. The biggest problem, though, is that he might be the slowest player in the NBA. Poor Zaza might break into a million pieces trying to keep up with the Warriors’ pace.

It’s somewhat baffling that Varejao will be a part of such a potentially dominant team. Effort is just about the only thing that he brings to the table. At this point of his career, there probably isn’t a single thing he can do on either side of the ball that every single backup center in the NBA can’t do as good or better.

The Warriors' top three leaders in dunks last season were Bogut, Barnes, and Ezeli. Durant will lead them in dunks this season, but Pachulia and Varejao will not replace Bogut and Ezeli in that regard. It’s no secret the Warriors’ dominance will come from their unprecedented range and spacing. That will be crucial because they won’t have big men capable of finishing at the rim.

Pachulia and Varejao aren’t just the type of centers who will be outplayed by more dominant or skilled centers. They are the type of big men who make mistakes on defense that can counteract perfect positioning by the other four Warriors. They are incompetent offensive players who make it much easier to use double teams. They won’t be respected on offense and will be deliberately singled out on defense.

Perhaps most importantly, is that the Warriors will seriously lack rim protection. Players who get to the rim will finish on them, consistently. And you don’t need to be reminded how many players in the NBA specialize in attacking the basket. Inserting the Death Lineup could remedy this, but once explosive players get a few layups or dunks they become very hard to contain even as the defense improves. You don’t want to give Russell Westbrook, John Wall or Damian Lillard easy layups and hope that an adjustment will break their momentum.

While we’re on the subject of the Death Lineup, it’s obvious that playing Steph Curry, Klay Thompson, Durant, Andre Iguodala, and Draymond Green at the same time is the best counterargument to their problem at center. It’s not that simple though. The Death Lineup actually played somewhat sparingly last season. Their more traditional lineups were still dominant. The Death Lineup just happened to be nearly unstoppable when inserted late in the game with the other team already having played 40 minutes.

If Pachulia and Varejao prove to be so ineffective that they are costing the Warriors games then it might mean we start seeing the Death Lineup much earlier. That means Green playing heavy minutes at center over an 82-game season. Asking a 6’7 guy who plays as hard as anyone in the league to contend with centers that often is putting an enormous physical burden on him. Going to that lineup earlier will also mean more minutes for Iguodala who has already played just under 32,000 minutes in his career. Neither of those players can afford to be worn down come playoff time, because they are the two most integral defensive players on the roster.

The Warriors are even better suited to do what they do best, which is very scary. But it should be noted that, as things stand, there is nothing stopping LeBron James from doing exactly what he did to them last June. Not only was the way he dominated them not addressed, it has theoretically become even more of an issue with the departure of Bogut. If James wants to get to the rim against the Warriors he will. No one else in the league approaches his physical abilities, but you can be sure that others will attack them with the same mindset.

The Cavaliers enter next season just as primed to get to the Finals. The Warriors will be a more dangerous team, but LeBron’s formula to beat them won’t change.