Stephen Curry has been saying all the right things this summer.
Curry remains upbeat about the Warriors’ prospects for the upcoming season despite Kevin Durant‘s departure to the Nets, Klay Thompson‘s knee injury and the loss of numerous other rotation players, including Andre Iguodala (trade) and Shaun Livingston (waived).
“It’s just a change in dynamic all the way around,” Curry said this month. “We’re excited about the opportunities, the challenges for the whole roster, because we’ve got a lot of guys that have the opportunity to really prove themselves and make a difference in our team. Obviously our core, ’til Klay gets back, we know how to win and we know how to play. We’re just going to do it a little differently.”
It’s uncertain if and when Thompson will return from his ACL injury. Most likely it will be after the All-Star break and the Warriors will certainly take a cautious approach with an All-Star who just signed a $190MM contract.
D’Angelo Russell was the team’s big offseason acquisition and it remains to be seen how he’ll mesh with Curry while playing off the ball. What they’ll do with Russell once Thompson is healthy enough to play is another major question mark.
The Warriors should have a decent one-two punch defensively at center with Kevon Looney and another off-season addition, Willie Cauley-Stein.
The remainder of the roster is dotted with young, unproven players and a couple of others trying to revive their careers. Their backup shooting guard options include Alec Burks, Jacob Evans and Jordan Poole. Alfonzo McKinnie, Glenn Robinson III, and two-way player Damion Lee are the main contenders at small forward while Omari Spellman, Alen Smailagic and Eric Paschall are the other big man reserves.
Hardly an imposing lot. The good news is that the trio of Curry, Russell and Draymond Green — provided he’s motivated and stays in top shape — are better than the top three players on most other rosters. Additionally, Steve Kerr is one of the top coaches in the league and will be out to prove he can maximize the talent he has on the roster.
That brings us to our question of the day: Will the Warriors make the playoffs during the upcoming season? If so, what is their postseason ceiling?
Please take to the comments section to weigh in on this topic. We look forward to your input.
If Green plays the way he did in the playoffs, than absolutely. Green played like an All NBA (Do it all forward) in the playoffs.
Curry is a two time MVP winner and is unselfish as hell. GS making the playoffs is very likely.
Are they a top 3 team in the west? Not anymore. But we could be surprised with how Kerr manages this team; especially once Klay is back.
I like the that Curry – Russell – Green can all handle the basketball, make plays and score as needed.
They also have plenty of shooters in their unproven bench. They will miss the steady turn-around midranges from Livingston and Durant. They’ll replace some of that with Russell’s floaters.
The big hole on this roster in my eyes is perimeter defense, especially until Klay gets back and their switch-heavy basically needs to be thrown out the window. They just don’t have the length / athleticism / basketball IQ without Iguodala.
Now that they have clear weaknesses with limited uptick in any strengths, I think they’ll be around middle of the pack until Klay comes back. They will be dangerous in the playoffs though. I can see them getting to the finals and upsetting some of the West with how dangerous the Curry – Klay – Draymond trio can be (assuming Klay comes back 100% by then).
Either way, they’ll be a fun team to watch and will prove a lot of doubters wrong. It’s hard to imagine how many people are sleeping on 3/5ths of a starting 5 that went to the finals so many years in a row.
The defense is what people are overlooking. Losing guys like Durant and Iggy, plus Klay for 55+ games, will have an enormous impact defensively. Green will be forced to guard the other team’s best player every game because Russell and Curry are average defenders at best.
?? Are you saying Durant covered the better forward instead of Green?
GSW will likely be working on their offense initially so it’s to predict the defense will slump, but that will end when Klay returns.
I think for a decent amount of time the Warriors have Green guard the other teams worst offensive player in order for Green to roam far away from his man and mainly be a help defender.
I think that once Klay comes back, he can play the 3, Russell and curry the 2 and 1… maybe the other way around. Draymond the 4 and wcs/looney holding down the 5. That team is as good as any when klay returns, assuming they can get this bench up to speed.
DRuss/McKinnie making some progression is the big question mark since I think Looney will out-defend Cousins/Bell/Lee, and WCS has the tools to be solid if the GSW FO works out the kinks. R&M have the tools to be better then they were previously and Paschall could be a find on D. Evans was supposed to be valued a lot for his D as well if he can ever figure it out.
yeah pretty much the whole league plays mediocre defense till the playoffs. Except for the handful of teams on the cusp for the 8th seed.
I do find it funny when somebody’s name is westbrook/harden talking defense. Rockets will have 0 defnse on the court its out score or lose
I have been working on the Livingston jumper for my game it is such a hard shot, but also so hard to defend. Livingston had some serious grace and fluidity to his movements.
Yeah, the only thing more graceful than Livingston’s jumper was probably KDs. I’ve messed around and tried to copy it both a little bit, but KDs is way too smooth and fluid and I Livingston has so much patience and poise like you say.
People forget the Warriors still have 4 All-Stars. Check out their depth chart for the next 3 years and their future outlook: link to prosportsoutlook.com
Easily
That was the word I missed on my post. Easy to predict a mediocre defense early on, but irrelevant for the playoffs.
The Warriors are going to end up in a very good spot by the end of the year. They have very good players Plus a couple of guys that know what it takes to win.
Adding Russell was huge because he can take workload off of Curry, perhaps even handling the ball more than Steph. They will lean on DeAngelo big time considering his ability and Youth. Thank goodness they walked away with something with Durant leaving. Great job by management.
I think a big addition was Alec Burks. He’s a pretty good player who’s just hit with the injury bug. He will make up for the inexperience at the wing with all these young guys. Hopefully Glenn Robinson can contribute also.
They’re trying Jacob Evans at the 1 but he doesn’t look like he’s got it to me. Poole and Paschal are rookies so you don’t know what to expect, though Pashcal is older and a little more polished than a freshman coming into the same spot.
The European big man will not be a factor this year back to the D-League to refine his game and get experience. I think he’s only 19. Hopefully they become good players.
Willie cauley-stein was an essential signing as well. They were lacking big time at the Five Spot before they were lucky enough to bring him in.
If Klay comes back strong Warriors are as good as anybody in the West. If he comes along slowly and isn’t at full speed in the first round of the playoffs, it could be a short season.
Yeah Steph is so good off the ball at constant movement that Russell/Green ball handling Curry open anytime the opponents are aggressively doubling and trapping Steph will be a solid counter attack.
Russell shoots the open catch and shoot well enough that we shouldnt see Janky defensive alignments on Curry anytime he is on the floor. Russell is young enough that he can eat up 38-40 mins so Curry doesnt get overworked and has space for his min.
They’re a playoff team, but that’s about it. If either Curry or Green need to miss substantial time, and/or KT doesn’t get back to full strength quicker than expected, I could even see them missing the playoffs and perhaps shutting it down early for the year. Not what they want with the new arena, but they’ve got to prioritize the longer term health of guys they now (or soon will) have under contract into their mid-30’s after playing a lot of basketball the past 5 years.
The Warriors have a lot to prove without KD and Klay for significant time whether or not their fans are ready to admit it. Getting Russell for him will help but he is no where near the impact on the game 35 had. This team just doesn’t have the star power anymore to match up with the LA teams, Utah, Denver or Portland.
The thing is, all the new duos have never played together before. Curry and green are two of the top players in the league and have been playing together for a long time. The warriors are still the team to beat until someone else steps up and proves otherwise. LeBron had a deeper roster last year and couldn’t even make the playoffs. Trading the entire team for Anthony davis doesn’t instantly make them a title contender. Modern “journalism” is hilariously not good.
Prime example of the desperate Warriors fan, so much BS in this post its hard to pick where to start. There is some truth to duos never playing togethere needing time to adjust but you completely ignore Dlo in that as he is supposed to be a major player for GSW next season. You also ignore how Draymond was the 4th option and not one of their prime stars and benefited from that to become the glue. Without Klay and KD, Draymond has to be more than the glue and overlooked hero. Combine that with Dlo and the Warriors basically do have the same adjustments the other teams need to make for their new stars. Your AD point is comical. The Lakers traded 1 good starter, 1 oft injured fringe starter and a role player for a top 5 player in the game. They did not trade the roster for AD, and AD will take the Lakers to the next level. The idea the Lakers were deeper last year is downright insane. This year they have another star and a better bench. Quite the mouthful but you said a lot of nonsense.
Suprised GSW didn’t bring some more NBA level role players to fill out there roster such as Lance Thomas, Jonothan Simmons. Their young punch will raise some eyebrows because the will play well but defence will be a big issue. I still think they are better off trading D Russell and bring in a SF and something. The Heat could offer Justice Winslow, Dion Waiters or Kelly Olynyk plus multiple seconds rounders. Winslow would be much better on D and showed good improvement on offence last season. Waiters or Olynyk would be good 1 year rotational pieces. Both Vets that can score the 3 well. Then some seconds for the future, but you’d have Curry Thompson Winslow and Green locked up long term.
Two words. Salary cap. The had to go with the hard cap this year when they bring in an outsider in.
You can still sign players on the Vets min and Thomas and Simmons would’ve been better than Glen Robinson or Alec Burks
I like Alec Burks a lot more than Jonathan Simmons. Every facet of the game.
And Lance Thomas is more of a power forward, where Glenn Robinson helps their need on the wing.
When Klay gets healthy and returns, they’ll still have three excellent returning players and a young gun in Russell. How the rest of the roster plays remains to be seen but I like WCS as a better fit than Boogie and Looney showed everyone how solid he is this past postseason.
Top team in the West? No. Top three? Not likely. Top six? Sure.
The Warriors will score and be fun to watch but who’s playing defense?
Draymond Green Defensive Player of the Year candidate. Klay Thompson excellent reputation as a Defender. Willie cauley-stein and Kevon Looney excellent defensive big men. Is that enough?
Plus if you read the report on Glenn Robinson it’s his defense that his strong point. Thing is I don’t know how much he’ll play. Or even will he make the team. But he’s a Defender also. Might even make the team because of that LOL. I don’t know
I think that once Klay comes back, he can play the 3, Russell and curry the 2 and 1… maybe the other way around. Draymond the 4 and wcs/looney holding down the 5. That team is as good as any when klay returns, assuming they can get this bench up to speed.