The Warriors‘ championship this year vindicated the belief of team management and ownership that the team could build a “two-timeline” roster, using its lottery picks in 2020 and 2021 on young prospects rather than in trades for win-now help, writes Anthony Slater of The Athletic.
[RELATED: Warriors Win 2022 Title, Stephen Curry Named MVP]
As Slater details, president of basketball operations Bob Myers and owner Joe Lacob believed the roster was talented enough to contend for a title without having to trade those picks. Golden State ultimately opted to draft and develop James Wiseman, Jonathan Kuminga, and Moses Moody while continuing to lean on veterans like Stephen Curry, Draymond Green, Klay Thompson, and Andrew Wiggins.
“They were doubted,” Lacob said on Thursday night, referring to the Warriors’ veteran stars. “But these guys are not 40 years old. We believed in that core. Not many teams have a core four. A lot of people say core three. I say core four. We’re spending the money to do that. Then, we supplement and surround that team.
“I know some people thought we could’ve done more, got another star. But who were we going to get? Who was available that would make a difference? We didn’t think there was, and we really wanted these young guys to be developed and learn from these guys. They have learned. We are going to be even better as a result of that in the years going forward.”
Here’s more on the NBA champions:
- Lacob is confident that his club can continue to be a contender for years to come, as David Aldridge of The Athletic relays. “I intend to own this team for a long time and I intend to win as many championships as possible,” Lacob said. “It’s all about winning. That’s it. That’s all I care about. We’re going to do whatever it takes. The truth is, we’ve got really smart people who work in this organization, and we are, usually, going to figure it out and be real good.”
- The Warriors’ fourth title in the last eight years left no doubt of their star trio’s place in NBA history, says Marcus Thompson II of The Athletic. “Individually, we all do different, unique things to impact winning,” Curry said of himself, Green, and Thompson. “We all have a sense of humility about what it takes to win and knowing that we respect what every single one of us brings to the table. But there’s also an ego with that, too. So there’s a healthy balance. And the rest of it is trust.”
- Yossi Gozlan of HoopsHype looks ahead to the offseason decisions facing the Warriors following their championship run, while Kevin Arnovitz of ESPN revisits seven important moments from that run.
- Oddsmakers and sportsbooks have made the Warriors the early favorites for the 2023 title, according to David Purdum of ESPN. Golden State is a little ahead of Brooklyn, Boston, Milwaukee, Phoenix, and the Clippers.
Sportsbooks are always gonna make the contending team close to a favorite because of the amount of bets for the last winner even though repeating is incredibly hard.
Thanks for the assessment captain obvious
Next season
NBA tax line $149 million
Core 4: $148 million
Future core 4 : $23 million
Poole, Wiseman, Kuminga and Moody
Projection
Payton $10 million per
Looney $10 million per
7 bad teams can find a way to pay $15 million per to them each, but it is not worth
If Warriors let Klay and Draymond test the FA market in 2024 summer,
Klay 2-year #30 million?
Draymond 4-year $60 million?
Looney is not a 10 million player…only the warriors believes that. He is just part of a great team that facilitates his work
Wiggins has increased his trade value where GSW could trade him straight up for KD or Lebron at this point. Interesting wrinkle here.
Not true.
Yes true.
Lol. Wiggins is making $33.6 million next season.
Lebron is at $44.4 mil.
KD signed an extension at $43mil next season which escalates to $53.3 mil in 2025-26.
Any team trading away at least $19.6 million in salary – cannot receive a salary amount greater than 125 percent of the outgoing money, plus $100,000. (That’s $42.1 million in Wiggins’ case).
Good luck with that
Lebron gets what Lebron wants and Lebron wants more rings and he wants to play with Steph.
I personally do not care if Wiggins stays or goes, he’s not part of the core 3 or the youth 4. We won with him with a disjointed season, doesnt matter to me what they do because GSW are the champs baby!!! +I WAS RIGHT ALL ALONG!! +All the haters can suck it!!
Man, you’re just so smart. Nobody else saw the Warriors winning the Finals this year. You clearly just have some keen insight the rest of us are lacking. Maybe I can gain it if I start self-liking all of my comments as well /s
How are you in here making comments, when you don’t know ball?
He is a Warrior hater and claimed Boston would win so ignore him. Everyone knows he is a front runner fan who hates the warriors. Now he will say Clippers will win next year.
Ah, that tracks – all Warriors haters know zero ball. Like, you have to really go out of your way to not understand what you are seeing here, its so logical and pure and done the right way. To hate GSW means you are pretty much self-reporting as a nightmare person IRL who has no friends.
I never claimed Boston would win and predicted the opposite in HR’s polls. Please quote the comment in which I said such. I literally congratulated GS for winning the Finals last night in a separate thread.
I’m starting to regret that however, as it is apparent parts of the fanbase (not everyone, of course) have a difficult time keeping their egos under control. Everyone that doesn’t confirm to your opinion is deemed a hater; toxic
So post who you said would win the championship. We know it wasn’t the warriors. So post that comment.
I didn’t post a comment
I wouldn’t gamble on Wiggins until he had another year of posting up these improved numbers. He’s had talent just never put it together now we have to see if it’s sustainable. But you aren’t getting an established star for possible future Star. And he is already 26 so he’s not NBA young
Its so obvious if you know ball – if you said “Aging KD or Bron was traded straight up for a guy who played in the most recent all-star game” and didn’t say who it was, all the smooth brains would go “oh that sounds fair, maybe add a draft pick but I can see it”. But once you make GSW the benefactor, peoples minds turn to hate and mush. This is pure copium and haterade by non-GSW fans.
Probably because Wiggins was a borderline all-star this season, with his breakout mostly transpiring during the postseason. Such a run was impressive no doubt, but it would be nice to see him replicate such during the course of a regular season.
Let’s not also ignore the salary attached to such a player either. Tobias Harris is another borderline all-star with a massive contract. Would I consider trading KD or LeBron for Harris and a pick? No
Wow, way to shift the goalposts here. This is on KD and Lebron, not “you” or GSW. If either of them say “I want to be traded, pref to GSW” what do you think will happen?
That’s purely speculation because we have yet to hear of either demanding a trade, particularly to GS. From a pragmatic point of view, I am merely suggesting most NBA GMs would not be comfortable with such a transaction
Which is complete insanity and pure copium that you personally do not want this happen. Mute time for the clown….
“I tell people who disagree with me that they don’t understand basketball and subsequently mute them.”
Genius
I don’t think Asfan understands that he, personally, is the hate-magnet.
This probably has happened all his life, so he attaches to something that can be claimed to be the target.
About the OP, look up Wiggins’ stats, and see an average player. No way a team would trade KD for that. Maybe Lebron if a GM was all in for the future and isxwilling to sacrifice the present… But I doubt then too. Wiggins is no leader. He will always be potential.
Funny how no matter what happens, the fixation on LJ remains for problem minds. Must be frustrating.
If you ‘know ball’ as well you think you do you’d be in a front office somewhere, or on a float in a pride parade. Instead you’re on hoopsrumors the day after your team wins a title telling others to cope. Act like you’ve been there before young man.
That’s ridiculous. KD made it clear he doesn’t want to come back to the Warriors. LeBron is on the verge of retirement.
@A’s
Please stop. I like Wiggy and am happy for where he is today but you’re taking about the 2nd or 3rd option on the GSW for arguably guys that when healthy are easily top 2 or 3 players in the game. Wiggy showed you that he was never going to be the #1 option on a champ caliber team but could be a great #3 glue guy. Stop….
Ha ha. I love Wiggins, but Wiggins for KD straight up? Ha ha. @A’s…Lay off the crack pipe dude.
The whole timeline narrative never made sense to me, and is overstated type of stuff that comes from media people that dont know much of anything about basketball besides who scores the most points. It’s about adding players with skillsets that fit your roster. Young guys can contribute when in the right circumstances, and they did exactly that, as they got pieces they needed, and Kerr used them correctly, as he has his roster since the beginning
The funny part is the team actually was NOT constructed well – they had only 1 true C and 1 true PG, they literally had to use their 2-way player at PG when Steph got hurt. Poole I guess held it down, as did Draymond, but still a championship team with the highest payroll (from the 25th-richest owner) should NEVER have to lean on 2-way players. That was the only blight on this year that I fear will be spun into a positive somehow, because of “moneyball” or whatever.
Chiozza was awful and the lost the lead almost instantly every time he set foot on court, his serious minutes, along with Lee’s nonsense minutes all up and down these playoffs with the superior Moody and GP2 on the bench were awful Kerr choices. His weird running rotations by stopwatch not game score/feel was so infuriating to watch and if Steph (the real season MVP, Jokic is a fraud) wasn’t on this team, they might struggle to be a .500 team this season, with Kerr’s awful rotation selection and use. It really is Steph bailing everyone out and covering everyone’s flaws. I’m not sure any of these guys reach the levels they did if not for sharing the court with the goat.
You’ve lost me many times before, but you really lost me at ‘Jokic is a fraud’.
I wish Jokic was on the warriors they would be unbeatable. Problem for Jokic is he has no help at all. In this modern age of NBA you can’t win with 1 star player. Switch Jokic and Curry warriors still probably win a championship because he is that good.
@ARC 2 – Exactly – switch Jokic and Steph and they MIGHT win a title, but with Steph they DEFINITELY have 4 titles = Steph > Jokic this season and every season.
The “fraudulent” part about Jokic is how he is more valuable than Curry, he is not.
@jbl Its ok lil guy, we were all new once – Steph Curry was more valuable than Jokic this season, ergo “Jokic is MVP” is fraudulent.
No Jokic is that good. I have no understanding why you think Jokic is not a great player. He can shoot, rebound, pass, and carry a team on his back. Nuggets do not even come close to the talent on GSW.
I don’t even know where to start with you. You’re the worst of this site rolled into one big ol’ troll. Everything you write is undermined by your terrible takes. Sad
jbl is not new. Kerr is not the problem. The internet allows for this lecturing by a moron. Following GSW closely still cannot overcome faulty reasoning. The GSW ‘ship brings out these posts.
I just want everyone who dissed me on here to know: I know ball, I know what its like to follow a champion team from start to finish. If you have never done this, then you literally have no clue what its like, so why does ANY of your analysis about what a winning team looks like, or spouting off about “what it takes to win” even matter at all? Win ONE, then you can talk. Idiots on here were telling me Phoenix Suns were the new dynasty because they LOST a finals!!! smh so much cope
What are you even rambling on about? The warriors were always one of the title favorites when healthy. To say you “know ball” because you picked a team to win the title that had won in 3 of last 7 years is idiotic. You know how many people don’t know ball that also picked the warriors. But hey if you need to convince yourself your the smartest guy in the thread you do you
Oh so suddenly you went from “washed, dynasty is long over, stop talking about it, PHOENIX BETTER” to “idiotic to think they wouldnt win” – cope more please, its hilarious
What are you talking about? Lol I have never spoken to you before or made a prediction that anyone would win you psycho lol
You might want to get those voices in your head checked out lol these comment threads really make me lose hope for humanity. Such a huge lack of intelligence, social skills, and self awareness
Literally gaslighting after getting owned, pathetic. You are the real problem here.
Pathetic is when you think the world is against and gaslight yourself.
Yep you caught me lol I’m the problem. Says the one talking to himself on these threads and creating conversations with people that never happened lol Calm down my dude. Its sports. If I were you I’d to learn something else instead because sports are not working for ya.
@wow You need to ignore Marty a.k.a. A’sfan. The guy obviously hates the Warriors. His belief about the Dubs should do personnel wise would tear this roster apart. The Warriors would definitely not make the playoffs.
I cant believe I’m just now realizing who it was lol. It all makes sense now
By that logic every Lakers and Celtics fan knows more than every other NBA fan out there. Only 10 more championships then we can talk, Dubs fans.
It’s basketball, put the ball in the hoop that’s all anyone needs to know.
Asfan is crediting himself for being part of GSW. His local team wins and thinks that makes him smart.
@A’s
Wow ….GSW won a title….no one has EVER done that before. yeezus.
Lacob, Myers, Kerr, and Curry – The best of the best !! As long as they are around, Warriors will continue to win !!!
What will be the fate of these unrestricted FAs? Hope they all come back.
Looney – 3 yrs for $18M
GP2 – 3 yrs for $15M
Porter – 2 yrs for $ 6M
They all deserve more, but need to nickle and dime them because of luxury tax.
Porter will get full MLE 10M by someone else. He’s better than Looney. Looney would be the 2/6M guy. Porter is looking at 2/20 easily if not 3/30.
Porter is a goner then… as for Looney, he is one of Warriors own, member of 3 titles. Kerr will not let him go.
Agree, some GM will set aside Porter’s injury history and bid higher (maybe not to the MLE). GSW analytics guys liked him, so Im sure other teams’ “teams” will too. Even if they did not think he would ever be a center!
The 6/$18m for Looney is what he deserves and shows GSW does not take him for granted. He is a part of the GSW story.
If a team wanted to invest in championship genes, he would be a good one to poach away, so that offer is not wasted.
If GSW wants to save money, don’t rely on Wiggins, rely on the young wings.
Payton is worth it for ability to halt a spiral, which Curry does not discourage, since he can ride a positive one.
I like when tv cut to his father, and he was busy bristling and arguing with someone. That’s how he played.
Why would you want to bring the LeBron albatross into the Warrior situation….
Their blood is flowing perfectly and doesn’t need a major distraction to ruin their team.
Lacob, Myers, Kerr dont want Lebron! Curry will never ever allow it…
As far as LeBron goes. If they could make it work without giving up Green or Thompson Curry would make it happen.
@Michol
why don’t y’all get off LBJ’s jock and gi enjoy you’re title. He was asked a question…”of the two teams in the finals which PLAYER would you love to play with”? Choosing the best of the bunches in Curry is hardly a surprise and absolutely not an overture to join the GSW. Get over yourselves. If that question was asked last year then the answer likely would’ve been Giannis. Doesn’t mean he’s want to be traded to Milwaukee either.
LeBron should go play with Durant the deserve each other.