In an in-depth story for ESPN.com, Baxter Holmes looks back at the Warriors‘ efforts to keep their dynasty window open for the past several years, exploring the team’s hits and misses during that time and revisiting the oft-discussed “two timeline” plan.
As Holmes details, Golden State’s philosophy in the draft appeared to shift during those years. The Warriors took home-run swings in 2020 and 2021, drafting relatively raw talents like James Wiseman, Jonathan Kuminga, and Moses Moody in the hopes that those prospects would develop into the kinds of stars who could help the team continue to contend for championships after Stephen Curry, Klay Thompson, and Draymond Green exited their primes.
However, that approach had changed by 2023, when the Warriors drafted Brandin Podziemski and Trayce Jackson-Davis, two more seasoned college players who were better positioned to complement the current core and contribute right away.
“You can’t hit on everybody,” Warriors owner Joe Lacob said. “We’ve got Kuminga, who’s exploding, and a bunch of other young guys who, I don’t know if they’re going to be stars, but they’re pretty good. “I think we should be able to avoid that total rebuild.”
Here’s more on the Warriors:
- Kuminga’s breakout couldn’t have come at a better time for the Warriors, according to Jake Fischer of Yahoo Sports, who hears from sources that the team considered trade scenarios involving Pascal Siakam and Dejounte Murray earlier this season. Golden State ended up not making any major in-season deals, but appears to have found its newest impact player internally, with Kuminga averaging 21.1 points per game on .571/.432/.769 shooting over his past 17 games.
- The Lakers and Warriors currently rank ninth and 10th in the Western Conference and haven’t played much better than .500 basketball since their most recent championships, writes Brian Windhorst of ESPN. While the two Pacific rivals still have title aspirations this season, Windhorst interprets Golden State’s pre-deadline inquiry about a LeBron James trade as a signal that the Warriors aren’t confident they have enough for another championship run — and as a sign they suspect LeBron may have the same apprehensions about the Lakers’ title potential.
- Anthony Slater of The Athletic explores how the growing chemistry between Thompson and Jackson-Davis in the second unit helped fuel a victory over the Lakers on Thursday. Thompson went just 1-of-9 from the field in his second game off the bench, but he had five assists, including four on baskets by Jackson-Davis.
- Lester Quinones‘ new deal with the Warriors is simply a rest-of-season, minimum-salary contract, tweets ESPN’s Bobby Marks. Unlike most other teams that have been promoting two-way players to their standard rosters, Golden State wasn’t in position to offer Quinones multiple years or a salary above the minimum due to its cap situation. Quinones will be eligible for restricted free agency this offseason.
Windhorst – “pre-deadline Golden State inquiry about LeBron trade”. ….. Wasn’t this completely blown up in a story yesterday when Draymond Green said he told Rich Paul to see if the Lakers were interested??? The “story” was then given to Windhorst, who like Rich Paul, owes his career, from his days in Ohio, to LeBron. Golden State never asked about LeBron.
Huh? The Draymond/Paul part of it was in the initial report, which wasn’t from Windhorst.
The Warriors are clicking at the perfect time for that deep playoff run. Quinones will soon been the perfect Poole replacement and lot cheaper too. The thing they should have done at the deadline was dump CP3 and Dario gonna be hard getting both minutes because of the rise of the Podz, TJD and all the young guys see if you could have gotten an asset or too before they left in the offseason. Wonder if warriors seek a buyout with both? If things go wrong they have the asset to go all in for the star wing which would make sense to keep CP for salary matching purpose just hope he’s professional and doesn’t cause a problem about playing time.
Saric is on a minimum contract so no need to buy him out and he is a emergency big man in case of a injury. No team came after CP3 during the trade deadline so his option year will not be picked up.
Am I that crazy for saying that Kuminga right now means more to a title this year than Siakam or Murray would have brought this year? I’ll take Kuminga. Knows the system and has carved a role. Only gets better from here. This is his floor now. Quinones is poised to make a leap. Captain obvious I know but he just looks different now. Added some muscle and has confidence. 9th seed isn’t fun. But watch young guys catch on is still fun basketball to watch. BP and TJD are studs right now!
Siakam is a better player right now than Kuminga but Kuminga’s future will take him well past Siakam best play. Siakam also wants a max contract at the end of the season which he is not worth it since he is not a top 20 player.
Agreed and the best part is Kuminga is on his rookie deal a lot more cheaper than Siakam and Murray would have been. Kuminga future is better.
Yep, you all’s is crazy. While Kuminga will probably never be the playmaker Siakim is if the rest of his game catches up to Siakim’s all parties including the team, fans and Kuminga himself would be ecstatic.
Siakam is not a real high bar set for Kuminga. Only twice a AS and only once in MVP voting. Kuminga already has the same stats as Siakam did in his first 3 years. Siakam was still in college at this point in his career. So without a doubt Kuminga has the potential to be even better than Siakam if you go by stats.
Totally dependent on timeline. What happens when the Warriors pivot? They’ve already came out and expressed the need to improve dramatically on the wing in the offseason. So unless a deep run is on the table this year (let’s be real) Kuminga is the most valuable piece aside from Curry on that roster.
Warriors don’t have 2 more years for Kuminga to develop to the 2nd best player on a championship team.
Podz is becoming a starter and the floor general to go along side Curry. They are developing 2 wings in TJD and Santos. They have about 3 years left before its Kuminga’s, Wiggins, and Podz’s team. By the time that happens a lot of money will be off the books. They will have money to spend in 3 years to bring in help.
Windhorst’s opinions are garbage. With so many games to play, we will see if GSW can stop giving up big leads and move up a few spots by season’s end.
kerr is showing some progress, TJD got almost 15 minutes last night!
Big test Sunday against the Nuggets who are much bigger.
I hope TJD has the same amount of minutes as the Lakers game tonight..Especially, against the Hornets as I expect the Dubs smash them tonight..the minutes will warm TJD against the Nuggets on Sunday, Dubs gonna need his size..
It was close, 14:39
GSW should have won the last game, it was one of the big 4th Q Kerr playing the vets to long losses as Jokic hit the long buzzer beater for the win.
Murray didn’t play last night, he’s likely to be a game time decision.
Kerr for most improved coach of the year