Why new-look Warriors are built to win 50 games this season originally appeared on NBC Sports Bay Area
SAN FRANCISCO – Five Western Conference teams have won 50 or more games in the 2023-24 NBA season. The Warriors were not one of them. They tallied 46 wins, two more than the previous season, still fell all the way down to the number 10 seed while failing to make the playoffs for the first time under coach Steve Kerr with a healthy Steph Curry, Klay Thompson and Draymond Green.
Thompson left for the Dallas Mavericks in the offseason. The Warriors fell short of adding a second star alongside Curry, unable to make a deal for Paul George or Lauri Markkanen. Instead, general manager Mike Dunleavy’s patient approach crafted a historic six-team trade, adding veteran players the Warriors believe should make them a better team that can form a distinct identity.
“First thing that comes to mind, just a deep, deep team,” Steve Kerr responded Tuesday in describing the Warriors ahead of Wednesday’s season opener in Portland against the Trail Blazers.
Kerr already has said Lindy Waters III and Gui Santos they will not be in the rotation for the season opener. Both are players Kerr said can and will help the Warriors win games. Waters shot 44 percent from 3-point range in the preseason and was one of the Warriors’ best players in plus/minus. Santos, 22, is a young player on whom the Warriors remain high, and his cutting ability makes him suitable for almost any combination.
That’s how this iteration of the Warriors was created, though. They have 12 players competing for about 10 spots to get real playing time, and the team believes in the two who are on the outside looking in right away. The Warriors added proven veterans in Kyle Anderson, Buddy Hield and De’Anthony Melton, who fit the bill. Kerr’s goal is to be a team-first defense that shoots 3-pointers and is much better in transition on both sides of the ball.
Curry is 36 years old, and will turn 37 in March. Green is 34, and will be 35 just 10 days before Curry blows out two more candles than his longtime teammate. As the search for a second established star continues, and the hope that Andrew Wiggins can return to his All-Star form and Jonathan Kuminga can grow into the star he envisions himself as, the Warriors are set for a strong regular season where they should be pushing to be a 50-win team.
“I think that’s going to be our strength, being able to withstand injuries,” Kerr said. “I think Kyle is ready to step in for Draymond if Draymond is out, back-to-back, whatever it is. That’s a huge addition for us because Kyle is such a good player and a similar type of point-forward player, huge basketball IQ.
“I can go down the list, we have a lot of players who can perform if we have injuries. I’m excited.”
The Warriors will shoot in threes, and lots of them. In their undefeated 6-0 preseason, they shot 254 threes and made 97. That amounts to over 42 3-point attempts per game and over 16 made threes per game, shooting 38.2 percent as a team, all while Curry sat out two games and averaged less than 20 minutes played in the preseason.
They want to be a top defensive team again after falling away the past two seasons. It’s only the preseason and all six wins will be forgotten if the Warriors get off to a slow start, but Golden State held its opponents to 40.6 percent shooting, including a low 25.7 percent from three and just 95.3 points. The Warriors averaged six more rebounds per game than their opponents, and blocked a total of nine more shots than them in their regular season setup.
“The premise of this thing was built on depth, and that’s what we’re after,” Dunleavy said. “So far, so good.”
Even the Warriors know they aren’t seen as a championship contenderand behind closed doors they are still not making plans for a victory parade. They are the hunters, not the hunted. Their sexiness factor has dropped, lessening the burden at a time when expectations still remain high for having an all-time great in Curry, who is coming off a summer of Olympic exploits.
Words like “feisty” and “fresh” have been thrown around Chase Center over the past month. In fact, they accept it. Competitors to the core, Curry and Green, as well as Kerr and Dunleavy, continue to have control of the playoffs, advancing round by round and having a shot at a title. Realists will argue against the Warriors’ chances, but after their grand offseason plan was scrapped, they created a team personality that should be able to chase down and steal wins.
“What I tell the players all the time is that everybody is going to judge us, but only we can really judge our success or not, or if we’re getting better every day, if we’re connected, if we’re fighting for each other,” Kerr said. .
“All of those things lead to success, and that’s what we measure every day.”
Talk of their playoff fortunes can wait. A clearer picture may be painted around the February trade deadline, depending on how new additions fared in addition to the development of young players like Kuminga, Moses Moody, Brandin Podziemski and Trayce Jackson-Davis. Other teams will have to fall in favor of the Warriors, at a time when almost everyone in the West is pushing to be better than last season.
The Warriors consider themselves part of that group of improvement. Built for the regular season as currently constructed, the Warriors’ entertainment value and win totals should both see a spike.
