One Game In, The Warriors Look Vastly Improved
The Golden State Warriors will play their second game of the season tonight against the Kings, their first time back in Sacramento in a non-preseason game since Steph Curry’s 50-point explosion in Game 7 of the first round in last year’s playoffs.
Despite this only being the second game, however, it’s not expected that the Warriors will need more Curry heroics like they did last time around. Despite a poor shooting performance - one of the worst in the dynasty’s track record, to the tune of 36% from the field - Golden State was able to keep their opener against the Suns close through the whole contest.
This year’s team has a few key differences which are important to note in terms of structure and experience. We’ll break those down to show how, just a game into the season, this team has already shown they have the capacity to avoid a lot of the issues they had in 2023.
Reliable Wing Depth
There’s a feeling constantly around Golden State in specific that they’re just too small, mostly because they don’t have a 7-footer. In the modern NBA, this is hardly a problem: The Dubs are the pioneers of the positionless, mobile basketball that’s defined the game today. With Jonathan Kuminga and Moses Moody not only being trusted to contribute more minutes, but also making good usage of them now that they have more experience and frankly more room to make mistakes, the team adds two more consistent pieces into the mix behind Andrew Wiggins. Gary Payton II is the size of the guard, but definitively plays bigger on both ends of the floor and is fully healthy since he earned his rotation spot during the 2022 title run; The Warriors use him as a spot-up and cutting wing more than anything else on offense, and he can guard 1-4 if needed on defense. Klay Thompson is predicted to play more minutes as a forward with Chris Paul’s role starting to clear up, and showed some pretty good defense on Kevin Durant to let us know he’s ready.
A Sturdy Big Rotation
While the Warriors bigs aren’t large by really any means, they’re collectively far more versatile. The NBA’s reigning offensive rebounding leader Kevon Looney now has savvy stretch-5 Dario Saric to back him up, and all signs from the preseason point to rookie Trayce Jackson-Davis being ready to contribute, even if only in spurts. Combine that with Draymond Green’s inevitable return (Kerr said he’ll be back for one of next week’s early matchups), and that’s 4 guys who can play center while giving a lot of different options both offensively and defensively. The team had some problems grabbing rebounds over Jusuf Nurkic on Tuesday, but that in part was because of some confusing mistakes from Loon that are likely to be anomalies more than anything else. The Warriors were a top 5 rebounding team in 2022, and that was without their only player above 6’9 -James Wiseman - playing pretty much at all: They can get it done without sacrificing a roster spot for someone so one-dimensional.
Veteran Experience and Willingness to Learn
This is mostly Chris Paul’s spotlight to take, but Saric has been around the league for a bit now too, and while he likely won’t play a ton of significant minutes, Cory Joseph is a championship winner and an NBA journeyman who can coach up the young guys. That parlays well for a group of younger players who are committed to learning the Warriors’ winning ways more-so than they were last year: Frustrations with lacking role clarity, worries about things besides the team, and punches flying from teammate to teammate don’t exactly give a sense of relief. One thing that Paul and the other vets bring is a stabilizing presence and a neutral ground between Golden State’s aging core and their recent draftees, mostly by showing their own buy-in to the team despite having success in their own careers. It also brings higher IQ basketball to a team that suffers from making the little mistakes: Uneven foul shot disparities and turnovers are two things that you can’t mention the Warriors dynasty without talking about, and they’re two things which Paul is exceptional at curbing.
One Vision: Win
The two timelines narrative was always a shaky one. Golden State’s draft decisions were undoubtedly made to make the transition between eras of Warriors hoop smoother, and a myriad of things had to go wrong for that to not work when the Spurs blueprint is right there. So of course, a myriad of things did indeed go wrong. The narrative that James Wiseman is a bad basketball player is a bad one, but the situation he was drafted into certainly hindered development which he sorely has needed (not that LaMelo Ball would have been really any better fit-wise). Last year’s disconnect was the result of a disagreement on direction: Maximize winning now while Steph Curry is still beating back Father Time, or get ready for the next era and transition the dynasty out gracefully. The more time goes, however, the less it looks like The System is anywhere close to the finish line, and it seems like the front office is on that page now as well with their investment to keep the victory machine rolling. Drafting two prospects considered by scouts to be plug-and-play guys ready for NBA minutes as soon as their first season in TJD and Brandin Podziemski is symbolic of that: Could they have punted on the 19th draft pick or gone with a talent who may need some time like Cam Whitmore? Sure, but whether you think the Podz pick was the right one or not, there’s a reason the scouts are the scouts: He play NBA-level basketball, even if it isn’t flashing.
With these differences in tow, the Golden State Warriors look like they’ve made the necessary improvements. Tonight in Sacramento will be more of a test as the Kings are a lot deeper of a team than Phoenix is, and a lot of the supposed holes that the Dubs need to patch up were exposed by them in the playoffs last season. Sacramento doesn’t look much different than they did last year, and one notable thing that caused the Warriors a ton of grief last year was their road woes: Game 2 of the season should give us more insight on how much better this team really is.
(Photo credit: Ezra Shaw / Getty Images)