Despite the Warriors attempt in further cementing their place among the historically great franchises in all of sports, the speed bump of having half your team’s knee explode was almost as a traumatic experience as learning that Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving were going to be teammates. But after this past season’s freefall, a bright future awaits with returning stars and three picks in this year’s draft.
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2019-2020 Review
Depth Chart
| Role | PG | SG | SF | PF | C |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Starters | J. Poole | D. Lee | A. Wiggins | D. Green | M. Chriss |
| Rotation | S. Curry | J. Poole |
J. Toscano-Anderson
|
E. Paschall | K. Looney |
| Rotation | K. Bowman | M. Mulder | |||
| Limited | K. Thompson | A. Smailagic |
Top Performers
| Top Performers | GP | MIN | PTS | REB | AST | STL | BLK | TOV |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Andrew Wiggins | 12 | 33.6 | 19.4 | 4.6 | 3.6 | 1.3 | 1.4 | 2.1 |
| D’Angelo Russell | 33 | 32.1 | 23.6 | 3.7 | 6.2 | 0.9 | 0.3 | 3.1 |
| Draymond Green | 43 | 28.4 | 8.0 | 6.2 | 6.2 | 1.4 | 0.8 | 2.3 |
| Stephen Curry | 5 | 27.9 | 20.8 | 5.2 | 6.6 | 1.0 | 0.4 | 3.2 |
| Marquese Chriss | 59 | 20.3 | 9.3 | 6.2 | 1.9 | 0.7 | 1.1 | 1.3 |
Draft Rights Retained
| Name | Pos | Draft Status | Nationality |
|---|---|---|---|
| Lior Eliyahu | PF | 2006 Rnd 2 Pick 14 | Israel |
| Mladen Sekularac | G-F | 2002 Rnd 2 Pick 26 | Montenegro |
Free Agent Rights Retained
| Name | Pos | FA Status | Nationality |
|---|---|---|---|
| Andrew Bogut | C | (U) Non-Bird | Australia |
| Jonas Jerebko | F | (U) Non-Bird | Sweden |
| David West | PF | (U) Early Bird | United States |
| Matt Barnes | GF | (U) Non-Bird | United States |
Notable Free Agents: Marquese Chriss ($1,824,003 partially guaranteed salary), Damion Lee ($1,762,796 partially guaranteed salary), Ky Bowman ($1,517,981 non-guaranteed salary), Mychal Mulder ($1,517,981 non-guaranteed salary), Juan Toscano-Anderson ($1,517,981 non-guaranteed salary).
2020-2021 Outlook
There are zero doubts that this is still Steph Curry‘s team. In fact, I’ll go out on the very stout and stable limb that no matter who the Warriors net (pun alert!) through the draft or free agency, this team will go the way Curry goes. This dynamic adds ripples to the fantasy outlook of this team as well. His return to the court adds a team-wide dynamic, and when paired-up with the likes of a healthy Klay Thompson, Draymond Green, Andrew Wiggins, Eric Paschall, and Kevon Looney, and add into the fact that the Rockets are in disarray and the Clippers are in WTF-mode, you have the ingredients that once again could take the west by storm, sans the Lakers.
Key Factors
I won’t wax poetic about Curry again, because another player recovering from random leg-explosion deserves a bit of blurb. (Just like your mom.) Now, while I still have concerns about Klay Thompson‘s return, the extended time-off because of COVID complications only help his prognostication. The return of the Curry-Thompson-Green trinity is the bare-minimum needed for a season with chip aspirations.
While it’s hard to make any resounding conclusions after 13 games, the emergency of Andrew Wiggins after seven years (he’s still only 25!) appears to be his official application to join the Splash Brothers club. The sky is the limit for him if he’s able to feed off the team’s standard-bearers opening space and creating opportunities all over the court.
And Wiggins isn’t the only intriguing piece. Eric Paschall was probably the team’s biggest bright spot last season. Just 23-years-old, he proved that second round is the best round sometimes (a la Green), averaging 14.0 points and 4.6 rebounds per game, shooting a robust 49.7 percent from the field. Along with Wiggins and Paschall, Marquese Chriss looks to be another name that will benefit from main rotation minutes and, despite only having three seasons under his belt, he’s still younger than the aforementioned Paschall.
Conclusion
It appears that time was the Warriors greatest ally, and they might be able to cash in on the gains made starting almost immediately. Not only is there a chance that their core returns fully healthy and ready to challenge the league for greatness once again, but there’s a chance that through this year’s draft and the emergence of several pieces, we might be seeing the start of yet another long-standing basketball dynasty. Scary.
Jay is a longtime Razzball everything who consumes an egregious amount of Makers Mark as a vehicle to gain wisdom and augment his natural glow. Living in the D.C. area, he also likes spending time visiting the local parks and feeding lettuce to any turtles he encounters, including Mitch McConnell. You can follow him @jaywrong.
