Rivals Review: Golden State Warriors

To get us through the late-Summer doldrums of the NBA, we’re reviewing teams from around the league and how their offseasons went. 

Golden State Warriors

Key Additions:

Kyle Anderson
De’Anthony Melton
Buddy Hield (wait, this says key additions…)
Quinten Post (R)

Key Losses:

Klay Thompson
Chris Paul
Dario Saric
Cory Joseph

Offseason Review and 2024-25 Season Outlook:

It’s the end of an era in San Francisco as Klay Thompson departed for Dallas. It was a messy, drama-filled finish for a franchise legend, but it’s one that probably needed to happen for everyone involved. Klay ain’t the player he was in the Warriors title years, and continuing to play in the Chase Center that he helped build would only maintain expectations – of both his basketball play and his contractual value to the team – that he probably can’t meet any longer. Klay may have expected a bigger payday from the Warriors, especially when they gave Draymond Green a big 4-year paycheck last summer, but the departures of both Thompson and Paul helped the Warriors get under the first salary cap apron and avoid paying a massive tax bill. This team couldn’t stay as constructed any longer.

Thompson’s departure to the Mavericks became part of a six-team deal that brought Kyle Anderson (3-year deal) and former-King Buddy Hield (4-year deal) back to Golden State in sign-and-trade moves. De’Anthony Melton then signed a 1-year deal with the team, Gary Payton II picked up his player option for the season, and the Warriors gave Steph Curry a 1-year, $62.5M extension. It’ll be interesting to see how Coach Steve Kerr shuffles the guard minutes for the non-Steph players; he will certainly have to rely more on Brandin Podziemski and Moses Moody next year alongside Melton and Payton, but the Buddy Hield minutes will be thrilling to watch on the outside looking in. He’ll have games that will make Dubs fans both (1) wonder and (2) see plainly why three teams have traded Hield away in the past two years. I have no doubt Hield will thrive against the Kings at least once this season, and then will make some boneheaded decisions in crunch time in vital games.

This is very much a team trying to find their way back up the mountain in a brutal Western Conference. Warriors management tried to find a star this summer, but that never materialized. They tried to trade for Paul George, but that deal never came to fruition, and George departed the Clippers to sign with the Philadelphia 76ers. The Warriors then seemed to spend weeks courting a Lauri Markkanen trade, only to see Danny Ainge be Danny Ainge. Of course, the Kings looked into trading for Markkanen as well – but Anthony Slater of the Athletic reported that Monte McNair gave the Jazz a deadline for an answer on the Kings’ offer, and then pivoted to the sign-and-trade for DeMar DeRozan when Ainge didn’t meet the deadline. The Warriors, at least to this point, haven’t found that post-star-chasing pivot deal, and now have to arguably consider Buddy freaking Hield as their biggest addition of the summer.

If the Warriors young guns of Podziemski, Jonathan Kuminga, Trayce Jackson-Davis, and Moody take big steps forward this year, I think the Warriors could absolutely fight for a playoff spot in the west. Draymond Green’s warts will eventually (if not already) outweigh his positive impacts, and Andrew Wiggins needs to prove he should even start on this team – but Steph Curry is still Steph Curry (side note; it was SO fun to get to CHEER for Curry’s explosion in the Olympic Gold Metal game). As long as Steph Curry is on this roster, there will be expectations, both for on-court success, and for moves to be made to keep this team in contention. That’s the curse that comes with the blessing of having a top-tier all-time NBA talent. But I do like the young talent this team has around Curry, and if it took the departure of Thompson to force Kerr into giving them a bigger role in their present, that’s not the worst outcome for an NBA squad trying to build their next era of basketball. Or they may just trade Podz, Kuminga, Jackson-Davis, and/or Moody for one last chance at title relevancy. Who the heck knows with this team.