Who will be the Warriors secondary scorer?

With Klay Thompson departing in free agency, the Golden State Warriors find themselves in an unfamiliar position: unclear of who their secondary scorer is.

Thompson is gone, Jordan Poole is gone, and Kevin Durant is long gone. And Andrew Wiggins looks nothing like the player who picked up the scoring slack with Thompson missing much of the 2021-22 season. That leaves no clear candidate to fill up the “points” column next to Steph Curry.

It’s an era of NBA basketball where high-volume scorers come in bunches. Last year, a whopping 50 players averaged at least 20 points per game; by contrast, in Curry’s rookie season, only 19 players hit the 20-point mark (and hey, guess who was sixth in the league in scoring? Monta Ellis!).

We know that Curry will eclipse that mark, but it’s unclear if anyone else will … or if anyone else will even get close.

So who will finish second on the Dubs in scoring? Here are the candidates.

Jonathan Kuminga

While Thompson was second on the Warriors in points per game a year ago, Kuminga was actually a hair better in terms of points per 100 possessions and points per 36 minutes. Add in his efficiency (59.8% true-shooting), and I think it’s very easy to make the case that he was the team’s second-best scorer, even if he wasn’t the second option.

There are a million and one reasons to expect Kuminga to be even better in his fourth NBA season. And, given how the second half of last year went, there’s also reason to expect that he’ll get a consistent 30-plus minute role this year, too. He’s my pick.

Andrew Wiggins

Wiggins may be coming off a season that was equal parts disappointing and confounding, but he’s still the most proven option. He’s a carer 18.5-points per game scorer, and has eclipsed the 20-points per game mark three different times. But last year he took a massive step backwards … his 13.2 points per game was the lowest mark of his career by a mile (his second-worst campaign was his rookie year, when he averaged 16.9 points per game), and his 54.4% true-shooting percentage was his lowest in a full season since coming to the Bay Area.

Betting on Wiggins to be the team’s secondary scorer means betting on a bounce back. Which would be great.

Brandin Podziemski

When the Warriors drafted Podziemski in the first round last year, everyone expected that scoring would be the first thing he would bring to the table. Instead, he became known for his playmaking, ball control, rebounds, and fearless ability to take charges.

But he’s still a crafty and talented scorer. He has an excellent three-point shot, creative finishing chops, and showed a surprising ability to penetrate the defense last year.

He’d have to make a leap in order to become the secondary scorer, but betting on Podz always feels like a smart thing.

Buddy Hield

It’s unfair to call Hield a Thompson replacement, but he is here to help fill that void. In recent years his stats have waned, but that’s been in large part because his role has diminished. If the Warriors choose to use him in the Klay role, and feed him the ball repeatedly, he has the scoring chops to throw up 20 every night … he’s done it before, though it was quite a while ago.

Trayce Jackson-Davis

Here’s your dark horse candidate! TJD only averaged 7.9 points per game last year, so could he really lead the Warriors in non-Curry scoring?

Yep. Jackson-Davis’ 23.1 points per 100 possessions last year were fifth on the Warriors, behind Curry, Kuminga, and Thompson, and a hair behind Wiggins. And we can expect him to be a whole lot better at scoring this year, half because he’ll be in his second season, and half because the Warriors will have tailored their offense to take advantage of his pick-and-roll prowess now that they know what they have.

I don’t think TJD will be the team’s second-leading scorer, or even particularly close. But it’s easy to envision a world in which he becomes an offensive beast this year.

A player not yet on the Warriors

This is the least likely, but most fun option. We know the Warriors won’t have Lauri Markkanen or Paul George this year, as hard as they tried to acquire each. But it’s still possible that in the next seven weeks they swing for the fences and land a clear-cut No. 2 scorer.