The Whiteboard: How the Golden State Warriors rebuilt a contender

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Watching the Warriors close out the Mavericks for a 3-0 series lead, felt intimately familiar. Over the past decade, they’ve been a reliable playoff contender and have repeatedly stolen games down the stretch with skill and execution. But this win was a bit of a reboot.

Steph Curry was just 1-of-4 from the field in the fourth quarter. Klay and Draymond chipped in but the Warriors were led by Andrew Wiggins and Jordan Poole, who combined for 16 points on just 8 shots. Oh, and there was 19-year-old rookie Moses Moody on the court, helping defend Luka Doncic and Jalen Brunson.

The core three are the same, but these are not the same Warriors and what we’re seeing right now is the culmination of a strategic rebuild.

The Warriors made some mistakes along the way and they’ve gotten lucky in some other ways they maybe didn’t expect. It remains to be seen how the James Wiseman pick will turn out and they took plenty of low-risk gambles on players who didn’t work out over the past few seasons. But in the three years since Kevin Durant announced he was leaving, they have rapidly rebuilt a top-level supporting cast to surround their now healthy stars and set themselves up with a young core that could extend this dynasty far into the future.

The Andrew Wiggins trade

At the time, late in the 2019-20 seasons, the Wiggins trade looked like an opening to another move. The Warriors had gotten D’Angelo Russell as an asset in the sign-and-trade that took Durant to Brooklyn but less than a full season later they sent him, Omari Spellman and Jacob Evans to the Timberwolves for Wiggins and the pick that became Jonathan Kuminga. Wiggins’ reputation as an empty calories scorer was well established and the thought was the Warriors were sending Russell off for two assets (Wiggins and the pick) that could be spun into another deal to land someone like Bradley Beal.

Perhaps the Warriors are lucky that a trade for someone like Beal never materialized but this turned out to be a straight-up steal. Just over two years later, Evans and Spellman are out of the league. Kuminga played in 70 games as a 19-year-old rookie and looks well on his way to being an upper-level rotation piece in the future.

In the two full seasons since the trade, Wiggins has been healthy and available for 37 more games than Russell and has scored roughly the same number of points per minute on a true shooting percentage that is considerably higher. He doesn’t handle the same primary creation load that Russell does, but he’s a better defender and much more efficient in his role. In short, the Warriors upgraded from Russell to Wiggins and picked up Kuminga for their trouble.

Golden State Warriors stayed patient with Jordan Poole

Jordan Poole was a breakout star in the first two rounds of the playoffs and looks like he’ll be a foundational piece for the next iteration of this team as Steph Curry, Draymond Green and Klay Thompson fully age out of their primes. But it’s worth remembering just how far he had to come to reach this level.

Poole wasn’t a lottery pick and looked woefully unprepared for NBA minutes as a rookie. He played 22.4 minutes per game during the 2019-20 season but it seemed to be mostly because the Warriors were without Steph Curry and Klay Thompson, and looking at any young guard who might be able to fill some perimeter minutes. Poole shot 33.3 percent from the field and 27.9 percent from beyond the arc that season and was helpless as a defender. Players like Ky Bowman and Damion Lee, although equally inefficient, seemed like they might be better bets to stick in a healthy version of the Warriors rotation.

But the Warriors stuck with Poole, giving him just under 20 minutes per game the next season as his shooting percentages slowly ticked up. Even then, the team made sure to get him opportunities with their G League affiliate to keep developing. In this, his third season, everything finally seemed to click as he averaged 18.5 points per game, shooting 44.8 percent from the field, 36.4 percent from beyond the arc and a league-leading 92.5 percent from the free-throw line.

Poole deserves plenty of credit for taking advantage of opportunities and continuing to improve but none of that could have happened if the Warriors hadn’t been patient enough to let him play two seasons’ worth of meaningful minutes even as he struggled.

Rotation players from the scrap heap

The Warriors’ rotation has shrunk during the playoffs but Juan Toscano-Anderson, Gary Payton II, Nemanja Bjelica and Otto Porter Jr. have all played big roles in getting the team to where they are right now. Juan Toscano-Anderson was a 26-year-old undrafted rookie who had been playing in Argentina and Mexico when the Warriors first took a chance on him. Over a series of two-way and 10-day contracts he became a roster fixture and a solid, flexible defensive option. Payton II was 28 and had played just 61 games for three different teams across four seasons before the Warriors first gave him a shot.

And then there is Bjelica and Porter Jr., who filled in a ton of minutes at the 4 this season and collectively shot 36 percent on their catch-and-shoot 3s. Combined they made about $7 million this year and have provided fantastic value for that price tag.

Getting their big three healthy was going to raise the floor of this team to contender status, but the Warriors did an incredible job of identifying cast-offs with skills who could fit their system and then artfully put them in positions to succeed.

The Warriors still need one more win against the Mavericks and then four wins against either the Heat or Celtics to achieve their ultimate goal. And it’s worth noting that 538’s prediction model tabs them as likely underdogs no matter who comes out of the East. But their front office has won far more often than they’ve lost since Durant left and that’s why they’re in position, once again, to win it all.

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