If you're a team with championship aspirations, it's not a great sign if your biggest offseason addition comes in the NBA Draft. That's the case with the Golden State Warriors front office, who selected Yaxel Lenderbog, re-signed Draymond Green and Kristaps Porziņģis and then spent the rest of the offseason talking about deals they almost made.
Lendeborg looks like he might actually be a star and bringing back Green and Porziņģis were crucial gambles. But the finishing touches on this offseason came this week with the announced signings of Georges Niang and Brandon Williams — a disappointing haul for a team trying to make the most of what's left of their time with Steph Curry. The impending return of Jimmy Butler is a wild card that could change their season but if this is what the Warriors are rolling with next year, they might be in big trouble.
Projected Warriors starting lineup and rotation after Draymond Green re-signs
STARTER | POSITION | BENCH |
|---|---|---|
Steph Curry | PG | De'Anthony Melton |
Brandin Podziemski | SG | Brandon Williams |
Yaxel Lendeborg | SF | Georges Niang |
Draymond Green | PF | Gui Santos |
Kristaps Porziņģis | C | Al Horford |
Neither Williams or Niang is going to break the starting lineup but they're likely to play meaningful minutes off the bench at least until Jimmy Butler returns, which could come as late as February. Williams will have to hold off second-year guard Will Richard, who played in 69 games last season and showed some flashes of potential as an off-ball scorer.
Williams is definitely not a shooter, he's made just 28 percent of his career 3-pointers, but his slashing and secondary creation could be really useful in a second-unit that doesn't really have any other on-ball scoring threats.
Niang is a bit undersized, defensively, as a 4 but his 3-point shooting could be really important to the Warriors frontcourt. They will likely have to do some mixing and matching to find the matchups that let him help space the floor without creating an obvious soft spot in their defense than can be exploited.
The Warriors only played 12 minutes last season with Curry, Podziemski, Green and Porziņģis on the court together. Either Butler or Lendeborg makes that a pretty compelling five-man unit but there are still way too many question marks.
Are the Warriors good enough to compete in the West?
A month ago, when the Warriors brought back Draymond Green, it didn't look like this was a roster that was really ready to compete and neither Niang or Williams changes that. These are deep role players — in an ideal world they're playing about 15 minutes per game and less in a hypothetical playoff series. If injuries show up and they're playing more than that, the Warriors are already doomed.
The long-shot scenario where the Warriors make a run is still basically the same. Everyone stays healthy. Steph plays like an MVP again. Porziņģis, Green and Lendeborg become a suffocating defensive frontcourt. Jimmy Butler comes back in January and becomes the efficient offensive fulcrum he's been in the past. Yaxel Lendeborg is the best rookie this season and Brandin Podziemski takes another big leap.
If the Warriors are going to compete for a title they pretty much need to catch all of those breaks and even that may not be enough. So, you can almost certainly count them out as a serious contender in this loaded West. But they'll have stretches where they look scary, they'll pick up some big wins, string a few together and give their fans just enough hope to hit the Play-In and/or Postseason with fantasies about catching lightning in a bottle.
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