To put it kindly, the Golden State Warriors are in the midst of a disappointing offseason. They struck out on LeBron James and feasibly have no meaningful pivot. Stephen Curry is still playing at an elite level, and the Warriors are failing to surround him with a competent roster. It's sad to see, really.
According to Marc Stein and Jake Fischer (subscription required), the Warriors are interested in Georges Niang, Brandon Williams and Dalen Terry. Signing one of these players would be a disappointing consolation prize, to say the least.
"Free agents who I'm told are drawing legitimate interest from Golden State for the Warriors' open roster spots: Georges Niang and Brandon Williams," Stein wrote. "On his Bleacher Report livestream Tuesday afternoon, Jake (Fischer) also mentioned Dalen Terry as a potential Warriors target.''
Look, Niang is a solid floor spacer, Williams showed that he's a rotation-caliber guard with the Dallas Mavericks last season, and Terry has some solid upside as a defender. Any of these signings are fine in a vacuum, but as the Warriors' "big addition," that would be a straight-up disservice to Steph and the fan base. The Warriors need to be dreaming a lot bigger than that.
The Warriors are failing to build around Stephen Curry in his twilight years
Frankly, the Warriors have no path to catching up to the juggernauts that are the San Antonio Spurs and Oklahoma City Thunder. That doesn't mean they should stop trying to field a competitive playoff team. There's value in giving Curry a competent and competitive roster as his career winds down. Phoning it in and committing to being a perennial Play-In team, though, that's pointless and disrespectful to Curry.
The Warriors were 37-45 last season. With Jimmy Butler set to miss a good chunk of this upcoming season with a torn ACL, the Warriors have a glaring need for secondary creation alongside Steph. Furthermore, the Warriors lack frontcourt size, as they are currently banking on Kristaps Porzingis to stay healthy and an aging Al Horford.
Drafting Yaxel Lendeborg with the No. 11 pick gives the Warriors a nice plug-and-play forward. But they are kidding themselves if they think he'll solve all their problems.
The Warriors might not even be positioned to win 37 games, again, forget improving their title chances, and it's entirely their fault. At the trade deadline, Golden State turned down an offer for Jaylen Brown. Considering that Brown turned out to be a motivating factor in LeBron's decision to join the Philadelphia 76ers, this decision aged like milk.
Fine, maybe Brown wasn't their cup of tea, but why not make an all-in push for Trey Murphy III? Golden State could have beaten the Minnesota Timberwolves' offer for LaMelo Ball. You get the point: they could have added more talent.
The Warriors must be more aggressive
The crux of these problems is that Mike Dunleavy Jr. and the Warriors front office are hesitant to trade future draft capital. Under Dunleavy, they've lost out on several trades for this reason. Even their biggest recent move (trading for Butler) wasn't an all in move, as they gave just one protected first-round pick (thanks to Jimmy tanking his value).
Curry is 38; he won't be around forever, and the Warriors' future picks have real value. On some level, it makes sense to be conservative with them. However, the bigger picture is that Curry is still playing at a high level, and you need to do whatever it takes to maximize his final years. If and when they enter a rebuild, they can compensate for their lack of picks by taking on bad contracts.
Despite the clear value of giving Curry a better roster, there's no evidence to suggest that the Warriors are magically going to change their mind and make a competitive push.
Golden State's inactive offseason has been frustrating to watch as a neutral fan, and I can't imagine what it's like for actual Warriors. While Curry is fiercely loyal, the fear is that at some point he may get fed up with the organization's approach.
And yes, the Warriors' four championships with Steph negate some of the pity, but it's still a bummer that Curry's final years seem destined to be played on subpar rosters (unless he leaves the Warriors).
Unfortunately, the recent reporting linking the Warriors to Niang, Williams and Terry indicates they still aren't ready to help Curry.
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