After going 16-1 in the postseason en route to a second NBA title in three years, the Warriors entered the 2017 offseason with a number of question marks. More than half of their team was about to hit free agency, including both Stephen Curry and Kevin Durant, and important veteran role pieces Andre Iguodala and Shaun Livingston in limbo.
Additionally, the Warriors entered the NBA draft without a pick, with the option of buying the rights to a player team’s only way to acquire a top prospect for next season.
Let’s breakdown how the Warriors navigated these realities and set themselves up for 2017.
Draft Grade: A
Golden State entered the draft without a pick, but or the second year in a row, Bob Myers purchased one, and early indications are that the swindle god struck gold once again. Last year, it was 38th overall pick Patrick McCaw, who did just about everything you could ask for in his first season, including playing crucial minutes in Game 5 of the NBA Finals.
This year, it was the Chicago Bulls who gifted Golden State with another player who looks like the perfect fit for their system, selling the uber athletic, and reigning Pac-12 Defensive Player of the Year, 38th overall pick Jordan Bell for cash. At the time, many believed the move to be a steal for the Warriors, and a boneheaded decision by Chicago, who gave away a player with high upside that can defend four positions.
The move looks even better after watching Bell in Summer League. The 6-foot-9 rookie posted a 5-x-5 in his second game with 5 points, 11 rebounds, 5 assists, 5 steals, 6 blocks in 32 minutes and had a plus-minus of plus-27. Besides McCaw, Bell outplayed both Kevon Looney and Damian Jones in Summer League, and has already embraced the role of being another Draymond Green off the bench.
Just trying to be like draymond
— Jordan Bell (@1jordanbell) July 12, 2017
Jordan not having it ? pic.twitter.com/pPKSGomDGJ
— GoldenStateWarriors (@warriors) July 9, 2017
Purchasing the rights to Bell cost Golden State just $3.5 million, so if the rookie doesn’t amount to much the losses are minimal. But Bell’s energy and defensive versatility gives him value right now off Golden State’s bench, and anything else he can give the Warriors will be an added bonus to their already embarrassment of riches.
Free Agency: A
Entering free agency, the Warriors had four key players to re-sign, two of which, Shaun Livingston and Andre Iugodala, appeared to be coin flips to return. Thanks to Kevin Durant taking a pay cut for $9.7 million less than his max salary, Golden State was able to re-sign both Iguodala and Livingston to multi-year deals, meaning the most effective core in the NBA will be together for at least two more seasons.
While the Warriors more than likely would’ve been able to sign either Livingston or Iguodala if Durant had elected to take the max, there would’ve been no way to sign both, something that would’ve had a tangible effect on Golden State’s depth next year. Durant’s pay-cut is yet another example of sacrifice that has become synonymous with this group, something that interestingly began with Iguodala accepting a role off the bench in Steve Kerr’s first year as head coach.
Stephen Curry also inked a five-year, $201 million contract, the most lucrative deal in NBA history after playing on a bargain contract for the last four years. Curry’s contract does not have a player option or a no-trade clause, meaning unless something goes horribly wrong, the greatest shooter in NBA history will be a Warrior for the remainder of his prime.
Golden State also re-signed all three players in their surprisingly effective center rotation — David West, Zaza Pachulia and finally JaVale McGee — to minimum contracts. Perhaps most impressive of all is how Golden State dealt with the two players who departed in Ian Clark and James Michael McAdoo.
Using the tax-payer mid-level exception of $5.2 million, Myers replaced Clark with animated shooting guard Nick Young who is coming off maybe his most consistant season shooting the ball playing under former Warriors assistant Luke Walton last year. Myers then added another veteran shooter off the bench by acquiring free agent Omri Casspi on a bargain one year deal, giving the Warriors one of the best shooting three point tandems off the bench in the Steve Kerr era.
In short, the Warriors brought back every key piece from arguably the greatest team off all time, while adding an exciting rookie, and improving a bench that ranked sixth in the league last season. If you thought the gap between the Warriors and the rest of the league was vast last season, expect it to be even wider in 2018.
Overall: A+