Golden State Warriors: Evaluating The Baby Warriors Production So Far
By Ti Windisch
The Golden State Warriors are a top-heavy team, and they might need their young guys to step up and contribute earlier than expected.
The Golden State Warriors have a better group of four players than anybody in the NBA. Stephen Curry, Kevin Durant, Klay Thompson and Draymond Green are phenomenal. That much is obvious.
Believe it or not though, the Dubs need more than four players to win a championship this season. Nobody can match up with their star power, but there are teams with better benches than Golden State.
The Warriors depth is being pushed to the limit with some injuries to older veterans the team added to replace cap casualties in the push to acquire KD. Zaza Pachulia is dealing with a strained rotator cuff and likely won’t return for a few weeks.
David West isn’t expected to play until after the All-Star Break either.
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Those injuries–plus Klay Thompson sitting out with some heel soreness and Shaun Livingston missing a game due to the birth of his child–resulted in three Warriors younger than 22 playing significant minutes in a recent game against the Denver Nuggets.
Rookie Patrick McCaw started in place of Thompson and logged 35 minutes, the most he’s ever played in an NBA game.
Second-year forward Kevon Looney played 16 minutes and rookie Damian Jones logged 12. Surprisingly, out of the Baby Warriors only McCaw had a plus/minus in the negative for the game against the Nuggets. While either Looney or Jones were on the floor, the Dubs outscored Denver.
Golden State Warriors
As much as Steve Kerr might prefer to run with veterans who are better equipped to handle the pressure of playing on a great team, he knows he’ll likely need these Baby Warriors to jump in and play major minutes at times over the course of the regular season, and even potentially in the playoffs.
Injuries plague every team, which is what makes depth so vital for contenders.
Even more importantly, these Baby Warriors could end up moving up in the rotation as soon as next season. Several key Warriors are on the last year of their deals, including Curry.
Curry likely isn’t going anywhere, but his next contract will be worth well more than double per season what he’s making now.
That severely limits Golden State’s ability to add players, meaning anybody already on the roster is part of the Warriors future, out of necessity if nothing else. To that end, looking through what the young Warriors are capable of doing right now is important.
Patrick McCaw, Kevon Looney and Damian Jones are seeing more minutes already, and that trend should continue next year. Let’s look at how the Baby Warriors are producing for Golden State this season.