Golden State Warriors: 5 Early Season Takeaways

4. The Bench Is A Work In Progress

Heading into a season with championship expectations, the Warriors’ biggest potential obstacles — aside from learning to play together and sacrifice appropriately for Kevin Durant — were rim protection and bench depth.

Golden State’s second unit has been a bit uneven in the early going, but like almost every other component of this team, it’s started to come together during the team’s eight-game win streak.

The key? Steve Kerr‘s decision to sub out Durant and Thompson early and reinsert them for Stephen Curry and Draymond Green in bench-heavy lineups, often with KD manning the 4.

The Warriors’ reserves are hardly potent in the scoring column, averaging 28.4 points per game to rank 26th in the league among all bench units. But Golden State doesn’t need its bench to put up huge scoring numbers; its starting unit is more than capable of that, averaging a league-leading 88.7 points per game.

What the Warriors really need from their bench is lead protection, or at least to minimize the damage when the starters rest. So far, Golden State’s second unit has shown encouraging signs, boasting a +1.5 point differential that ranks sixth in the NBA among all benches.

Playing guys like Andre Iguodala, Shaun Livingston and David West alongside KD and Klay has certainly boosted that figure, but is that really some sort of unsustainable problem?

The Dubs haven’t played the toughest of opponents yet. They lost to the Spurs on opening night, whipped Thunder and Blazers teams that have recently fallen off, steamrolled a Celtics team playing without two starters, and their best win is probably against a Raptors team that’s currently floundering.

But if the Warriors’ bench can continue to protect — or even build on — leads against superior competition, Golden State’s title hopes will remain firmly intact.