Golden State Warriors: 5 goals for Patrick McCaw in 2017-18

5. Learn from Finals experience

McCaw has not publicly said so, but it is fair to assume that the highlight of his career thus far was the two buckets he scored in the second half of an NBA championship-clinching game in front of his home crowd.

The importance of those scores go beyond their emotional significance to McCaw. First off, they are a potential source of confidence for a sophomore looking to be more assertive.

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They are also a source of knowledge. Even without those buckets, merely seeing the court in that sort of extreme-leverage situation gives him a leg up over literally every other second-year player in the league.

In fact, there is no other person in the NBA yet to hit restricted free agency with comparable experience. That’s what happens when one endlessly deep team faces off in the Finals for three consecutive years against a team that annually trades its first round picks.

For McCaw to maximize his opportunities next summer, he needs to play like that guy, the poised-beyond-his-years young player. He technically has Finals experience. If he goes out there and actually looks like a guy with Finals experience, he will get paid whether he gets regular minutes or not.

And while they would love to pay him less, the Warriors will too benefit from his growth.