Golden State has become a desirable destination
By Derek Tahara
The Golden State Warriors have become the top organization in the league. Once upon a time, they couldn’t sign anyone, now they have plenty of options.
After the 2009-2010 NBA season in Stephen Curry‘s rookie season, the Golden State Warriors finished with a 26-56 record finishing as a bottom-feeder in the Western Conference.
Fast forward to the present and the Warriors just persuaded one of the best basketball players in the world in Kevin Durant to join them on a quest for a dynasty. It is a different, newfound feeling for this Warrior franchise to have a top tier free agent come to the Bay Area when many times, the Warriors wouldn’t even be able to muster an interview with any big name free agents because of the wasted draft picks, questionable past management decisions and consistent losing seasons.
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The Bay Area is now the new standard for free agent destinations with the Durantula signing.
The Warriors’ fortunes started to change when they traded Anthony Randolph, Kelenna Azubuike and Ronny Turiaf for hard-working and double-double machine, David Lee in the summer of 2010. With Lee aboard, the Warriors reconstruction of the roster and basketball culture started.
In the 2011 draft, the Warriors selected future all star shooting Klay Thompson with the 11th pick. The next year in the draft, they struck gold with Harrison Barnes (seventh pick), Festus Ezeli (30th pick) and Draymond Green (35th pick). The Warriors made the playoffs that 2012-2013 season for the first time since the “We Believe” season in ’06-’07 year and shocked the third-seeded Denver Nuggets in six games and fought with the San Antonio Spurs before losing to them in six games.
Later that summer, Bob Myers did a sign-and-trade with the Denver Nuggets and the Utah Jazz, signing Andre Iguodala from the Denver Nuggets and trading Andris Biedrins and Richard Jefferson to the Jazz. This was a big step in the franchise’s development to get big-name free agents in signing swingman Andre Iguodala, a future NBA Finals MVP and key cog to the Warriors’ 2015 championship run.
The Warriors development toward being a championship contender took a hit in the 2014 playoffs when they lost to the Los Angeles Clippers in seven games and soon that summer, the management signed two veterans in Shaun Livingston and Leandro Barbosa.
Now, all the right draft picks and management moves paid off as this summer, they were able to land Kevin Durant and solidify the Bay Area as a free-agent destination that could be enticing to players, whose contracts are up next season.
Move over New York, Boston, LA, and Chicago. There’s a new sheriff in town. Thanks to Iguodala, Livingston, Barbosa, and now Durant, the Bay Area is the new free agent destination to go to.