Golden State Warriors: The new youth movement cannot afford to fail

The Golden State Warriors are committing to going young this next season. With a majority of the players’ age 25 or younger, the new youth movement cannot afford to fail in 2019.

The Golden State Warriors are attempting to put their dynasty on “pause” for the 2019-2020 NBA season, as opposed to seeing its end.

If there is a franchise to emulate in any capacity, it should be the San Antonio Spurs. San Antonio has reached the playoffs a record 22 consecutive seasons, starting back in 1998 till this past postseason in 2019.

Never once did they win championships back-to-back, but they’ve remained largely competitive, becoming the status quo for a successful NBA franchise with a prowess for longevity. They’ve needed to adapt and adjust as their core got older and the game evolved simultaneously.

The Warriors are striving to mimic this same type of longevity and it’s for that exact reason that they are going with a true youth movement this next season. The difference now between before however is that these young Warriors cannot afford to fail.

At the time of his tweet, Anthony Slater of The Athletic noted that a projected eight of the 12 roster spots for Golden State would be filled by players age 25 or younger:

Among the notables is newly acquired D’Angelo Russell, who is just 23 years old.

Golden State’s three draft picks: Jordan Poole, Eric Paschall, and Alen Smailegic, are 22, 20, and 18 years old respectively. Russell’s role is obvious, without Klay Thompson for the majority if not all of next season, he’s there to shoulder the offensive load from Stephen Curry.

But the difference now is that rookies like Poole and Paschall will likely need to play valuable minutes from the start, and throughout the regular season.

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In years prior with a top-heavy roster, Golden State could afford to be patient with their development and even send them to the G-Leauge. But this year, that isn’t exactly the case.

The Warriors need to rely on their youth going forward, and they can’t afford setbacks in their development.

No, Golden State’s priority shouldn’t be an NBA Finals run this next season. What they are hoping for is to keep their core (Stephen Curry, Klay Thompson, Draymond Green) healthy and for the youth to take the right step forward in year one.

There will be growing pains no doubt, the NBA is a different beast compared to the college landscape. The 82 game grind can wear someone down in year one. The latter half of the season is called the “rookie wall” for a reason.

But Golden State needs its young players to endure the roadblocks in order to see the payoff. D’Angelo Russell, no matter the length of his stay with Golden State, needs to prove he can coalesce alongside Curry and Thompson.

Will the payoff of next season’s growing pains and potential hurdles be felt immediately? Likely not. But with next year’s championship odds blown wide open, it can be a silver lining for Golden State. Use next season to keep this franchise competitive not just for the foreseeable future, but longer than that.

The foundation to achieve that goal? It starts with this new youth movement, and it starts now.