The Golden State Warriors will return to dominance in 2021, but depth is still going to be a concern as their second unit will have little NBA experience.
As many know, the Golden State Warriors were not good throughout the bulk of the 2019-2020 season. Somehow, someway they managed a primetime win, of their mere 15, over the Houston Rockets on Christmas Day.
Aside from that, the Warriors season was dominated by multiple losing streaks. It was understandable from the start of the season as Klay Thompson was going to miss the bulk of the year with a torn ACL.
Then Stephen Curry went down. Draymond Green also missed time. That left D’Angelo Russell to pull the weight of the team until he was traded. While the Warriors will have Curry, Thompson, Green and Andrew Wiggins all healthy next season, their second unit will be less than desirable.
Ky Bowman is the current backup guard, and he’ll be entering his second season. Eric Paschall and Jordan Poole will be the backup power forward and backup shooting guard; they are both entering their second season in the league.
Mychal Mulder and Juan Toscano-Anderson are both rocking backup roles entering their second season in the league as well. Even Damion Lee and Kevon Looney don’t have too much experience although the latter had a solid stretch of games in the 2019 playoffs.
Those seven will man the bulk of the team’s second unit with little experience compared to veterans like Andre Iguodala and Shaun Livingston, veterans the team used to have leading their second unit.
Overall, the team has a trade exception and mid-level exception at their disposal along with the No. 2 overall pick in the 2020 NBA Draft. So, the areas for them to improve the roster are there.
The Warriors, for that reason, need to be active in trading or signing this offseason. With those as their main resources, the Warriors must make sure they add depth in order to stay afloat if their stars miss time, something they clearly weren’t able to do this past season.
As of now, the depth for the Warriors is not looking great as many will be entering their second season in the league. That’s not who you want handling the ball in the playoffs, and the Warriors likely realize that as well.
Expect them to make some moves to improve their depth before the start of the 2020-2021 season.