After finishing 10th in the Western Conference last season, the Golden State Warriors will again face an uphill battle simply to make it out of the NBA's Play-In Tournament.
Much will change between now and the close of next season, but while the Warriors' offseason moves have arguably made them better, it's unlikely to be enough to catapult them into the top tier of teams in the West.
Where will the Golden State Warriors finish after the 2024-25 regular season?
The conference is expected to be even more competitive than a 2023-24 season that saw Golden State miss the playoffs despite finishing 10 games above .500. The Memphis Grizzlies are expected to bounce-back quickly after a disastrous injury run, the Houston Rockets are likely to take another leap in their trajectory back towards playoff action, and the San Antonio Spurs will only be better with a pair of former Warrior veterans, Chris Paul and Harrison Barnes, joining a host of young talent headlined by Victor Wembanyama.
So where do the Warriors feature in the landscape of the West? You could practically make an argument for just about anywhere, with one rival's metric model placing them fourth according toAnthony Slater of The Athletic earlier this week. ESPN's Tim Bontemps also believes Golden State are "a real chance" of being a top four seed.
Then you have the more pessimistic outlooks such as that of NBA legend Charles Barkley who recently stated that "they're going to be even more mediocre next year." There's certainly an argument to be made that the Warriors haven't got sufficiently better to surpass too many teams above them from last season, nor to prevent a team or two below from surging past them.
But there's four key points here that should provide a more optimistic outlook on what Golden State can achieve. Firstly, the roster is better, perhaps not drastically so in a way they may have wanted after missing out on Paul George and Lauri Markkanen, but better nonetheless.
Secondly, unlike some other rival teams in the West, the Warriors do have the assets and financial flexibility to go and make deals to improve their team at some point before February's trade deadline. That shouldn't be forgotten, albeit there's some pessimism on their ability to complete such moves after the failed George and Markkanen negotiations.
Thirdly, following the departures of Klay Thompson and Chris Paul, Golden State have got younger which should help them through a long regular season. That's not just in relation to potential injury concerns or individual player development, but more so just simply about bringing energy more consistently.
Finally, surely Draymond Green doesn't miss 21 games through suspension again? If the incidents with Rudy Gobert and Jusuf Nurkic don't happen last season, the Warriors probably win at least five or six extra games and are all of a sudden a 50-win team with a guaranteed playoff spot.
There's plenty of other points that could be brought to the table -- Stephen Curry hasn't even been mentioned and yet still obviously remains as the focal point to everything the franchise does or hopes to achieve. You could also talk about the plethora of games the Warriors somehow lost last season in situations where they literally snatched defeat from the jaws of victory.
Golden State should be better and as a result, this writer has them predicted eighth in the West next season. They'll still need to go through the Play-In Tournament, but with two shots at a confirmed playoff berth.
One of the Grizzlies or Rockets could shoot past them to earn a playoff spot of their own, though the Warriors could foreseeably finish above three of the Clippers, Pelicans, Lakers and Kings to finish inside the top eight.