While Golden State Warriors fans are wondering if LeBron James is going to join Stephen Curry to create an aging super-team, the news that they're bringing back De’Anthony Melton makes it clear they have a Plan B in place.
The Melton signing comes after the Warriors also brought back Kristaps Porzingis and Al Horford. Those moves make it much tougher to thread the needle financially in order to land James, so the Warriors are clearly content to field largely the same team they had last season if the superstar forward goes elsewhere.
Warriors' backup plan to LeBron is to simply to run it back
Running it back always seemed like a likely outcome when head coach Steve Kerr made his decision to return, having spoken about setting the team up for the future rather than desperately chasing one more title by making a bunch of huge moves. Yet once Draymond Green announced he would opt out of his contract on Monday, that led to speculation that the team had something big planned.
All of this speaks to the weird place the Warriors are in as a franchise right now. With an aging group of players it would make sense to try to go all-in and give Curry one more chance at a ring, but at the same time it’s questionable whether making any move, no matter if it’s signing LeBron or trading for Anthony Davis, would move the needle enough to make them a true contender in the Western Conference.
The Warriors are bringing back Porzingis, Horford and Melton as insurance just in case they don’t get LeBron. That way, they can at least be quasi-competitive and have enough of a floor to make it into the Play-In while still giving themselves the tiniest amount of flexibility to land James.
But they cannot allow themselves to put all their eggs in the LeBron basket, otherwise they could get burned. One could argue that’s the mistake they made for years with Giannis Antetokounmpo by holding onto trade assets and draft picks hoping they could make an appealing offer, only to see the 2x MVP head to the Miami Heat instead.
Now, somewhat ironically, the Warriors seem to be on “two timelines” yet again. Except the two timelines this time are not “young versus old,” now it’s “old versus older.”
They already have the “old” locked in place by bringing back Porzingis, Horford and Melton, and they could still have their old star core comprised of Curry, Green and Jimmy Butler -- assuming Green signs and Butler isn't traded. Now the question is if they want to get even older by going down the James and/or Davis route.
It may not be the most inspiring Plan B, but at least if James doesn’t work out they will have solid, proven players on the roster who already have some level of chemistry.
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