The Golden State Warriors are currently locked into an intense playoff series with their old friends, the Houston Rockets. After so much history between these two teams during the first part of the Stephen Curry era in the 2010s, it's only fitting that the Warriors get to go against the Rockets once again, this time matching up with a much younger core of players on Houston's side of things.
Golden State currently holds a 1-0 series edge and looks to have a solid chance of pulling the upset to advance to the semifinals for the third time in the last four seasons. But truth be told, the Warriors winning a championship this season feels like a bit of a stretch. Jimmy Butler has been a huge lift for this group, but the roster still leaves something to be desired overall.
In the coming offseason, there are likely to be things the front office wants to address to give this team a chance of dominating the regular season next year, not simply slipping into the playoffs as a seven seed after a play-in victory. One of the most crucial areas they'll want to focus on is improving the depth of quality big men.
Quinten Post, while a nice surprise in his rookie year, feels unlikely to be a real needle-mover for this group while they are actively competing for a championship. Kevon Looney, albeit a strong rebounder, lacks in too many other areas, and Trayce Jackson-Davis still doesn't quite look ready either.
The Warriors may want to pursue Nikola Vucevic
That leads us to consider outside options that the Warriors may want to pursue in the summer, and one name jumps to the forefront of the discussion: Nikola Vucevic. The Chicago Bulls' big man is in an interesting position after a great season in the Windy City, and there's certainly a possibility the Bulls opt to move him in the offseason.
It would definitely be striking while the iron is hot if the Warriors opted to go after Vucevic this summer. The Montenegrin center led Chicago in rebounding while bringing solid contributions as a scorer — it was only the second time in his career he averaged over 40% shooting from beyond the three-point arc.
After his impressive season, Vuc got up in front of reporters at his exit interview and said that a deep playoff run was becoming "a priority" for him at this point of his career. This will of course lead many Warriors fans to raise an eyebrow.
It's not hard to imagine that playing alongside the likes of Stephen Curry and Jimmy Butler would even further maximize Vucevic's talents. Time will tell, but this could easily be the answer to the question marks at center Golden State has been searching for.