As the Golden State Warriors have prepared to enter the 2025-26 NBA season, their additions this summer, including Al Horford and De'Anthony Melton, were all meant to accomplish one goal: to give superstar Stephen Curry the support he needs to make a deep playoff run.
While there is room for debate as to the efficacy of this roster, especially given the rising age of its most integral pieces, ESPN's model for predicting wins, from which Kevin Pelton has recently assembled a power ranking of all 30 teams, looks highly upon the Warriors' budding depth.
Pelton's model, which combines stats-based projections with a sort of adjusted plus-minus in order to project team wins based on the combined success and value of individual players, has named the Warriors as the second-most winning team in the Western Conference, and its reason for doing so is arguably legitimate.
The Warriors could be among the deepest teams in the league
While the Thunder, coming off of a historical 68-14 regular season and an NBA championship, Golden State sits just over three wins behind them in Pelton's rankings, in large part, as Pelton mentions, as a result of the sheer depth of their roster.
In the adjusted plus-minus stat that Pelton uses to calculate individual value, the Warriors have 11 players on their roster that are above league average, meaning that even their end-of-bench players, including someone like Gary Payton II, have the potential to take on impactful minutes throughout the course of the season.
Entering the season, Golden State will have four starters over the age of 35, including Curry, Horford, Jimmy Butler and Draymond Green. Moreover, some of the players they signed this offseason, including Melton, have questionable injury histories.
Therefore, as the team attempts to rally through the regular season and arrive at the playoffs with Curry and Butler at full strength, having players take on minutes in big games down the stretch or on the second half of back-to-backs will be massive for this team.
Moreover, head coach Steve Kerr has been known to run an extended rotation during the regular season, meaning that even rookie Will Richard could see enough minutes to be considered reliable when the final 20-or-so games of the regular season come.
Of course, Oklahoma City, who were admired by fans and analysts alike last year for the depth they had constructed on their roster are still the championship favorites this season. Yet, to rival a team of that magnitude in almost any category is a positive sign for a team with championship hopes like the Warriors.