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The Golden State Warriors could be a team on the verge of emerging as an elite one next season.
The Warriors showed off their potential following their midseason trade of Jimmy Butler. Golden State went 23-7 with Butler in the lineup, including 16-2 when both Butler and Steph Curry were in. The Warriors managed to pull off a first-round series win over the No. 2-seeded Houston Rockets with both stars in the lineup, but fell to the Minnesota Timberwolves in the semifinals after Curry missed most of the series after suffering an injury in Game 1.
While it remains to be seen what finishing touches the Warriors put on their roster — they're currently fielding trade offers for Jonathan Kuminga — Dell Curry (Steph's dad) believes an “athletic big” could be what puts Golden State over the top.
“A lot of teams wish they had an athletic big,” says Curry in a one-on-one interview. “Go find one that a team's willing to give up on, to help your opponent out. That's the game now. You got to be able to get up and down the floor as a big, shoot the ball, athletic ability, and that position is really important. The Warriors are like a lot of teams in the league, looking for that athletic big.”
Curry mentions how Kuminga could be that piece, but they need to make a decision on what they're going to do with him. The Warriors extended a $7.9 million qualifying offer to Kuminga, who is a restricted free agent. The 2022 first-round draft pick has shown promise at times, leading the team with 20.8 points per game on 54.3% from the field and 42.1% from beyond the arc in the series against the T-Wolves.
However, he's also appeared out of place a lot of the time in Golden State, losing his starting place in the lineup early on in the season with no contract extension in place. As mentioned before, the Warriors have been shopping Kuminga in a potential sign-and-trade deal.
Curry stresses that the younger players on the Warriors need to start stepping up as his son, Steph, Butler and Draymond Green continue to age. All three players are at least 35 years old.
“The development of their young players will really help them going forward,” says Curry. “They got to figure out the Jonathan Kuminga situation, he has value around the league, whether they want to re-sign him, bring him back or use him to bring more value. Maybe he's the guy they use to get that athletic big. There's so many scenarios of how teams and how the Warriors can get better.”
The former Charlotte Hornets star mentions how the “window is closing” for the Warriors, with the Western Conference being so stacked. The Oklahoma City Thunder just won the NBA Finals as the second-youngest team in the league and there are still teams like the Timberwolves, Denver Nuggets and the Kevin Durant-led Houston Rockets lurking.
“That window is closing obviously with Steph, Draymond and Jimmy getting up there in age,” says Curry. “They've got to make some decisions now to make sure that they have the team that it takes to make a run at it. If they're healthy — if Steph, Jimmy and Draymond are healthy — and they get the right mix of guys, more shooting around, they're right back in the conversation when you talk about the Western Conference teams to beat.”
Curry says that with Butler going through a full training camp with the Warriors, they'll be right in the “mix” among the Western Conference's elite next season.
“With Jimmy being able to go through a training camp and rigors of a full season, they can get their stride and everybody's healthy at the end of the year again, I think they can be right there in the mix,” says Curry.
