After three championships in four years, including back to back victories, it is still hard to refute that the Golden State Warriors are the favorite to win it all again. That said, the gap between them and the field has narrowed a little this season.
Multiple teams in the Western Conference have surged and proven themselves to be potential threats come playoff time. The young Denver Nuggets have placed themselves in a neck and neck race for the first seed with the Warriors. The Oklahoma City Thunder, only 3.5 games behind Golden State, is finding success as an elite defense behind former MVP Russell Westbrook and MVP hopeful Paul George.
Seemingly finding their footing again despite injuries, the Houston Rockets, last season’s top seed in the West, cannot be counted out. With 10 teams in the Western Conference at .500 or better, the Warriors will have to ready to play in every round of the playoffs as they chase a three peat.
While Golden State has typically remained fairly dormant for the trade deadline, opting to add to the team in the buyout market, this season may call for a little more aggression in looking for roster reinforcement. The return of DeMarcus Cousins later this week will be the first viewing of the Warriors’ starting lineup featuring five All-Stars. Despite having the best starting lineup in the league, their bench could use a quick upgrade.
Far from a mess, the Golden State second unit is still holding their own against other team’s second unit and putting up some decent numbers. There are a few figures that raise slight concern, though. While the Warriors starters average the second highest amount of attempted 3’s among league starting units, their bench is second among other benches. The second unit is also bottom five in field goal attempts, steals, and free throw percentage compared to other bench units in the league.
The majority of this has to do with personnel. The Warriors roster is full of front court rotational players. Jonas Jerebko, Jordan Bell, Damian Jones, and Kevon Looney have all found playing time in the rotation. Other positions, however, are much thinner.
In terms of guards, the rotation behind Stephen Curry and Klay Thompson consists of Quinn Cook, Shaun Livingston, Damion Lee, and Jacob Evans. Each of these players is a net negative in terms of their on-off numbers. Evans, in particular, is a net -19.9 in the 99 minutes of playing time he has seen. The lack of playable guards in the rotation has even led to Andre Iguodala playing over a third of his minutes at the 2 spot and Klay Thompson logging in more playing time this season at the point than at the 3.
The team faces a similar situation with their wing depth. Outside of Iguodala, who has long been the Warriors’ heralded sixth man, they have a desperate need for more help. The back end of the rotation is made up almost solely of Alfonzo McKinnie, with Marcus Derrickson having only played 34 minutes in six games.
The 26-year-old McKinnie has been helpful for the Golden State bench but isn’t enough. In his 14.6 minutes per game, he is averaging only 5.2 points, 3.8 rebounds, and 0.4 assists. With the holes to fill, Draymond Green has been playing significant time at the small forward position, doing no favors to the team's spacing.
After integrating a healthy Cousins into the rotation, more options will be available to the Warriors in terms of staggering their starters minutes to help offset the drop-off of talent that occurs when their bench takes the court.
However, this doesn’t remove or reduce the risk of struggling if another injury forces one of their stars to take time off. This gave the team troubles earlier in the season. If Golden State finds a way to make a move happen, it could soften that potential blow, while simultaneously helping the team rely on their second unit more.
It is unclear what targets would be of interest for the Warriors, or even what pieces of their own they would feel comfortable trading away. However, the Golden State front office shouldn’t rule out finding a way to make a trade happen prior to the deadline in order to keep pushing for the dynasty’s third title in a row.
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