Golden State of Mind

The Warriors are under new management, hopes are high, and change is moving quickly throughout the organization. The face of the franchise is one of the most recognizable guys in all of basketball. Stephen Curry, son of former basketball great Dell Curry. The 26-year old sharpshooter has spent his entire 6-year career as a member of the Warriors and upper management has confirmed it will remain that way until Curry decides to retire or ultimately demands a trade. There also came the guarantee of many more playoff appearances for the Davidson alum. Last season, Curry made his first playoff appearance in 6 years, but it was short lived as the Warriors were eliminated after just 5 games. Nonetheless, Curry put up some superb numbers, shooting 51% from the field and 54% from beyond the arc, a promising sign of what we can look forward to in the near future. He isn't the only face of the franchise, not by a long shot. His "splash brother" Klay Thompson has also spent his entire career (3 years) with the Warriors and I highly doubt we ever see the tandem broken up. The two combine to make the best 3pt backcourt in the entire league bar none. Klay also stepped up big in the short playoff appearance, shooting 53% from beyond the arc and 54% from the field, averaging 22.6 points per game. Throughout the regular season they were the 2nd (Klay) and 7th (Curry) best shooters from long range. However, there was a flaw in the backcourt, despite the spectacular show they could put on by lighting up the scoreboard. Defense was virtually irrelevant, and when the splash brothers weren't on the court, it was Earl Watson and Rodrigue Beaubois who were asked to pick up the slack. Neither of those players deserves a spot on any of the 30 teams' rosters.

 Next season, fans in Oakland will have absolutely nothing to worry about as new GM Higrade made it a priority to address the issue. While that might have come at the expense of Harrison Barnes, a super talented wingman who made the All-Star team in his sophomore season, Warriors fans all across the globe agree it was well worth it. At the start of the 2014 CSL Draft the Warriors struck a deal with the Atlanta Hawks. But the trade didn't include any picks in the draft, such as the Hawks' 4th pick. This deal was more about winning now, not later. The Warriors sent Harrison Barnes and Thomas Robinson packing, in exchange for Eric Bledsoe and Trey Burke. With mixed opinions about the trade league-wide, mainly biased in the Hawks' favor, the Warriors are more than confident with their acquisitions. There are now 4 guards in Golden State capable of starting for majority of the teams in the CSL. Trey Burke, last year's 5th pick, will be the ideal 6th man capable of providing a much needed lift off the bench. He shoots above 40% from deep to compliment the splash brothers and has plenty of room to improve his all around game. Along with Burke came defensive specialist Eric Bledsoe, who has plenty of critics for some reason. At just 6'1 192lbs, Bledsoe is a bit on the smaller side for a shooting guard but apparently it doesn't matter. The kid is ruthless on the defensive end, averaging over 2 steals per game and stopping nearly everyone who comes his way. Qualities the 3pt gunning backcourt was desperately lacking, as Klay's defense is nothing to brag about and in fact, below average. While Barnes will be missed, his career should take off in Atlanta, but the team is confident they can make up for the loss. The free agency crop should have plenty of wings capable of filling his role, or at the least, capable of backing up Klay. As of now we believe the starting rotation to be Stephen Curry, Eric Bledsoe, Klay Thompson, Enes Kanter, & Tyson Chandler, with Burke coming off the bench for near 30 minutes a game. As of now, the roster looks to be set in stone, but given the GM's reputation, don't be too surprised if we see a few more moves before the start of next season.

Good read

this is higrade we are talking about none of those guys will start the season there lol

Lets see what you are able to do, really deep rotation at 1,2 but Im not the biggest fan of klay playing the 3 against guys like Lebron, Durant etc.
He's big enough but his defense will be a problem I believe.

GSW is/was just loaded with talent. I will be interested to see Klay at SF - he's got the size, but I wonder if part of his 3p% isn't attributable to his height advantage over other SGs - we'll see.

Listen, you accomplished what you wanted with the Barnes trade - you broke up his value into two solid players with potential to give yourself more depth.

Good luck shaping this team into the contender it should be.

I liked the old roster better because I think Barnes fits far better with your young team than Chandler and Bledsoe. Especially since now Klay will have to match up against KD and LeBron, and in all likelihood, they'll abuse him.

But I don't think anyone in the league has ever tried a 3 guard starting lineup, let's see how it works.

Great article, but can I suggest separate paragraphs? Would definitely make it much easier for people to read.

I think your offensive firepower is something scary on the wings, but like others have said, Klay's defense could be a huge negative in the starting lineup. I could see you going with Klay at the three against the other team's bench while Bledsoe and Burke come in and spell your guards.

Rizzo (NO) wrote:Great article, but can I suggest separate paragraphs? Would definitely make it much easier for people to read.

I have to echo this. Good read but it was tough without paragraphs.

I'm still unsure why there was a pressing need to move Barnes though or why he needed to be moved at all.

I had Klay both at SG and SF with my NSL Suns. He was much more dominant at the 2. Still solid at the 3, but his length really created matchup problems at SG.

Jake0890 (MIN) wrote:I liked the old roster better because I think Barnes fits far better with your young team than Chandler and Bledsoe. Especially since now Klay will have to match up against KD and LeBron, and in all likelihood, they'll abuse him.

But I don't think anyone in the league has ever tried a 3 guard starting lineup, let's see how it works.

Except that isn't a 3 guard lineup. Klay is a wing, not a guard.

Jestor (PHX) wrote:

Jake0890 (MIN) wrote:I liked the old roster better because I think Barnes fits far better with your young team than Chandler and Bledsoe. Especially since now Klay will have to match up against KD and LeBron, and in all likelihood, they'll abuse him.

But I don't think anyone in the league has ever tried a 3 guard starting lineup, let's see how it works.

Except that isn't a 3 guard lineup.  Klay is a wing, not a guard.

It is a 3 guard lineup. Steph Curry is listed as a PG, Bledsoe as a PG, and Klay as a SG. That's a lineup of PG-PG-SG. All of them are guards, regardless if Klay can play both SG and SF, his position is SG.

Jake0890 (MIN) wrote:

Jestor (PHX) wrote:

Jake0890 (MIN) wrote:I liked the old roster better because I think Barnes fits far better with your young team than Chandler and Bledsoe. Especially since now Klay will have to match up against KD and LeBron, and in all likelihood, they'll abuse him.

But I don't think anyone in the league has ever tried a 3 guard starting lineup, let's see how it works.

Except that isn't a 3 guard lineup.  Klay is a wing, not a guard.

It is a 3 guard lineup. Steph Curry is listed as a PG, Bledsoe as a PG, and Klay as a SG. That's a lineup of PG-PG-SG. All of them are guards, regardless if Klay can play both SG and SF, his position is SG.

While technically correct, it's still not a 3 guard lineup in actuality. 6'7 is actually SF size not SG in most setups.

As stated in TC thread:

Curry/ Thompson/ Barnes/ Lee (or Kanter)/ Chandler

That's a championship caliber lineup if I ever saw one, it appears yet another PG PG lineup is gonna be in the L with another PG (Trey) coming off the bench which is cruel and unusual punishment for the kid.

He played well last season.

All of these PG PG lineups are cracking me up, gonna be interesting to see who gets stuck with it long term or horde em in an attempt to get a true SG or SF and some actually have true SG/SF's but don't start them.

Clippers/Pacers/Cavs/Celtics/Blazers/Raptors/Bulls/Pistons/Hawks/Pelicans/Thunder/Warriors

These two PG lineups always confuse me, though I did have one in NAH with Lawson/Iverson and it got me to the West Conference Finals.

It's mainly because of the lack of good SGs, the most talent-deprived position in the league.

I like Bledsoe, good defender on a good deal, and should be great as your longterm SG.

Maybe it's me but I see quality SG's out there, it's just that the GM's don't like them from what I gather from the many copycat two PG lineups throughout the L.

I think the success of the Clippers was fool's gold to alot of team philosophies out there and changed how guys run their teams imo.

My belief is the only way one of those 2 PG sets'll have a chance to win it all would be to get a big who can defend and stretch the D cause all of those teams have the same bruiser PF/C duo which ultimately caught up to them, that and the smaller guards getting worn down by the taller guards.

End of the day to each his/her own.

I kind of agree. I really only played Teague there because Oladipo isn't ready to start otherwise I probably prefer the traditional way unless the off point has good size.

Well first off, Bledsoe is NOT a Point Guard by any means and he never will be. To be a point guard you need to have good IQ & Passing ratings to start with. Bledsoe has neither. He's a 2 guard in a PG body. The reason I wanted him was for his defense, which he is great at. I have absolutely no worries about him playing well alongside Curry, the two will be fantastic.

Second, Burke will see plenty of time so I don't really see how it's a shame he'll be the 6th man and not a starter. All 4 guards (Curry, Burke, Bledsoe, Klay) will play at least 30 minutes per game. I think it's going to be pretty awesome what they can do, and that's just talking about the backcourt. There's also a pretty damn solid rotation in the frontcourt with Chandler, Kanter, Lee, Dieng. An ideal combination of offense/defense. Not to mention there will be yet another piece added to the puzzle in free agency with the use of our MLE. This team has a pretty bright future and while Barnes is very good, I think this lineup is 5x better than the previous one, but obviously that's just me. Thanks for all of the feedback nonetheless.

Then you have those damn Pelicans with three quality SGs...