![]() ![]() While their roster changes arguably hurt the Warriors’ depth and interior defense, replacing Harrison Barnes with Kevin Durant in their small ball “Death Lineup”-Curry, Thompson, Green, Iguodala, and now Durant-more than makes up for it. The changes give Golden State a starting five of Steph Curry, Klay Thompson, Kevin Durant, Draymond Green, and Zaza Pachulia. Bench players Festus Ezeli and Leandro Barbosa-occasional contributors Marreese Speights and Brandon Rush-all found new NBA homes last offseason.īesides Durant, the Warriors added centers Zaza Pachulia and JaVale McGee, power forward David West, rookie point guard Patrick McCaw, and small forward Matt Barnes, who they signed mid-season after Durant’s injury. Gone are starters Harrison Barnes and Andrew Bogut. In doing so, they had to release or not re-sign several key players from the 2016 NBA Finals runner-up squad. Golden State saw an opportunity to add one of the NBA’s five best players during the offseason and took it. The change starts with Kevin Durant, who shocked fans lats offseason when he left Oklahoma City in unrestricted free agency. Role players Ian Clark, James Michael McAdoo, and Anderson Varejao are also still with the team there’s turnover everywhere else on the roster. Only five players who averaged at least 10 minutes a game for Golden State in 2015-16 remain: starters Steph Curry, Klay Thompson, and Draymond Green, along with key reserves Andre Iguodala and Shaun Livingston. You probably wouldn’t expect a team coming off back-to-back NBA Finals appearances with regular season win totals of 73 and 67, respectively, to make drastic changes to its roster.īut that’s exactly what the Warriors did. This year’s Golden State team, however, has some pretty dramatic roster differences from last year. Portland played the Warriors in the second round of the 2016 NBA playoffs-a series they were relatively competitive in despite losing in five games. The Blazers begin their first-round playoff series against the Golden State Warriors on Sunday. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |