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Injuries were a factor and so was a roster short on skilled, two-way, long-armed wing players. Both things can be true.\u00a0<\/p>\n
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For vivid evidence of the need for those types of players, consider this week\u2019s riveting start to the Western Conference finals between Oklahoma City and San Antonio. Victor Wembanyama has played like a generational basketball alien, but we already knew that about him.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Rookie Dylan Harper announced his arrival on the postseason stage with a transcendent Game 1 performance (24 points, 11 rebounds, seven steals, six assists and only one turnover). Harper joins Stephon Castle, Devin Vassell and Julian Champagnie in giving the Spurs a deep collection of multi-dimensional wings to complement Wembanyama and point guard De\u2019Aaron Fox, who missed the first two games with an injury.\u00a0<\/p>\n
That core matches up well with the Thunder\u2019s similar supply of two-way players, most notably back-to-back MVP Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Jalen Williams (when healthy), Cason Wallace and Alex Caruso. They give OKC a swarming, relentless pack around 7-foot-1 Chet Holmgren.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Both teams flood the floor with long players who impact the game on both offense and defense. They evoke memories of the position-less Warriors of a decade ago: young Draymond Green, Klay Thompson, Kevin Durant (and Harrison Barnes before him), Andre Iguodala and Shaun Livingston, all causing havoc around Curry.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Those Warriors built this model. Other franchises followed suit.<\/p>\n
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This past season\u2019s Golden State team mostly featured specialists who needed Curry and Butler to prosper. And, as Kerr noted last week, the Warriors had too many players limited by age and\/or injury issues, restricted from competing on back-to-back nights, an inescapable reality in the NBA. That\u2019s the risk of an older roster.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cWe need some younger legs, for sure,\u201d Kerr said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
This brings us back to the vital summer ahead for Dunleavy and the Warriors. Deep down, he must know he has to upgrade his roster. He knows Golden State needs younger, fresher, more complete players to achieve Curry\u2019s goal of playing \u201cmeaningful basketball\u201d in the final years of his incomparable career.<\/p>\n
That doesn\u2019t mean Dunleavy should resist the temptation to check on the cost of a landscape-shifting trade for Giannis Antetokounmpo. He\u2019s one of the top five players in the world, a unique talent, and he\u2019s only 31 years old. Kick the tires on Giannis, absolutely.\u00a0<\/p>\n
But set aside dreams of LeBron James (age 41) and Kawhi Leonard (soon to turn 35). That feels like a reach, too much like sacrificing the future for one last desperate shot at glory.\u00a0<\/p>\n
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The more you contemplate the Warriors\u2019 situation, the more it becomes evident their clearest path to improving the roster is by using, not trading, the first-round pick in next month\u2019s draft.<\/p>\n
Milwaukee most likely will find a better offer for Antetokounmpo elsewhere, anyway. Then the Warriors will turn their attention to the No. 11 choice in a deep draft<\/a>, a prime opportunity to address their shortcomings\u00a0\u2014 especially important with Butler and Moses Moody to miss at least the first half of next season.\u00a0<\/p>\nDunleavy should be able to find a high-level starter at No. 11, possibly a franchise cornerstone. That\u2019s where the Warriors got Thompson 15 years ago. The Spurs took Vassell (no Thompson but a key player) 11th in 2020. Last year\u2019s No. 11 pick, Memphis\u2019 Cedric Coward, earned first-team all-rookie honors this season.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Also worth remembering: Gilgeous-Alexander was the 11th pick in 2018.\u00a0<\/p>\n
This is not to suggest Dunleavy needs to identify a future, two-time MVP at No. 11. But he can add a multi-skilled player with size and length, to contribute on offense and defense, to step into the rotation sooner rather than later.\u00a0<\/p>\n
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Dunleavy cannot afford to miss on his first swing at a lottery pick.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Warriors general manager Mike\u00a0Dunleavy exits a news conference after addressing the media regarding the return of head coach…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":327544,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[30],"tags":[7000,81651,101,103,102,104,106,105,127,13340],"class_list":["post-327543","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-san-francisco","tag-golden-state-warriors","tag-mike-dunleavy","tag-san-francisco","tag-san-francisco-headlines","tag-san-francisco-news","tag-sf","tag-sf-headlines","tag-sf-news","tag-sports","tag-warriors"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/327543","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=327543"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/327543\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/327544"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=327543"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=327543"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=327543"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}