The Warriors enter this season a slightly different version of the dominant Golden State squads from recent years. While mainstays Draymond Green, Stephen Curry and Klay Thompson remain, the departure of Kevin Durant and a slew of new faces has changed the landscape in Oakland.
While Thompson’s outlook is unclear given his recovery from a torn ACL, the presence of Curry and Green — to go along with the new addition of D’Angelo Russell and others — keeps the Warriors in the discussion of top Western Conference teams. However, given the roster turnover, Green says adjusting to the new personnel has been a focal point early in training camp, ESPN’s Nick Fridell writes.
“Just the lack of familiarity,” Green said. “You get used to a certain thing for so long, and then it’s not that. The normal reads that you would make, just kind of second nature, you got to make sure they’re there. It’s just a lot more making sure everyone’s on the same page, or getting there. Everybody’s not on the same page, which is to be expected, so just getting everybody there is the difference.”
Check out more notes related to California teams:
- The change within the Warriors‘ organization has not been limited to just the players. Anthony Slater of The Athletic explores how Golden State’s coaching staff is getting acclimated, especially defensive specialist Ron Adams, who remained with the team but in a reduced role.
- Ethan Strauss of The Athletic writes that despite the perception of the Warriors acquiring Russell just to eventually trade him, Golden State is operating under the belief that the All-Star guard will be a fixture of the team for the future.
- Given the Clippers‘ active offseason, the addition of Maurice Harkless flew under the radar. However, now that training camp has begun, Harkless is hoping to stand out as an effective role player, Broderick Turner of the Los Angeles Times writes. “Like about a month ago when we first started meeting together as a coaching staff, you start thinking, ‘Oh, we got Mo Harkless.’ We have more on our team. And then you watch what he can do,” head coach Doc Rivers said.
- While superstars Kawhi Leonard and Paul George are set in stone, along with Patrick Beverley and Ivica Zubac as starters, other positions for the Clippers will feature training camp competition. Jovan Buha of The Athletic examines all the competition in L.A. and how the team’srotation may shake out.
- After finishing just outside the postseason picture last season, the Kings entered the offseason looking to acquire veteran players who have experience in a winning culture. As Jason Jones of The Athletic writes, the additions of Cory Joseph, Trevor Ariza and Dewayne Dedmon all aligned with that goal.
I hope the Kings can rise to the Playoffs. The west is going to be brutal. I think OKC will surprise people as well.
The only surprise OKC can provide will be losing more games than expected. They will be one of the worst teams in the Western conference along with Memphis, both losing at least 50 games.
The Warriors are not a “slightly” different version this year, the correct word is drastically. They averaged 64 wins over the last five seasons, but they won’t come anywhere close to that this year.
But that’s only a temporary thing, and if Klay comes back and peaks right during the playoffs, its not hard to see the only team with 4 superstars winning the title.
Then starting next season, the wont be hard capped and can add back Iggy, so this is only a weird temp season where the Warriors in fact “re-load”, but at the same time Steph still has a lot to prove to people, for some reason, as do Dray, and DLo also wants to show off his ceiling, which is megastar if he makes adjustments to Kerr’s plan and plays better defense.
It makes me think the Clippers kinda knew they were getting Leonard thus trading Tobias Harris to the Sixers. Just my opinion. I’d rather see them go deep in the playoffs instead of the Lakers.