2019-20 Timeline Review and Preview: Golden State Warriors.

 So, with the restart of the NBA season, I have gotten an influx of new ideas that I want to write about. One of the main ideas was that I wanted to try to develop a series of posts. In this series, I’ll summarize and review the non-playoff teams’ seasons, talk about their trades, signings and performance, and what they can do in the future to help them improve. I’m also going to try to avoid talking too much about stats, as I want to be easily read and understood but casual NBA fans who just want to know what’s going on with the weaker teams. After all, it's easy for people to look at a team’s record and player’s stats. I will start with the worst record and I not going to separate them conference. So hopefully you guys might like this new idea and if not let me know what I can do to make things more interesting.

So, let's kick things off with the Golden State Warriors (GSW) who finished shortened season with the worst record in the NBA with 15-50. To be fair, we kind of knew this would be a step down from their previous seasons as Kevin Durant left and Klay Thompson was going to miss the entire season due to him recovering from a torn ACL he received in the NBA Finals, but god damn I don’t think we expected it to be this bad. But we all know that it was due to injury, as Steph Curry only played in five games and Draymond Green missed twenty-games. This left them with a squad made up of young players, former draft busts, and bench players to pick up the slack.

But let’s give Jack his jacket, the front office realized that this season was a lost cause and was able to pull off multiple trades to help give them draft capital for the future. So, without further ado, let’s review the timeline for the Golden State Warriors’ 2019-2020 season and talk about what got them to this point.

 

NBA Draft: June 20^th

In the 2019 NBA Draft, the Warriors had three picks (one 1^st and two 2^nds) and they selected Jordan Poole (28^th), Allen Smailagic who they go in a trade (39^th) and Eric Paschall (41^st).

Free Agency

Their biggest free-agency signing not named D’Angelo Russell was Willie Cauley-Stein, the big man formerly of the Sacramento Kings. He signed a 2-year $4.4 million contract. They also signed guys like Glenn Robinson III and Alec Burks, but a big theme of this 2019-20 GSW squad was trading their newly signed players.

 

Pre-season Trades

 

July 7^th: Warriors trade Andre Iguodala, a 2024 1^st round pick (top 4 protected) and cash considerations to the Memphis Grizzlies for some guy called Julian Washburn who was waived ten days later. This move was likely done to free up cap space as Andre who was not only an older player (35 at the time) but who had an expiring contract.

July 7^th: Warriors trade Kevin Durant (sign and trade) and a 2020 1^st round pick (top 20 protected) to the Brooklyn Nets for D’Angelo Russell (sign and trade), Shabazz Napier and Treveon Graham (don’t worry those two don’t stick around for long).

July 8^th: Warriors trade Shabazz Napier and Treveon Graham and cash consideration to the Minnesota Timberwolves for the draft rights to Lior Eliyahu (don’t ask me why)

July 8^th: Warriors trade Damian Jones and a 2026 2^nd round pick to the Atlanta Hawks for Omari Spellman (I think he’s going to be a really good player in the future.)

 

Pre-season re-signings

 

July 10^th: Klay Thompson resigned with a 5-year $189.9 million contract. Glad to see that he still got paid handsomely even though he got injured.

July 11^th: Kevon Looney resigned with a 3-year $15 million contract (2021 player option). A good contract for both parties.

August 3^rd: Draymond Green resigned with a 4-year $100 million contract. He could’ve gotten more in the 2020 offseason but decided to show loyalty and resign (forgot loyalty existed in the NBA for a minute.)

 

Season Begins – October 22^nd, 2019.

 

October 30^th: Steph Curry injures his left hand in their 4^th game of the season against the Phoenix Suns. He was expected to miss three months.

December 25^th: Perhaps their best win of the season coming against their rivals the Houston Rockets 116-104, a true Christmas miracle. This was their 3^rd win in four games, which was also their only winning streak of the season to last longer than two games.

 

Mid-season resigning/signings

 

January 15^th: Damion Lee resigned with a 3-year $4.5 million contract. He was previously on a two-way contract with GSW.

February 7^th: Marquese Chriss signed a 2-year $2.4 million contract. He was previously signed by GSW, waived and signed a two-way contract with GSW.

 

 

Mid-season trades (the good stuff.)

 

January 25^th: Warriors trade Wiley Cauley-Stein to the Dallas Mavericks for the Utah Jazz’s 2020 2^nd round pick. (I never really cared for Stein that much, I thought he was always meh)

February 6^th: Warriors trade D’Angelo Russell, Omari Spellman, and Jacob Evans to the Minnesota Timberwolves for Andrew Wiggins, a 2021 1^st round pick (top 3 protected) and 2^nd round pick.

February 6^th: Warriors trade Alec Burks and Glen Robinson III to the Philadelphia 76ers for a 2020 Dallas 2^nd round pick, a 2021 Denver 2^nd round pick, and a 2022 Toronto 2^nd round pick.

March 5^th (also my birthday): Steph Curry returns after missing a little more than four months recovering, to play the Raptors.

March 11^th: Season suspended because Rudy Gobert kept on touching people (pause).

 

Looking ahead.

This team’s only bright spot this season has to be their rookie Eric Paschall as he was given a lot of playing time due to injury and he didn’t disappoint. It will be interesting to see how he will fit in with the Warriors next season when Klay comes back because he doesn’t shoot the three too well and is too small to play as a center. He could be used as a trade piece in case they decide to try to pull off another big trade.

They have the worst record in the league, but they only have a 14% of getting the 1^st overall pick as they have a higher chance of dropping to 5^th (47.9%). They also have two 2^nd round picks from the Jazz and Mavericks. As for who they take in the draft, honestly, I don’t really know too much about college basketball and how good the prospects are, but if I think they should take James Wiseman. Why? Because they need a center and I don’t think he will affect the system that they want to run, and I don’t think they need any more ball handlers. If they stay at one maybe they can trade down for future picks. They’re in a good position to make some moves.

As for free agency, they have four big contracts with Curry, Thompson, Green, and Wiggins so I don’t expect them to sign anybody of note, but I can always be wrong, who knows.

Final Remarks.

I don’t have much of a doubt that the Warriors would be back in the playoffs again next season, once everybody stays relatively healthy. I’m sure they’ll be able to make it work with Wiggins and they’re set up for the next few years with their core locked up to deals as well as multiple draft picks. Also, watch out for them in the 2021 offseason.