2018-19 Finish: 24-58

Season Highlight: The Warriors seem to have a solid, but not exceptional, core to move forward with. For years, they’ve been a team with older vets that weren’t good enough to get it done and a bare chest of draft assets from acquiring said veterans. They now have a first in each year into the future and most of their core players are on the correct side of their prime and look like they could at least fit into a role on a winning team.

Season Lowlight: The games… After a Cinderella playoff appearance which saw the team shock the world by sneaking into the playoffs just two and a half years ago (38 wins), the team really doubled down trading numerous future assets for additional win-now pieces – a strategy which painfully backfired when they won 28 games in 2018 and 24 games in 2019. If you’re winning less than 30 games and consistently not reaping the consolation prize of your draft position, any fan base is going to lose patience quickly.

Best Trade: The Golden State Warriors send Kenneth Faried to the Minnesota Timberwolves. The Minnesota Timberwolves send Darren Collison to the Golden State Warriors.

The Golden State Warriors send a 2nd-Rounder (Bkn) to the Philadelphia 76ers.

The Golden State Warriors receive 2 GM points. The Minnesota Timberwolves trade -2 GM points.

Collison’s abrupt retirement soured this deal a bit, but getting a guy that came in and started the remainder of the season for Faried (who they paid 10 gm points for earlier) and a couple more GM points, it seems like a great find. It would have been even better if Collison would have stuck around into the future – but 12 gm points for a solid starting PG, even for a part of the year is a very solid haul.

Worst Trade: The Boston Celtics send Skal Labissiere to the Golden State Warriors.

The Golden State Warriors send a 1st-Rounder (SA), 2nd-Rounder (GS) and 2nd-Rounder (GS) to the Boston Celtics.

The Boston Celtics receive 5 GM points. The Golden State Warriors trade -5 GM points.

This writer personally hated this deal when it happened and I’m only more convinced of that stance now. Skal has been effectively abandoned in the NBA and he really just doesn’t have much of a future – that seemed evident at the time of the trade. I was surprised that Boston gave up what they did for Skal a year ago, and then was even more surprised when they got even more from the Warriors to send him their way. Skal isn’t worth one of those GS 2nds at this point in my opinion.

Other Notable Trades:

The Detroit Pistons send Will Barton, Doug McDermott and JaMychal Green to the Golden State Warriors. The Golden State Warriors send Harrison Barnes, Darius Miller and T.J. McConnell to the Detroit Pistons.

The Detroit Pistons receive 21 GM points. The Golden State Warriors trade -21 GM points.

Warriors say goodbye to their star player of the brightest year in franchise history and their leader of the past few years. They really needed some depth and bringing in Barton, Green, and McDermott seemed like a reasonable way to get it – especially now that we’ve seen the money that Barnes signed for long term.

The Atlanta Hawks send Thabo Sefolosha and Jerian Grant to the Detroit Pistons. The Detroit Pistons send Kelly Oubre, Josh Jackson and DJ Wilson to the Atlanta Hawks. The Detroit Pistons send Alec Burks and Edrice Adebayo to the Golden State Warriors. The Golden State Warriors send Andre Iguodala to the Detroit Pistons.

I believe this was the last of the Warriors giving up a first for players, and it coincidentally included Iguodala. This one was probably the best of those such deals, and looks to be the last. Getting Bam, who is probably their most valuable asset, is a big haul. He continues to grow and looks like a solid starting center who is still on a very cheap deal for another 2 years.

Free Agency:

Free agency isn’t looking too dramatic for the Warriors. Alec Burks will likely look elsewhere in order to cling on to a role with a playoff team. JaMychal Green surprised some analysts by saying he has interest in returning to the Warriors on an affordable deal in hopes of securing the starting PF spot next to Bam. The team also has a quartet of restricted free agents headlined by Jordan Bell – with the team’s current youth focus, it is likely that all of these players will be back with Golden State this coming season.

Star:

Bam Adebayo – There are guys that scored more points than Bam, but most of them are no longer with the team and played less than half of their games with the Warriors. Bam was only a handful of points off of averaging a double-double in his second year and looks like the focal point of the Warriors path forward. He took a solid step this season and the team could use him taking another definitive step soon.

Goat:

Jeff Teague – Coming into the season, Teague was supposed to be the obvious starter at point for the Warriors. Jeff struggled to even make it onto the court consistently and when he did he had a lowly 46 TS%, didn’t get teammates involved, and the team was consistently better with him off the floor.

Draft Grades (from Insider):

#39 Talen Horton-Tucker

He’s going to NBA Lakers, so given their cap situation, he may actually get some playing time.  He’s got a crazy long wingspan, so he has some potential.  Getting him in the 2^nd round seems pretty good.

Grade: A

The Future-

Despite some of the criticism of trades in the past, I think that MaiLo has the Warriors headed in the right direction. The situation is unique, in that many troubled NLL teams have had GMs move on quickly – but here, the Warriors have stood by their GM and hopefully they have learned the ropes and are now moving towards success. The team is setup to have a bunch of cap room a year from now, which could be very interesting with the potential changes to Free Agency. A young core of Bam, Hart and Caboclo along with several rotation kind of guys isn’t going to set the league on fire on its own, but keeping draft picks, finding a guy or two in free agency and letting guys develop could have this team in a good place in the next season or two.