Where do Warriors rank in LOADED West vs. Thunder, Rockets, Nuggets, Lakers & more?

Where do Warriors rank in LOADED West vs. Thunder, Rockets, Nuggets, Lakers & more?

What’s up, guys? Thanks as always for supporting the show. It would mean a lot to me if you would take a second to scroll down and hit that subscribe button so you don’t miss any more of our videos. Also, make sure you follow us all over social media so you don’t miss any of our content or show announcements. Do you think the Warriors have enough offense? This has been something that I’ve been keyed in on for a little while. uh even after the Jimmy trade just like it there’s this pretty clear line to where like where when Brandon Pajki shoots the ball really well when Buddy Heel plays super well you guys are borderline unbeatable. Do you have any is it do you have a desire to upgrade in terms of offensive talent just a realistic approach to what’s available? Or do you actually think the Warriors don’t need that? They need more athleticism and versatility and role players. Well, being as they only have nine players under roster, they need everything. But I guess uh because we’ve debated this heavily on our show uh and there’s been a strong push to just add 82 game players, you know, a bucket getter who’s going to just lighten the load on Steph Curry in the regular season and how much it can help this team just have a little more offensive firepower. Even if it’s flawed offensive firepower, right? I agree that would be useful, but if it’s one or the other, I’m still gonna lean into trying to get those defensive first closing playoff players because the way I look at it is end of the day, if this team makes the playoffs, it’s going to it’s going to be basically Steph carry us on offense and we’re going to defend. And I just don’t see a world in which them adding an offensive player who’s a bad defender actually makes them a better playoff team. I think it leads them to being more in the middle than anything. So, I know that’s kind of a a copout answer, but it’s kind of like what you saw with the Thunder as far as I’m concerned. The Thunder’s offense at time I was like, man, they got nothing other than Shay. You know, that sort of thing. But I’d rather put a team of guys who can grind and will defend to like they just they’re hard to score on and you trust Steph and Jimmy will eventually figure it out on offense. Then try to go the other way and add a Malik Monk type where man, you know, you know what it’s like watching a team in January when those guys are exhausted. you’re like, man, it’d be really nice to have someone like Malik Monk coming off the bench with a little juice just to provide a little punch. But if it comes at the expense of like that point of attack defender or that versatile wing, I don’t think it’s worth it. So, that’s kind of where I’m at with it. I would It’s a nice to have. I view it still as a number two priority in terms of need to have. Yeah, I lean I lean slightly more towards it being something that they need in order to get into that next tier. I I think part of it is my overarching basketball philosophy. Like even with Buddy Heal, like I thought Buddy Hill played the best defense of his career last season, even though it was flawed, even though it wasn’t perfect. There were moments where Buddy was really competing and and doing some good work on that end of the floor. I like I also just have generally looked at the Warriors offense as kind of a counterbalancing effect where the Steph and Clay did this for years to teams where it was it was the mutual impact of both of them and what they brought on opposite ends of the floor running in and out of action that made them so difficult to guard. And I I I look at teams like Denver who scaled up on defense using intelligence and switching up coverages and having just kind of high IQ defenders, not necessarily the most athletic defenders and them doing as good a job against Oklahoma City as anybody else did in last year’s playoff run despite being one of the worst defenses in the league down the stretch of the season. I’m indexing slowly each progressive season more towards offense and I’m wondering I’m wondering how much of that uh will stick for me in the coming years. But yeah, I do I I would love to see a guy next to Steph who could reliably get to 20 points on any given night. Now maybe Jimmy that’s Jimmy in theory. It’s and and that’s the thing is like I’m hoping to get just a little bit more offensive juice out of Jimmy this year too. I think that could go a long way as well. So that’s kind of why I’m like h adding those two players who can shoot like you know the pie in the sky would be like a you know Derek White the shooting guard spot and like uh a Cam Johnson at the power forward spot. Like obviously neither of those are going to happen. Cam specifically because he just went to Denver. But like, you know, adding those uh those players who can shoot the ball, I think will also juice offense a little bit. He scored the ball incredibly well up until he had the uh the glute injury that happened against Houston. I mean, he put what 37 in the playing game. Had something like he I think he works. I think him and Steph work. I think they honestly need more shooting and defensive versatility than necessarily shot creation. I think the shooting is the obvious one. Regardless of whether or not it comes in the form of a highle offensive player or a 3 and D player, they’ve got to have reliable shooting surrounding those guys. I think that goes without saying. That for the record is why I’m excited about Horford. Like if you imagine a scenario where let’s say you get a Keon Ellis and you get an Al Horford, that would be such an interesting look to have that type of group on out on the floor where legitimately the guys who are going to be flowing in and out of action and popping are going to be guys who are going to be knocking down shots, which is the that like key difference. All right, I’m going to put you on the spot before we get out of here. Let’s say the Warriors, let’s just say they retain Kaminga on a one-year $20 million deal or they sign and trade him for just filler, not Keon Ellis, but just filler. And they sign Horford and they sign Anthony Melton, handful of other veteran minimum contracts, but nothing nothing like super needle moving. Let’s say they bring back Gary Payton, something something along those lines. Where would you rank them in the West without any additional moves over the top of that? six mostly because in your construct I think they’re going to put too much on Steph and Jimmy’s shoulders and there’s just going to be like they’re going to be better than the sixth seed. I think that’s just where they’re going to end because Jimmy will miss 20 games, Steph will miss 20 games, and they’ll be one of those teams where, oh, they’re, you know, if you look at this, they’re actually 20 20 and five over the last 25, but the overall record is 47 wins. That type of thing. And to your point, I honestly think it’s one of those things where if they turn Kuminga into the right type of energy piece and make maybe get a little internal improvement plus a Melton and a Horford, they might win 53 games and be the second or third seed. You know, like I actually really think the margins on that basis really do matter that much in determining where they end up finishing. And as you as you said earlier and as we’ve seen, like the West has been so tight the last five years. It’s like literally the difference between 45 and 50 wins is the difference between like the eight and the three seed most of these years. Home quarter play. Yeah, exactly. A lot of it’s down a lot of it’s down to health and your ability to to just have a deep roster all year. Yeah. I I look at that tier and you can make cases for and against all of them. Like I mean you could say Minnesota lost to kill Alexander Walker and they’re a little bit older in their front court and Connley’s older and Go Bear’s older and you know they’re just not going to be as good. But then you could also look at me and go like yeah but what if Anthony Edwards like watched Sha Elus Alexander kick his ass and spends all summer working on stuff that’s short to short to mid-range scoring and becomes a dramatically better player and the Wolves are better right? Lakers what happens with so many different guys they have that are older age Clippers. What happens with so many guys that are older age? the Warriors. Do they uh successfully turn Kaminga and a couple of their other assets into more firepower? There’s all of this different, you know, up and down potential for every single one of these teams. That’s why it’s tough to put them in a list and it’s easier just to put them in tears. But Sam, this has been amazing. I sincerely appreciate you taking time out of your busy day to come hang out with us and talk some warriors. Why don’t you tell everybody where they can find your stuff? Yeah, pretty simple. Um, just check out the Lightyears pod wherever you listen to pods, Apple, Spotify, YouTube, doesn’t matter. It’ll be published there. Um, we go pretty regularly. We’re live after every game in the off season, two to three times a week. And whenever the Kuminga thing happens, I promise a breaking pod.

Jason and Sam Esfandiari of the ‘Light Years Podcast’ discuss how close Steph Curry, Jimmy Butler, and the Golden State Warriors are to an NBA title contender and how they stack up in the NBA’s crowded Western Conference with the Oklahoma City Thunder, Houston Rockets, Denver Nuggets, Los Angeles Lakers, Los Angeles Clippers, and more.

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