Golden State early offseason in review (HW/bondom34/dbrandon)

[HartfordWhalers]

HartfordWhalers Review

Key Losses:
Andrew Bogut
Festus Ezeli
Harrison Barnes

Bogut and Ezeli would have been a huge loss in normal circumstances. Barnes feels more replaceable.


Losses:
Ognjen Kuzmic
Leandro Barbosa
Marreese Speights.

Speights leaving as well would have opened up a lot of big man questions normally.

Draft:
#30 Damian Jones
#38 Pat McCaw (traded 2.4m for)

I'm not sold on Jones having been the pick at #30. I would have gone for Deyonta Davis or Ivica Zubac, each taken directly after him. Maybe even Chieck Diallo one spot further down. McCaw seems worth the money spent.

Trades:
Andrew Bogut to Dallas Mavericks for and with a second-rounder
2.4m for #38 (McCaw)

They focused on doing right by Bogut, letting him pick his team. Hard to fault it. Especially given below.

Free Agency:
Kevin Durant 2/$54.3m (PO last year)
Zaza Pachulia 1/3m
David West 1/1.6m
Anderson Varejao 1/1.6m
Ian Clark 1/1m
Damian Jones rookie scale
Pat McCaw 2/1.4m
Partially/fully unguaranteed deals to JaVale McGee and Elliot Williams.

Yep, they won the Ian Clark sweepstakes. There has been a ton of spilled ink on Durant already, so lets just say this was a good get. West following for a ring makes sense. But getting Zaza at the room exception is huge. Enormous. Massive. That is the move that makes this offseason so great.

Current Depth Chart: (as usual this is a rough draft taken from bbinsiders)
PG: Stephen Curry, Shaun Livingston
SG: Klay Thompson, Ian Clark, Pat McCaw, Elliot Williams
SF: Kevin Durant, Andre Iguodala
PF: Draymond Green, David West, James McAdoo, Kevon Looney (injured)
C: Zaza Pachulia, Anderson Varejao, Damian Jones, JaVale McGee

Needs:
Being healthy come the playoffs. Thats it. This team is really really good.

Additional Thoughts:
When will Looney play? Will he be any good? Remember him? Is the guard depth too thin? Will someone from OKC foul Durant hard? If Klay struggles, will this forum have a hole bunch of crappy vets 3 for 1 for Klay offers, cause look it gives GS depth!?

Projected Win/Loss: 69-13

Off-Season Grade: A+

bondom34 Review

Key Losses:
Andrew Bogut
Festus Ezeli
Harrison Barnes

Losses:
Ognjen Kuzmic
Leandro Barbosa
Marreese Speights.

Draft:
#30 Damian Jones
#38 Pat McCaw (traded 2.4m for)

Trades:
Andrew Bogut to Dallas Mavericks for a second-rounder
2.4m for #38 (McCaw)

Free Agency:
Kevin Durant 2/$54.3m (PO last year)
Zaza Pachulia 1/3m
David West 1/1.6m
Anderson Varejao 1/1.6m
Ian Clark 1/1m
Damian Jones rookie scale
Pat McCaw 2/1.4m
Partially/fully unguaranteed deals to JaVale McGee and Elliot Williams.


They lost value on Bogut, but got Durant, so that's a huge win on court. Zaza and West at that price are a steal, and other than that they didn't need anything. This roster is stacked everywhere, with no excuse not to win a title.

Current Depth Chart: (as usual this is a rough draft taken from bbinsiders)
PG: Stephen Curry, Shaun Livingston
SG: Klay Thompson, Ian Clark, Pat McCaw, Elliot Williams
SF: Kevin Durant, Andre Iguodala
PF: Draymond Green, David West, James McAdoo, Kevon Looney (injured)
C: Zaza Pachulia, Anderson Varejao, Damian Jones, JaVale McGee

Needs:
Maybe a big?
Additional Thoughts:They're gonna win a lot.

Projected Win/Loss: 67-15

Off-Season Grade: A

This one's quick as honestly, there's not much to say. I can't think of much else to add .

dbrandon Review

Key Losses:
Andrew Bogut
Festus Ezeli
Harrison Barnes

Bogut and Ezeli will be missed, I think. Particularly Bogut. They're fairly soft at center. Barnes was upgraded to He Who Shall Not Be Named.


Losses:
Ognjen Kuzmic
Leandro Barbosa
Marreese Speights.

Pretty much the whole big man rotation gone. Barbosa was useful, but replaceable.

Draft:
#30 Damian Jones
#38 Pat McCaw (traded 2.4m for)

I don't know about Jones, but McCaw was one of the guys I liked for the Thunder. He's good.

Trades:
Andrew Bogut to Dallas Mavericks for and with a second-rounder
2.4m for #38 (McCaw)

Not a good move value-wise to trade Bogut for a 2nd, but they were clearing space.

Free Agency:
Kevin Durant 2/$54.3m (PO last year)
Zaza Pachulia 1/3m
David West 1/1.6m
Anderson Varejao 1/1.6m
Ian Clark 1/1m
Damian Jones rookie scale
Pat McCaw 2/1.4m
Partially/fully unguaranteed deals to JaVale McGee and Elliot Williams.

Do I have to do this?

Aside from the obvious where they picked up He Who Must Not Be Named, they got incredible value on Zaza and David West, both excellent value signings.

The rest of this is ehhhh, though I don't mind Ian Clark.

Current Depth Chart: (as usual this is a rough draft taken from bbinsiders)
PG: Stephen Curry, Shaun Livingston
SG: Klay Thompson, Ian Clark, Pat McCaw, Elliot Williams
SF: Kevin Durant, Andre Iguodala
PF: Draymond Green, David West, James McAdoo, Kevon Looney (injured)
C: Zaza Pachulia, Anderson Varejao, Damian Jones, JaVale McGee

Needs:
Health. Chemistry—I think for as much rhetoric about "we'll move the ball and whoever shoots will shoot" as there's been, there might be a little friction when the rubber meets the road. They could shore up center a little more.

Additional Thoughts:

I don't know. Give them the championship. Whatever.

They definitely lost a little depth, but the bench outside of Varejao is still solid enough, and playoff rotations should be excellent. A couple of guys that they'll need good contributions from are older—Zaza, Iggy, West. Will they stay as good as they've been, or will they tail off?

Projected Win/Loss: 65 wins

Off-Season Grade: A+

[Texas Chuck]

Somehow I thought bondom might give them a F.

[HartfordWhalers]

One more review to add:

Happy GS fan Review

Key Losses:
Andrew Bogut
Festus Ezeli
Harrison Barnes

Who cares we got Durant!

Losses:
Ognjen Kuzmic
Leandro Barbosa
Marreese Speights.

We got Durant!

Draft:
#30 Damian Jones
#38 Pat McCaw (traded 2.4m for)

Durant!!!!!!!

Trades:
Andrew Bogut to Dallas Mavericks for and with a second-rounder
2.4m for #38 (McCaw)

Durant.

Free Agency:
Kevin Durant 2/$54.3m (PO last year)
Zaza Pachulia 1/3m
David West 1/1.6m
Anderson Varejao 1/1.6m
Ian Clark 1/1m
Damian Jones rookie scale
Pat McCaw 2/1.4m
Partially/fully unguaranteed deals to JaVale McGee and Elliot Williams.

Durant Durant oh god yes, Durant.

Current Depth Chart: (as usual this is a rough draft taken from bbinsiders)
PG: Stephen Curry, Shaun Livingston
SG: Klay Thompson, Ian Clark, Pat McCaw, Elliot Williams
SF: Kevin Durant, Andre Iguodala
PF: Draymond Green, David West, James McAdoo, Kevon Looney (injured)
C: Zaza Pachulia, Anderson Varejao, Damian Jones, JaVale McGee

Needs:
Needs? We have no needs, we got Durant!

Additional Thoughts:
DURANT!!!!!!!!

Projected Win/Loss: 82-0

Off-Season Grade: Durant

[Texas Chuck]

And obviously getting Durant in place of Barnes is a huge upgrade, but I'll admit to being skeptical that these moves are going to make them a better team. I'll probably be proven wrong and they will blow through the playoffs like the 01 Lakers, but we will see if all these guys are truly prepared to make all the individual sacrifices they will have to.

[HartfordWhalers]

Somehow I thought bondom might give them a F.

It did feel like there was a touch of cruelty to asking for GS offseason grade from 2 OKC fans.

[Mr. E]

did these guys do anything this offseason? I haven't heard.

[azwfan]

Ognjen Kuzmic wasn't on our team last year... but who cares, we got Durant.

[loserX]

C+.

Best move: hm, none spring to mind...obviously when you add a superstar and the best (realistically) available player, everything else is secondary. But they also did right by Bogut, they got Zaza on the cheap, and pre-sold another kajillion dollars in merch. Pat McCaw was also high on a lot of draft pundits' "possible steal" lists and they got him for nothing but cash.

Worst move: none. I will say that their centre depth isn't exactly confidence-inspiring but w/e. If need be that will be fixable come December when signees are tradeable again.

[gom]

Yeah, A+. Well-executed. Crushed everyone. Defined the league's outcome for at least the next few seasons. Why should Curry sign elsewhere, right?

[Kings2013]

A+ in theory. Hard to hate on acquiring one of the best players in the league. In practice it might be a fixing something that isn't broken type thing. I want to see how the chemistry will work with that kind of firepower and one ball, as the Warriors were already possibly the leagues best team

Either way they should be entertaining and I might go to a game or two as a NBA fan

[Slava]

Can't lose by getting Durant but the micro analyst in me thinks the backcourt depth is too thin and will come back to bite them if either Steph or Livingston gets injured, which is very possible.

[HartfordWhalers]

Can't lose by getting Durant but the micro analyst in me thinks the backcourt depth is too thin and will come back to bite them if either Steph or Livingston gets injured, which is very possible.

It looked one vet down from what I expected. Mario Chalmers when he heals?

[Slava]

Can't lose by getting Durant but the micro analyst in me thinks the backcourt depth is too thin and will come back to bite them if either Steph or Livingston gets injured, which is very possible.

It looked one vet down from what I expected. Mario Chalmers when he heals?

I'd think he'd need atleast a year to be of any use after that injury. So their best bet might be to look to the buy out, waiver wire for someone like Calderon in March.

[HartfordWhalers]

Can't lose by getting Durant but the micro analyst in me thinks the backcourt depth is too thin and will come back to bite them if either Steph or Livingston gets injured, which is very possible.

It looked one vet down from what I expected. Mario Chalmers when he heals?

I'd think he'd need atleast a year to be of any use after that injury. So their best bet might be to look to the buy out, waiver wire for someone like Calderon in March.

Kendall Marshall is a free agent in ~2 weeks. That might actually be an okay landing spot for him and fit for GS.

[Smitty731]

I don't believe in giving an A+, so I voted A.

I don't think they'll win more games than last year, but I do think they'll be a better team in the end. I just think they'll dial it back eventually and won't push quite as hard for wins.

[HartfordWhalers]

I don't believe in giving an A+

Where I'm from, that is called being a dick.

[Smitty731]

I don't believe in giving an A+

Where I'm from, that is called being a dick.

Hahahaha. Just the system I grew up in my man.

[Statlanta]

It did feel like there was a touch of cruelty to asking for GS offseason grade from 2 OKC fans.

It makes up for 2 OKC fans judging Orlando's offseason

[Andre Roberstan]

It did feel like there was a touch of cruelty to asking for GS offseason grade from 2 OKC fans.

It makes up for 2 OKC fans judging Orlando's offseason

It's OK, we got 20 pages of people telling us we were wrong for our trouble.

[pelifan]

I'm actually expecting a drop off in defense this year. Could see the slip last season. It won't matter in the regular season because that offense will trounce everyone. But come playoff time if they can't make key stops I could see the caves hurting them again. (Not likely, I would just put their chances at a ring at 90 rather than 99)