Hot take: Our bench will be better this year than last year.

[killmongrel]

Anyone seen any indication whether the team will pick up Evans' and/or Spellman's rookie options for next year? They have until Oct 31 to decide.

Judging by what Spellman has done so far, they would not. But it is way too early. They still have a lot of time to make a well thought out decision on him. As for Evans, they have to make a decision by the end of the month as well? That's news to me.

[Samurai]

Anyone seen any indication whether the team will pick up Evans' and/or Spellman's rookie options for next year? They have until Oct 31 to decide.

Just based on what I've seen so far, I would expect them to pick up Evans' option. He scored 9 points (and was 1-2 on 3's) against the Lakers and dished out 5 assists against Minnesota (and was 1-1 on 3's). Also looked good in summer league games (averaged 16ppg on 44% shooting with 4.8 assists/game in Vegas) and can defend multiple positions. His salary would only be $2M against the cap so I think the Dubs would want those cheap contracts when they see improvement being made and Evans seems to be improving over last season. Spellman is tougher to determine; I think how he does between now and the end of the month will determine his fate.

[xdrta+]

Anyone seen any indication whether the team will pick up Evans' and/or Spellman's rookie options for next year? They have until Oct 31 to decide.

Just based on what I've seen so far, I would expect them to pick up Evans' option. He scored 9 points (and was 1-2 on 3's) against the Lakers and dished out 5 assists against Minnesota (and was 1-1 on 3's). Also looked good in summer league games (averaged 16ppg on 44% shooting with 4.8 assists/game in Vegas) and can defend multiple positions. His salary would only be $2M against the cap so I think the Dubs would want those cheap contracts when they see improvement being made and Evans seems to be improving over last season. Spellman is tougher to determine; I think how he does between now and the end of the month will determine his fate.

Makes sense. I think they'll end up picking up both of them. But I'm kind of optimistic on Spellman.

[Frozzy]

I know it's Preseason but Poole really looks like that microwave scorer I always wanted on the bench

[likemycurryhot]

Evans looks like he’s no longer unplayable, Poole will be able to score, Paschall looks like he’s ready to contribute solid minutes , Lee should be more confident, and even Chriss might be starting a redemption narrative. This feels more promising than last year for sure. If Spellman starts playing well I might start getting unreasonably hyped.

[BballIntellect]

Of course it will be easier to give a better and more detailed opinion once the season starts.

But for what we know now: last year's bench was terrible. We only had three reliable bench players. Iggy, who wouldn't do much offensively but would almost always be reliable and have a positive impact when healthy.

Looney (for the times he came off the bench.) Like Iggy, he didn't do much offensively but he would always be good defensively and an overall net positive too.

And finally Quinn Cook who would regularly get torched on defense but would be our much needed spark off the bench because we didn't have anybody who could get buckets to save their lives.

And I'm sorry but Livingston wasn't a positive anymore.

He would get blown by too easily on defense, often would keep the ball for too long on offense and take possessions away from Steph. And his body was breaking down.

This year whe have a lot more uncertainities from our bench and we should take a step back defensively (even tho, the quality of our defense off the bench was largely overstated the last two years) as Iggy, Livingston and the rest of the guys would often get hurt and coast throughout games.

One thing is for sure: the offensive potential for this year's bench is way higher than last year's.

We don't know if they'll be better offensively since we haven't seen them play yet but we at least have guys who can score and create their own shot well this year.

Jordan Poole should be able to do it, same as Alec Burks and maybe a couple of other guys. Jacob Evans should be our playmaker off the bench (maybe in a Iguodala kind of mold.) This is what GS seems to envision for him.

So to conclude: I think our bench will be just as good as last year. It just wont have the same qualities and the same level of experience. But it should give you close to the same level of production in the regular season.

The difference with last year's team is that we lost KD in free agency and Klay for more than half of the season so we're not as top heavy and we aren't the same defensively.

Klay and KD worked great with Draymond. Add Iguodala to that and the only "weak link" on the floor to finish games was Steph.

Now we'll have multiple targets defensively to finish games.

[thinkingwarriors]

After one game against the best team in basketball I'm super excited about the prospects for our bench.

Paschall and Evans are ideal players off the bench. Both have versatility on the defensive end and have the balls to take and make shots against an excellent defensive team. These guys are ballers and the cornerstone of a top tier bench mob going forward.

Chriss is ready to be a regular contributor off the bench. He's a smart player that makes some inspired passes and that surprised me. This guy may have been a knucklehead before but now he's a pro and I think he's going to be a Warrior for years. He carries himself like a veteran and was correcting defensive mistakes other guys were making on the court. He and Steph have a nice chemistry on and off the court already.

Spellman is almost there but he doesn't have quite the focus and mental sharpness of Paschall and Evans. He doesn't move around the court with enough power and decisiveness but I suspect that's about him not having finished transitioning from the college to the pro game. I saw him do a slew of good things alongside getting caught flat footed a bunch. I think he'll join the first two as a consistent bench contributor sometime later this season.

Poole looked a bit like a deer caught in headlights. The speed and physicality last night caught him by surprise and he couldn't quite rise to the challenge. I liked how he responded initially but eventually he retreated mentally but that's okay, it's his first real NBA game and the opponent was the best team in basketball. Even though he put up some ugly shots, I'm glad he kept gunning, it will serve him well as he develops.

I'm excited!

[killmongrel]

After one game against the best team in basketball I'm super excited about the prospects for our bench.

Paschall and Evans are ideal players off the bench. Both have versatility on the defensive end and have the balls to take and make shots against an excellent defensive team. These guys are ballers and the cornerstone of a top tier bench mob going forward.

Chriss is ready to be a regular contributor off the bench. He's a smart player that makes some inspired passes and that surprised me. This guy may have been a knucklehead before but now he's a pro and I think he's going to be a Warrior for years. He carries himself like a veteran and was correcting defensive mistakes other guys were making on the court. He and Steph have a nice chemistry on and off the court already.

Spellman is almost there but he doesn't have quite the focus and mental sharpness of Paschall and Evans. He doesn't move around the court with enough power and decisiveness but I suspect that's about him not having finished transitioning from the college to the pro game. I saw him do a slew of good things alongside getting caught flat footed a bunch. I think he'll join the first two as a consistent bench contributor sometime later this season.

Poole looked a bit like a deer caught in headlights. The speed and physicality last night caught him by surprise and he couldn't quite rise to the challenge. I liked how he responded initially but eventually he retreated mentally but that's okay, it's his first real NBA game and the opponent was the best team in basketball. Even though he put up some ugly shots, I'm glad he kept gunning, it will serve him well as he develops.

I'm excited!

Yep, I shouldn't have even called it a hot take. I'm confident this bench is going to be way better than last season. We're already seeing positives on some of the young players and rookies. And this is with Looney having to start because WCS is injured. Burks is supposed to be one of the best scorers and he didn't play. Paschall and Evans are looking good. Poole will get comfortable soon enough. And like you said, even Spellman will prove to be contributor. This bench impressed me despite the results of the game.

[azwfan]

After one game against the best team in basketball I'm super excited about the prospects for our bench.

Paschall and Evans are ideal players off the bench. Both have versatility on the defensive end and have the balls to take and make shots against an excellent defensive team. These guys are ballers and the cornerstone of a top tier bench mob going forward.

Chriss is ready to be a regular contributor off the bench. He's a smart player that makes some inspired passes and that surprised me. This guy may have been a knucklehead before but now he's a pro and I think he's going to be a Warrior for years. He carries himself like a veteran and was correcting defensive mistakes other guys were making on the court. He and Steph have a nice chemistry on and off the court already.

Spellman is almost there but he doesn't have quite the focus and mental sharpness of Paschall and Evans. He doesn't move around the court with enough power and decisiveness but I suspect that's about him not having finished transitioning from the college to the pro game. I saw him do a slew of good things alongside getting caught flat footed a bunch. I think he'll join the first two as a consistent bench contributor sometime later this season.

Poole looked a bit like a deer caught in headlights. The speed and physicality last night caught him by surprise and he couldn't quite rise to the challenge. I liked how he responded initially but eventually he retreated mentally but that's okay, it's his first real NBA game and the opponent was the best team in basketball. Even though he put up some ugly shots, I'm glad he kept gunning, it will serve him well as he develops.

I'm excited!

Yep, I shouldn't have even called it a hot take. I'm confident this bench is going to be way better than last season. We're already seeing positives on some of the young players and rookies. And this is with Looney having to start because WCS is injured. Burks is supposed to be one of the best scorers and he didn't play. Paschall and Evans are looking good. Poole will get comfortable soon enough. And like you said, even Spellman will prove to be contributor. This bench impressed me despite the results of the game.

I'd say its possible, but most likely it is inconsistent. We'll have to be careful not to focus too heavily on the positive or the negative. I'm just hoping they can be a very good bench next season.

[Mylie10]

I'm not fooled by the prospect of Burks being a positive. I didn't care for the guy before, and now that he can't get on the floor, I hate the move worse.

Much rather watch Poole improve.

[floppymoose]

This take was indeed hot.

Watch on YouTube

[KevinMcreynolds]

I'm not fooled by the prospect of Burks being a positive. I didn't care for the guy before, and now that he can't get on the floor, I hate the move worse.

Much rather watch Poole improve.

Burks ain't great, but we have to have some veterans out there. Having him, Looney and WCS out there will make a big difference. The guys we're running out there now have no idea wtf they're doing. We had a lineup of Evans, Lee, Poole, Paschall, Spellman in there for 3 minutes at one point in the 1st half. It was literally like watching a SL game the offense looked so bad. I think of the Kyrie-less Cavs team Lebron had. His supporting cast was pretty awful, but they were all veterans that had tons of experience so they could compete night in and night out even when Love was out.

[Mylie10]

I'm not fooled by the prospect of Burks being a positive. I didn't care for the guy before, and now that he can't get on the floor, I hate the move worse.

Much rather watch Poole improve.

Burks ain't great, but we have to have some veterans out there. Having him, Looney and WCS out there will make a big difference. The guys we're running out there now have no idea wtf they're doing. We had a lineup of Evans, Lee, Poole, Paschall, Spellman in there for 3 minutes at one point in the 1st half. It was literally like watching a SL game the offense looked so bad. I think of the Kyrie-less Cavs team Lebron had. His supporting cast was pretty awful, but they were all veterans that had tons of experience so they could compete night in and night out even when Love was out.

I agree with the sentiment of having veterans mixed in. But Burks is the absolute worst kind of vet. He's a dude you can't count on.....like ever.

What was great about vets like Barbosa, Livingston, and even Mo, was that you could count on them on and off the floor. Iguodala as well of course.

There are guys we can target who are known to be stand up and also contribute to winning. We just don't have any flexibility right now to get something done.

Hopefully with the Trade Exception I the off season they have some targets they are looking at.

[KevinMcreynolds]

once everyone is healthy I think we should move Paschall into the starting 5

Steph
DLo
Paschall
Dray
WCS

and then we can have a decent bench with

Looney
GRIII
Burks
Evans
Chriss

Poole isn't ready and needs to go to SC, and Spellman and Lee are awful. We need those 3 guys out of the rotation.

[clyde21]

once everyone is healthy I think we should move Paschall into the starting 5

Steph
DLo
Paschall
Dray
WCS

and then we can have a decent bench with

Looney
GRIII
Burks
Evans
Chriss

Poole isn't ready and needs to go to SC, and Spellman and Lee are awful. We need those 3 guys out of the rotation.

i'd start him now probably, along with Burks at the 2

Steph
Burks
Paschall
Dray
Chriss

then just let DLo handle the 2nd unit, maybe WCS comes back soon and the 2nd unit can just be DLo-WCS PnRs while Steph/Dray rest

[killmongrel]

Bench is not only better, we're already seeing possible significant players emerging from it.