Insidiously dangerous Warriors hunting for NBA players in 2024-25 season – NBC Sports Bay Area and California

PORTLAND – When the Warriors take the field at the Moda Center on Wednesday night, they will be expected to crush the rebuilding and wounded Portland Trail Blazers. They are expected to beat the resurgent Jazz in Utah on Friday night and then come home on Sunday and dispatch a Los Angeles Clippers team without their best player.

According to the Global Association of Basketball Specialists (GABS), the Warriors should cherish these three wins because it won't be easy for them to achieve another three-game winning streak this season.

It's a fair conclusion. After a few years of making fun of the rest of the NBA, the Warriors have missed the playoffs in three of the last five seasons. They have spent the last three seasons slipping from third to sixth to tenth in the Western Conference standings. That's why every 2024 preseason power ranking puts them in the middle of the league; 14th is a popular place. Even with Stephen Curry still on the roster and being spectacular, at least 10 teams have a better championship chance.

Yet the Warriors are strangely comfortable with who they are. The label “outsiders” doesn’t seem to bother them. What really feels like is being insidiously dangerous.

“How far can we go? Pretty far,” Draymond Green told NBC Sports Bay Area. “I don’t know if we’ll make it to the end, but I didn’t know that in (2022) either. We'll see how that turned out. I think we all knew we didn't have a real chance in 2020 and '21, but that's not the case. At all.”

One consistent storyline coming out of training camp and evident in Golden State's 6-0 preseason record is overall depth. Curry is the only all-time All-Star and Green remains a notable player/coach, but the cast around them is superior to last season.

After his worst season, Andrew Wiggins says he's ready for redemption. Jonathan Kuminga and Moses Moody, both just 22, are older and wiser as they enter their fourth season. Brandin Podziemski and Trayce Jackson-Davis are firmly in the rotation, with TJD likely starting at center. Gary Payton II looks healthy and entering a contract year. Kevon Looney, also in a contract year, is lean and occasionally takes a sip on offense.

However, the most visible difference from season to season comes from the three veterans acquired in the offseason. Kyle Anderson, Buddy Hield and De'Anthony Melton have impressed teammates and coaches with their skills and demeanor. Their presence is one of the reasons why chemistry is generating excitement across the board.

“I think we’re going to surprise a lot of people,” Wiggins told NBC Sports Bay Area. “We have a very, very strong team. We have a lot of defenders and a lot of shooters. There are a lot of people you can put out there and know good things are going to happen.”

The days of the Warriors being NBA kings are long gone, but they are rightly convinced that they are not just another NBA team that has to spend six months finishing above .500 in the standings .

The formula, defined by coach Steve Kerr, is to understand the plan and follow it routinely.

“It’s the depth, it’s the strength in numbers, it’s the vivacity,” Kerr said. “Defensively a team with a lot of possibilities. And we have to move the ball forward.”

If these Warriors allow themselves to get stuck in a lot of half-court offense, they will struggle and Kerr will be forced to juggle lineups and rotations like he did last season. When they bring and sustain the energy, they can be more than the sum of their parts.

The players are pushed. Kerr's new assistants, Terry Stotts on offense and Jerry Stackhouse on defense, have already made an impact. Stotts gives Kerr's movement offense more structure – especially in the halfcourt – and Stackhouse barks in a language that the players seem to like.

And everyone from general manager Mike Dunleavy to Kerr to Curry and Green agree that improving defensive efficiency is crucial to the team moving out of the bottom half of the conference standings.

“If we defend with our group, great things will happen,” Wiggins said. “You want someone to hold you accountable. That’s what (former assistant coach) Mike Brown did. He held people accountable. He's hard to replace. But I feel like Stack has done a great job so far of making his presence known and showing how much he cares about defense.”

Even though they are deprived of their aura, the warriors appear like a team on a silent hunt. There is urgency because Curry is 36 and Green is 34. There is energy because the squad has been updated. There is belief because they have some very excellent leaders.

So they can sleep peacefully knowing that they will be excluded from their circle. None of CBS Sports' eight reporters picked them to finish in the top six, and five have them outside the top eight. No one at ESPN or Yahoo Sports has them within touching distance of the Conference Finals. The Athletic finally defeated Golden State in the playoffs.

Good from the Warriors. They don't know how good they can be, but they like what they have on the pitch and on the bench. If they can somewhat follow the plan, they should find themselves back on the velvet rope of the 50-win NBA club.

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