2: Don’t Forget Your Roots
The Warriors must continuing excelling at non-glamorous moves: late draft picks, signing rotation free agents, and even furthering their Santa Cruz D-League pipeline.
Outside of the exception that is Pat Riley, not having or hitting on draft picks is the surest way to set your franchise back. Just ask 49ers GM Trent Baalke about the affects of his disastrous 2012 draft class (whose bright spot is now a 3rd string tight-end). The next two seasons the Warriors possess their 1st round pick -2017 was traded to Utah in the Iggy deal. GM Bob Myers & Friends could do themselves a lot of help by hitting on a rotation player with at least 1 of these 2 picks. Championship contending teams are perennially searching for cheap yet valuable players, and there’s no better value in sports (except maybe a Steph Curry contract that will pay him less than Marcin Gortat) than a successful draft pick.
Inherent in having a contender is having limited money to spend on the free-agent market. In some aspects this is a blessing in disguise considering free-agents are the opposite of draft picks in that their value is commonly outsized by their contract. The Warriors have rightfully achieved “discount status” in free-agent shopping because of their contender status -they must exploit that. Recent title teams had discounted free-agents playing an integral role in their championships (think Belinelli and Diaw from the Spurs or Ray Allen and Battier from the Miami Lebrons); the Warriors must find those guys. A couple friendly suggestions: Brandon Bass, Ed Davis, Wayne Ellington, and Kent Bazemore). Speaking of Bazemore…
The Warriors have quietly had a highly successful D-League pipeline with the Santa Cruz Warriors. Bazemore, James Michael-McAdoo, and Justin Holiday, oh my! Only 17 of the 29 other teams have direct D-League affiliates, and of those 17 only 13 have their affiliate within a reasonable distance like the Warriors have with Santa Cruz. This is a definitive comparative advantage the Warriors must exploit.