The Warriors general manager, Mike Dunleavy, shared that athleticism is crucial for the upcoming season, focusing on improving athleticism through length, size, and skill. He also mentioned the importance of limiting turnovers and taking better care of the ball. The head coach, Steve Kerr, emphasized the importance of staying focused on the process and the upcoming summer to get better.
On Dubs Talk, co-hosts Monte Poole and Dalton Johnson discuss key focus points for the Golden State Warriors this offseason. SAN FRANCISCO – Everything basketball fans watched from their couches, bars, the Paycom Center in Oklahoma City , the River Walk in San Antonio and anywhere else were witness to what the NBA playoffs are all about in the Spurs’ double overtime win against the Thunder on Monday night to open the Western Conference finals.
The two best teams in the league building a budding rivalry stepped onto the stage, with Shai Gilgeous-Alexander hoisting the MVP trophy for a second straight season and Victor Wembanyama staring through him in disgust during the pregame ceremony. There wasn’t any talk about tanking. Flopping and foul baiting was rarely a topic as referees let them play physical basketball. Nobody had a thought of the CBA or a random LeBron James debate.
It was just purely basketball to the highest degree. Watching Victor Wembanyama be some kind of combination between Gumby and Steph Curry against the reigning champions had to send shivers down the rest of the NBA’s spines. Every team already knows they’re in for a world of hurt as a hungry Wemby looks to swallow the league whole. The Warriors are among them.
They’re spectators for the entire playoffs for the second time since winning their last championship in 2022. The third question Warriors general manager Mike Dunleavy was asked Friday in his first press conference since the end of the season was about watching the playoffs, and specifically the more athletic teams, which the Warriors currently cannot call themselves.
“Athleticism helps for sure,” Dunleavy said. “I mean, having two wings like Jimmy and Moses that will be out to start the season, that's a huge hole in generally your most athletic position. We'll always look to add athletically – length, size, skill, all those things. But, watching the playoffs, you learn a lot.
You see the teams where they're at, where you need to go, and it's good to see. ” Dunleavy is more focused on limiting turnovers and taking better care of the ball. The Warriors again took the most 3-pointers, so Dunleavy also wants to make sure the roster is full of players who can make them at a higher clip.
He’s dedicated to internal development and improvements to a roster the Warriors really liked going into what became a 37-win season. His coach, Steve Kerr, was much blunter with his assessments of the Warriors and watching the playoffs while speaking exclusively with NBC Sports Bay Area.
“I don't think it's worth sitting here trying to figure out right now how we're going to compete with San Antonio and OKC,” Kerr said. “These teams are young and athletic and playing at a really high level. There's no magic formula to this.
So, we have to use the summer to get better with the process, add to the roster, tighten things up where we can tighten them up, give ourselves the best chance to win and then see what happens. ” The Spurs trotted out the youngest starting lineup in conference finals history and weren’t scared one bit. Three of the five players would have been the youngest players on the Warriors’ entire team, including Wembanyama.
The Warriors won their first two games against the Spurs this season. They needed Curry to score 95 points – 46 and then 49 – to beat them twice over a three-day span in San Antonio. Without Curry and Butler, the Warriors lost their last two games against the Spurs by 13 and 14 points. In total, the Warriors went 11-20 against the eight Western Conference teams that made the playoffs.
The only Western Conference playoff team they had a winning record against was the No. 8 seed Phoenix Suns, whom they lost to in the NBA play-in tournament. Every summer, Warriors assistant coaches do deep dives into studying trends. Analytics departments break down all the advanced numbers and give their suggestions. Kerr sees a game that’s getting faster with long and athletic players at every position.
The power of the 3-point shot is obvious, and teams are emphasizing offensive rebounding for the possession battle. Once, the Warriors were the trend setters. Now, they’re the adjusters learning in an offseason that’s all about getting back to a better process.
“We almost set that trend seven to 10 years ago, and now it’s just really common across the league,” Kerr said. “Just this style of suffocating defense and size and length, it’s a difficult game. It’s never been more difficult, I think, to play in the NBA than right now. The playoffs are an unbiased mirror giving the truth to your face.
They’re littered with those who impact both sides of the ball. These teams have multiple players who can go and get a bucket, unlike the Warriors. Some are young stars who can speed to the rim like the Spurs’ backcourt of De’Aaron Fox, Stephon Castle and Dylan Harper.
There also are imperfect players that can swing a series like Terrence Shannon Jr. and Ayo Dosunmu in Minnesota, who should be examples of the type of players the Warriors need to re-evaluate in the fit of their roster. As long as Curry and Draymond Green are in Warriors jerseys, they’ll still be running their two-man game and giving moments like the magical win against the LA Clippers in the play-in tournament.
Losing Kevon Looney and having centers like Al Horford, Kristaps Porzingis and Quinten Post allowed the Warriors to at least try and play more five-out basketball. The Warriors’ whiteboard isn’t being erased, but it is being reimagined. The last two teams standing in the wild West, and every other team given their tickets to the playoffs, are proving why that’s the right thinking from Kerr and the rest of the Warriors’ brain trust.
Golden State Warriors Offseason Focus Points Playoff Spectatorship Improving Skill 3-Point Shooting Athleticism Limiting Turnovers Mike Dunleavy Steve Kerr San Antonio Oklahoma City De'arron Fox Terrence Shannon Jr
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