Getty Golden State Warriors forward JaMychal Green handles the ball during a game against the Detroit Pistons.
Once the dust had settled on the Golden State Warriors‘ championship win over the Boston Celtics in June, it was clear that the team had a bit of tidying up to do in the second unit. Several players flew the coop during the summer, but the Dubs’ inability to keep Gary Payton II, Otto Porter Jr. and Nemanja Bjelicia in particular left team president Bob Myers with work to do.
Fast-forward to now and it has become clear that the tidy-up job Myers was forced to take on was more like the massive mess left on Market Street by the Warriors’ victory parade.
Through the first seven games of the new campaign, the ballers that Golden State brought in to help offset their biggest losses — veterans Donte DiVincenzo and JaMychal Green — have fallen well short of the lofty standard established by their predecessors. And pundits around the league have taken note of the backward step.
Bleacher Report‘s Greg Swartz was especially harsh in his assessment of the team’s offseason additions and how they’ve performed thus far.
Warriors Should Probably Hide Their B/R Report Card
On Tuesday, Swartz examined every team in the Association in an effort to evaluate how well each of them look to have done (through two weeks of the 2022-23 season, anyway) from a player personnel standpoint. Oviously, there’s a lot of hooping left to be done but the Warriors haven’t quite measured up in his eyes, so far.
Swartz’s grade for the Warriors’ additions to date: a D+; and his logic in arriving at that mark is sound.
Regarding DiVincenzo — who has missed the last several games for the Warriors — Swartz had this to say:
DiVincenzo looked like one of the NBA’s best offseason signings, yet hasn’t found his footing as a contributing rotation member yet.
A hamstring injury has limited the 25-year-old to just three games thus far, where DiVincenzo has more total turnovers (six) than made shots (five). He’ll likely get acclimated at some point, but for now, DiVincenzo has been a bust.
Meanwhile, this was the write-up on Green:
Green is averaging more minutes (18.7) than any other big off Golden State’s bench, even high-upside guys like James Wiseman and Jonathan Kuminga. After chipping in eight points and grabbing seven rebounds in the season opener, however, Green is averaging just 3.3 points and 4.0 rebounds on 40.0 percent shooting over his last six games.
There was little to write home about for rookie Patrick Baldwin Jr., too, as the rookie has appeared in just one game for Golden State as of this writing.
Scouts, Execs Not Feeling the Dubs’ Title Chances
Fox Sports‘ Ric Bucher went to scouts and front office personnel league-wide to get their thoughts on whether the Warriors can relistically bring home the Larry O’Brien Trophy once again next summer. And if their reponses are to be belived, things aren’t looking good for Golden State.
“The Clippers are the team to beat,” a Western Conference GM told Bucher. “I don’t even think Golden State is in their class. The Clippers have too much depth. I admire the Warriors’ can-do attitude. But they sat everybody for two years and then won the battle of attrition. I don’t know that they’ll be able to last this time around.”
Added an Eastern Conference scout: “[Moses] Moody is probably fine and can pick up some of the minutes that equivalent players played last year. [Jonathan] Kuminga is not that good and can probably only be used situationally and so, depending on matchups, downgrading from Otto Porter or Gary Payton to him could be a problem.
“[James] Wiseman is just not good at all and to the extent that they’re not going to play him in any game that really matters, that could be debilitating to their ability to win.”