Even though they had the best regular season record ever, the Golden State Warriors have a lot that they can improve on, most evident by how badly they choked in the NBA Finals. As a result, they are going to look at a ton of different options, but two players in particular, have gained the most traction. The first is Dirk Nowitzki, who has just opted out of his contract with the Dallas Mavericks and the second is Kevin Durant, who is, as of now, still with the Oklahoma City Thunder but most believe he is on his way out.
The Signings That Could Happen
The Nowitzki signing in particular, seemed to be the most likely to happen since he did, in fact, opt out of his contract. However, he has done this before to give the Mavericks a discount so they could spend money elsewhere to improve the team. Dirk is the Kobe of Dallas, he is not and will never go anywhere until he retires. Anyways, adding Nowitzki could be harmful to the Warriors. While their offense is most known for its crazy long range shooting, there is another aspect of their game that makes them so hard to defend: their speed. Nowitzki has never been an athletic speed demon, especially not now at 38 years old.
Put him at the four and Draymond Green at the three and all of a sudden their offense becomes rather one-dimensional. The only thing that would make sense is bringing him off of the bench to provide another long range shooting big with Marreese Speights and Green, if you even consider him a big. Regardless, Nowitzki moving to the Bay Area seems like a long shot, so even if you were excited about this move, don't get your hopes up.
KD to the Warriors?
Now for the juicier rumor, the Warriors seem to be the frontrunneers in the Durant sweepstakes. Sources say he is sick of not being able to win a championship with the Thunder and believes he has a better chance with the Warriors. You may think that it is impossible with how stacked Golden State is.
However, with the insane levels of cap room given to each team this year plus some creativity financially, they can pull the move off. They would have to let go of Harrison Barnes, a move that fans would certainly applaud because of his lackluster (biggest euphemism ever used) peformance in the Finals, as well as send off a couple of other role players such as Andre Iguodala or Shaun Livingston. Andrew Bogut may also be on the market.
A Big Three of Stephen Curry, Klay Thompson, and Durant sounds freaking unstoppable right? Well, it may not work as well as you'd think. One of the most mentioned criticisms of the way the Thunder play is their lack of ball movement as they have ball hogs in Russell Westbrook and Durant.
The former may have improved, but the latter definitely hasn't. And guess what the Warriors pride themselves in (although they seemed to have completely forgotten this in the final three games of the Finals)? That's right, ball movement. There will be times where Curry takes on his defender in iso, but for the most part they swing the ball with ease, always looking for open cutters, something Curry and Green tend to excel in.
With Durant, the team would acquire a ball stopper. He knows how to use his height, athleticism, and great shot to his advantage yet tends to forget that he has teammates. Durant does have the talent to make up for this selfish play. However, will he get the touches required for him to do so? It may be impossible with Curry, Thompson, and Green on the court as well.
Kevin Durant's Weaknesses
Another problem is that Durant will make them worse on the defensive side of the ball. Say what you will about Barnes, but he is definitely a solid defender, maybe even better than the Durantula. The team may choose to get rid of Bogut (their rim stopper) and Iggy (their shut down defender) to make space and as a result their defense will plummet. Will the Warriors be able to defend well enough to secure an NBA Championship?
This year's team obviously couldn't and in the off chance Lebron James doesn't pull a typical Lebron move and move somewhere else (L.A. seems to be a oft-mentioned destination for his talents), they will more than likely have another rematch against the Cleveland Cavaliers in the Finals (granted they will have to get out of the crazy Western Conference). James will dominate Durant and they will struggle to keep Tristan Thompson and Kevin Love out of the paint. Bogut displayed how important he is after getting injured for the series, as that duo completely dominated the Warriors' bigs on the glass. If getting Durant comes at the expense of keeping Bogut, Golden State may need to rethink their position.
Durant will give the Warriors another deadly offensive weapon but to what cost? It's like if the United States President were to get a nuke but give up the country's security system as well as shut down communication between major cities in return. What use is a good weapon if getting it will leave your country decimated because there is nothing defending it? It may seem like a farfetched comparison but it works. It makes no sense. The Warriors would simply be giving up too much to get Durant.
But then who, O wise and mighty Youssef, should the Warriors get to improve and have a better chance of winning another championship? Great question. One suggestion is letting go of Barnes and signing Nicolas Batum to take his spot as the starting three. Batum is a great defender who has a nice three point stroke and plays well off the ball. Sounds like Barnes minus the Finals right? Well he's even better than him. If they decide they want to improve on the three position while preserving their identity, Batum would be the best pick.
If, however, they decide to find another floor stretching big man and the move for Nowitzki doesn't work out, they could go after Ryan Anderson. He can come off the bench as a great shooter, making their subs unit even more deadly. They could be even more flexible in terms of how to combine their starters and bench players in mid-game situations.
This final suggestion may seem out of the box, but it could possibly work. If they're able to ship Bogut, they can go for an improvement at the position in Hassan Whiteside. Whiteside has stated before that he likes uptempo ball and will be an even better rim protector than Bogut. He will also be a slightly more reliable threat on the offensive end and is much more athletic. This is riksy since they may lose Bogut without knowing for certain if Whiteside will commit to going to the Bay Area. But it's a move that can help them tremendously, especially if they face the Cavs in a highly anticipated rematch in next year's Finals.
