We’re just days away from October 25, when the Golden State Warriors look to avenge the sting of their NBA Finals loss and start the pursuit of a second world championship in three years with their regular season opener at home against the San Antonio Spurs.
Here are some final preseason notes for the Warriors:
- It’s the size of Kevin Durant that sticks out the most to me. He’s SO MUCH bigger than Harrison Barnes was, and his length clearly intimidates opponents. He’s obviously a tremendous offensive weapon, but his size and length on defense is going to be such an added threat for the Warriors.
- With that said, expect Durant’s scoring average to go considerably down. There are simply too many weapons on offense for him to get the same scores and touches that he had in OKC. Unless the Warriors significantly increase their average points per game
- Zaza Pachulia doesn’t have the shot blocking abilities of Andrew Bogut, but he’s just as strong, if not stronger, than his predecessor at the center position. Clippers players struggled trying to muscle and push him around when they played last week, and as he’s become more comfortable in Steve Kerr’s system, opposing players are avoiding him more and more when he decides to make his way inside the key. He should get his rebounding numbers this year.
- The Warriors lost some of their rim protection with the departure of Andrew Bogut and Festus Ezeli (they did make it official and retained JaVale McGee for the final 15 man roster), but boy do they have some strength on the inside now. In addition to Draymond Green AKA Charles Barkely 2.0, the duo of Pachulia and David West bring some serious muscle inside. And West is a legitimate low post scorer, something Barkley continues to avoid mentioning while bringing his relentless barrage of criticism towards the Warriors.
- Klay Thompson has the potential to be a 30 points per game scorer for the Warriors. It’s doubtful that he’s going to average that many points given how many other great scorers the Warriors have, but so far he’s looking considerably better than last year when he was third-team All-NBA.
- Ian Clark seems more poised this season. Granted it’s only been the preseason thus far, but he’s slowly settling into Leandro Barbosa’s role from the past two years of being an energy guy off the bench. He’s consistently hitting his threes while hustling for every ball and actually playing solid defense. If Ian Clark gives the Warriors a good 15-20 minutes a night, that would bode particularly well for the Warriors chances of winning their second world championship in three years given he could ease some pressure off backcourt superstars Curry and Thompson.
- Draymond Green is only 26 years old and just added the invaluable experience of playing on the 2016 U.S. Olympic basketball team. It’s scary for Warriors’ opponents how much better he could be this year. After a quiet preseason opener in Vancouver, Green put up 8 points, 9 rebounds and 5 assists against the L.A. Clippers and added 10 points, 8 rebounds and 5 assists in a Lakers game deemed a regular season tuneup with added intensity and playing minutes for Warriors players. Green is going to have some serious open looks this season with opposing teams focusing heavily on the offensive triumvirate of Curry, Durant and Thompson, and he’s probably going to have some monster numbers this year.