How do you match up against Golden State now?

[DMC]

No one matched up against them last season.

They just doubled down. If they don't win this season they are going to get roasted to . That means pressure all season because of what they did this season.

Then you have Durant on a player option, one foot in and one foot out. He's not committed or at least on paper he's not. So you have a team that plays fluid basketball because they know each other, then you insert a major piece that needs to gel with the team. There's only one ball, and we know who needs to have it most often. Fortunately for Durant there aren't really any ball hogs on the team, just shooters and they like to shoot. If they get going, it's over before Christmas.

[itzsoweezee]

Parker simply cannot play against GSW's starters. Spurs are going to have to start Ginobili. Hopefully his body can handle it.

[Snaq O'Meal]

Then you have Durant on a player option, one foot in and one foot out. He's not committed or at least on paper he's not. So you have a team that plays fluid basketball because they know each other, then you insert a major piece that needs to gel with the team. There's only one ball, and we know who needs to have it most often. Fortunately for Durant there aren't really any ball hogs on the team, just shooters and they like to shoot. If they get going, it's over before Christmas.

The Warriors have been recruiting him for a long time already, and he's already made up his mind during the free agency period. Durant only signed that 2-year contract with player option for the second year because they can keep paying him more as the salary cap continues to expand. He's not going anywhere else.

[Arcadian]

They won't average 150 ppg as some people think. But they have 3 of the best scorers and the best triple-double guy in the league. That's gonna be a problem.

[cutewizard]

we are all humans, to err is human

so no team is unbeatable.....i think even Boston can easily beat GS now, just an opinion of course, haha

i dont fear the Warriors now, their bench is gutted....

[YGWHI]

Even their best player would rather take a couple of dribbles, do a shimmy shakes or two and pull up for 10-15 ft. jumper rather than take it to the basket.

Their best player was attacking the rim later in the season and looked really good doing it.

Hopefully, Pop gives him the opportunity to continue improving this area of his game, but who knows, it's likely he thinks Parker or Manu are still able to drive and finish strong and give them the ball again

[Sean Cagney]

The one ball argument works with certain teams. The last time I recall using it was when Iverson was traded to Denver. When you had two guys whose egos are tied into how many shot attempts they get, it's not going to work. They suddenly aren't going to become "share-the-ball" guys. Durant has been through all this bull with Westbrook, so you know he doesn't care about his own shots at this point. The Warriors are all share-the-ball guys that just want to win. Given the way they've performed in big games, they might like having Durant around to bail them out if it gets tight.

To be fair Durant has not faired well either when it gets tight at the end of games in the playoffs, just saying........ I agree though with the post above.

we are all humans, to err is human

so no team is unbeatable.....i think even Boston can easily beat GS now, just an opinion of course, haha

i dont fear the Warriors now, their bench is gutted....

I disagree on the last two things you said but the top one I agree on.

[Russo21]

DWADE seems pretty pissed off in Miami. Wish there was a way we could grab him. Imagine

Pau
LMA
Kawhi
Green
Wade

Bench
Tim
Manu
Tony
The other scrubs

Yeah the money doesn't work but whatever

[AFMadison]

DWADE seems pretty pissed off in Miami. Wish there was a way we could grab him. Imagine

Pau
LMA
Kawhi
Green
Wade

Bench
Tim
Manu
Tony
The other scrubs

Yeah the money doesn't work but whatever

I thought about that too, DWade running point would be sick but no way in even if we had half of what he's asking

[Chinook]

The Warriors have been recruiting him for a long time already, and he's already made up his mind during the free agency period. Durant only signed that 2-year contract with player option for the second year because they can keep paying him more as the salary cap continues to expand. He's not going anywhere else.

I think it's hard to say something like that with any conviction. KD is already broken. He no longer has enough integrity to where you assume he's going to stay. I don't mean that pejoratively. It's just true. If GS disappoints or if things don't look good, I think he'll consider bolting. That's even more true considering that GS is looking at long-term money and fit issues that the Heatles didn't have to worry about as much. Come next summer, any semblance of depth the team has will be gone, and you can't simply fill those spots with cast-offs every season. Even Miami had role-players on long-term contracts on whom they could rely to grow within the system. And with a strong possibility of a lockout next summer (and the rule changes that may leave), you just never know.

[objective]

Come next summer, any semblance of depth the team has will be gone, and you can't simply fill those spots with cast-offs every season. Even Miami had role-players on long-term contracts on whom they could rely to grow within the system. And with a strong possibility of a lockout next summer (and the rule changes that may leave), you just never know.

I think that's not a fair assessment. Warriors have all their draft picks and have been fine drafting and developing. Miami dumped a bunch of firsts to get the big three and didn't take the draft or player development seriously, Riley was all about vets.

Heck, the Warriors paid the big money to buy the pick that became McCaw. They didn't even have to give up any picks to dump Bogut. Their depth will only get better with each season. Guys will have plenty of time to play in the 60+ blowouts the Warriors will win. The scoring margin will be absurd.

[Chinook]

I think that's not a fair assessment. Warriors have all their draft picks and have been fine drafting and developing. Miami dumped a bunch of firsts to get the big three and didn't take the draft or player development seriously, Riley was all about vets.

The Warriors don't even own their pick for next season. And they a fine at drafting and all that, but those players cost money if they're first-rounders, whereas vets usually don't (aren't using the MLE on rookies). You're right that there is a difference in organizational philosophy, but that doesn't line up the realities of keeping guys together.

Heck, the Warriors paid the big money to buy the pick that became McCaw. They didn't even have to give up any picks to dump Bogut. Their depth will only get better with each season. Guys will have plenty of time to play in the 60+ blowouts the Warriors will win. The scoring margin will be absurd.

No. Their depth is going to get worse, because Iggy and Livingston are going to go away. To suggest that the guys they're developing (which is only Looney and McCaw at this point) are going to not just take over those spots but do it in a way that improves the depth, is off-base. The Heatles never had to worry about having to find cap space to re-sign their stars. The Warriors have to do that next year, and the cap between what Steph and KD make now versus what they'll make in a year is much greater than the gap between the cap now and the cap next summer. Of course, Durant opting in fixes that issue. But if that were something he was considering, he wouldn't have signed a one-plus-one to begin with.

[YGWHI]

To be fair, the Spurs exposed the Warriors in that one game. It's the blueprint everyone else used to beat them for the rest of the season.

Agree.

At the same time, that game helped to build their confidence against us.

Sure, "several sources"...but who knows.

[Spurs 4 The Win]

Agree.

At the same time, that game helped to build their confidence against us.

Sure, "several sources"...but who knows.

I hope the players see that, that got me fired up

[popdagreat]

need to light a fire under pops ass tho.

[r0drig0lac]

we are all humans, to err is human

so no team is unbeatable.....i think even Boston can easily beat GS now, just an opinion of course, haha

i dont fear the Warriors now, their bench is gutted....

jesus

[Obstructed_View]

Agree.

At the same time, that game helped to build their confidence against us.

Sure, "several sources"...but who knows.

Herein lies the genius of Pop the psychology major. The defensive strategy was so successful that Pop hardly used it in the subsequent matchups with the Warriors. Since it only happened once, they could write it off as a fluke and continue. Portland and OKC and Cleveland all beat them using the defensive blueprint from that game, and they simply couldn't adjust by that point because it was too late. When Bogut got injured, they were ed.

[objective]

The Warriors don't even own their pick for next season. And they a fine at drafting and all that, but those players cost money if they're first-rounders, whereas vets usually don't (aren't using the MLE on rookies). You're right that there is a difference in organizational philosophy, but that doesn't line up the realities of keeping guys together.

So what if they players cost what firsts do? It's going to be the 30th pick every year. Barely more than any roster charge. They won't be pursuing free agents under caproom anymore. They aren't some cheap team, especially not after they get their new stadium and of course all this Durant revenue.

No. Their depth is going to get worse, because Iggy and Livingston are going to go away. To suggest that the guys they're developing (which is only Looney and McCaw at this point) are going to not just take over those spots but do it in a way that improves the depth, is off-base. The Heatles never had to worry about having to find cap space to re-sign their stars. The Warriors have to do that next year, and the cap between what Steph and KD make now versus what they'll make in a year is much greater than the gap between the cap now and the cap next summer. Of course, Durant opting in fixes that issue. But if that were something he was considering, he wouldn't have signed a one-plus-one to begin with.

I don't see any problems with the Warriors cap next year at all with it going up to nearly 108 by last report I saw. Other than maybe downgrading Iguodala, who will be getting older, they'll be fine even with the cap holds for Durant and Curry. Renounce Zaza, have the usual rookie scale guys, and roster charges, re-sign vets to minimums and room exception for Zaza or some other ring chaser. Then after those two re-up, it's smooth sailing of taxpayer MLEs and the like.

I think Durant did the opt out because after next year because he'll be at the 10+ year mark and can get a bigger percentile of the cap as his max. If he was a 10 year player this year instead of 9, he would have started at 30.9 million instead of 26.54

[playbonner15]

DWADE seems pretty pissed off in Miami. Wish there was a way we could grab him. Imagine

Pau
LMA
Kawhi
Green
Wade

Bench
Tim
Manu
Tony
The other scrubs

Yeah the money doesn't work but whatever

This team aint a retirement home

[Tully365]

The Warriors don't even own their pick for next season. And they a fine at drafting and all that, but those players cost money if they're first-rounders, whereas vets usually don't (aren't using the MLE on rookies). You're right that there is a difference in organizational philosophy, but that doesn't line up the realities of keeping guys together.



No. Their depth is going to get worse, because Iggy and Livingston are going to go away. To suggest that the guys they're developing (which is only Looney and McCaw at this point) are going to not just take over those spots but do it in a way that improves the depth, is off-base. The Heatles never had to worry about having to find cap space to re-sign their stars. The Warriors have to do that next year, and the cap between what Steph and KD make now versus what they'll make in a year is much greater than the gap between the cap now and the cap next summer. Of course, Durant opting in fixes that issue. But if that were something he was considering, he wouldn't have signed a one-plus-one to begin with.

I think if they win a championship, it's completely plausible Steph & Durant consider each taking a little bit less to keep Iggy and/or Livingston. They'll understand that with the astronomical rise in the Cap, they'll be making more than anyone dreamed of making just three or four years ago. They were there to witness LeBron, Wade, and Bosh take small cuts and get to the finals four straight years, and it seems pretty likely that a sit down with Jerry West would result in a similar small financial sacrifice.

[tbdog]

So what if they players cost what firsts do? It's going to be the 30th pick every year. Barely more than any roster charge. They won't be pursuing free agents under caproom anymore. They aren't some cheap team, especially not after they get their new stadium and of course all this Durant revenue.

I don't see any problems with the Warriors cap next year at all with it going up to nearly 108 by last report I saw. Other than maybe downgrading Iguodala, who will be getting older, they'll be fine even with the cap holds for Durant and Curry. Renounce Zaza, have the usual rookie scale guys, and roster charges, re-sign vets to minimums and room exception for Zaza or some other ring chaser. Then after those two re-up, it's smooth sailing of taxpayer MLEs and the like.

I think Durant did the opt out because after next year because he'll be at the 10+ year mark and can get a bigger percentile of the cap as his max. If he was a 10 year player this year instead of 9, he would have started at 30.9 million instead of 26.54

No, their cap room will hurt, a lot.

Klay 17.8m
Green 16.4m
Curry 30m?
Durant 30m?

That is roughly 94m. That is a lot of dough to give up on 4 guys. And with only 14m to round out your roster, and 14m isn't much when guys like Solomon Hill is getting 13 mil a pop. Livingston can easily net 10mil, same as Iggy, and I suspect them to request that. They will have to get sneaky and get lucky with contributing draft picks and ring chasing vets. And ring chasing vets are going to need to drop a lot of coin compared to last season. Heck Gasol just took a pay cut to join us and we are playing him 15m for he year. With yearly wage rises and penalties for breaching the salary in consecutive years, it puts more and more pressure for teams to keep the payroll. For example, Heat gave up M.Miller for nothing just to lower the salary.

[BG_Spurs_Fan]

No, their cap room will hurt, a lot.

Klay 17.8m
Green 16.4m
Curry 30m?
Durant 30m?

That is roughly 94m. That is a lot of dough to give up on 4 guys. And with only 14m to round out your roster, and 14m isn't much when guys like Solomon Hill is getting 13 mil a pop. Livingston can easily net 10mil, same as Iggy, and I suspect them to request that. They will have to get sneaky and get lucky with contributing draft picks and ring chasing vets. And ring chasing vets are going to need to drop a lot of coin compared to last season. Heck Gasol just took a pay cut to join us and we are playing him 15m for he year. With yearly wage rises and penalties for breaching the salary in consecutive years, it puts more and more pressure for teams to keep the payroll. For example, Heat gave up M.Miller for nothing just to lower the salary.

Not really. Curry's cap hold is much lower than his actual salary will be so they'll have some money to spend and take care of him last.

[Chinook]

So what if they players cost what firsts do? It's going to be the 30th pick every year. Barely more than any roster charge. They won't be pursuing free agents under caproom anymore. They aren't some cheap team, especially not after they get their new stadium and of course all this Durant revenue.

That means less than nothing. I'm talking about actual cap space.

I don't see any problems with the Warriors cap next year at all with it going up to nearly 108 by last report I saw. Other than maybe downgrading Iguodala, who will be getting older, they'll be fine even with the cap holds for Durant and Curry. Renounce Zaza, have the usual rookie scale guys, and roster charges, re-sign vets to minimums and room exception for Zaza or some other ring chaser. Then after those two re-up, it's smooth sailing of taxpayer MLEs and the like.

I don't get why you're being obtuse about this. I don't mean to sound offensive, but it doesn't make sense. The Warriors are at $35 Million in salaries next year and $4 Million in roster charges (assuming they keep the holds for Curry and KD). So they would have $69 Million in cap space. Durant's max is $35.6 Million, so that pushes them down to $33.4 Million. Curry's max is $30.5 Million. So that leaves $2.9 Million in cap space. To put that into perspective, they couldn't even give Zaza an option, because he and McCaw would have put them over. , I doubt if West was even able to get an option this time around.

To say that a team who has four players, one prospect and only two $3 Millionish contracts to offer in a landscape where mediocre guys are getting $20 Million a year has nothing to worry about in terms of depth is absurd. We're talking about the same summer where three superstars and about a dozen other high-level guys will be available. We could easily see another "superteam" or two forming, including one in San Antonio. The Warriors aren't going to have such an obvious pick of ring-chasers next season if they fail to win it all this year.

(EDIT: I will say that I forgot about Curry's cap hold for some reason. That gives them a bit more money (provided the CBA doesn't change [which it may if the owners are seriously that concerned about what the Warriors are doing]) that gives them $10-15 Million in space. That's more manageable, but it's still not that great.)

I think Durant did the opt out because after next year because he'll be at the 10+ year mark and can get a bigger percentile of the cap as his max. If he was a 10 year player this year instead of 9, he would have started at 30.9 million instead of 26.54

Indeed, that's the reasoning, but it has no bearing on the reality.

[Chinook]

I think if they win a championship, it's completely plausible Steph & Durant consider each taking a little bit less to keep Iggy and/or Livingston. They'll understand that with the astronomical rise in the Cap, they'll be making more than anyone dreamed of making just three or four years ago. They were there to witness LeBron, Wade, and Bosh take small cuts and get to the finals four straight years, and it seems pretty likely that a sit down with Jerry West would result in a similar small financial sacrifice.

They'd have to take more than small cuts to make it worth it. They only have $3 Million in cap space right now. If Durant wants to help GS, he can really only do that by opting in. If he opts out, I think the Warriors' chance to losing him is a lot higher than people are assuming. There will be teams who are better able to put rosters around him.

[Chinook]

Not really. Curry's cap hold is much lower than his actual salary will be so they'll have some money to spend and take care of him last.

It might not be. It'll be between $18-23 Million. And sure, that's less than $30 Million, but it's not all that much less in this environment. That'll get them closer to $10-15 Million to replace Iggy and Livingston. Much more possible, but also not overwhelming considering the max slots that SA and Boston will have. That said, with OKC's collapse and LAC's impeding breakup, the league is going to be about as weak as it's ever been.