NBA: Is The Warriors Dynasty over or just beginning?
With the current 2019-2020 NBA season being suspended, it gives fans a chance to appreciate the game of basketball and also appreciate past championship runs. With the NBA suspension length being unknown other than the fact it will be a minimum of 30 days, it gives us a chance to look into what the future of the NBA holds.
The past 5 years of the NBA have been dominated by the Golden State Warriors until injuries to Steph Curry and Klay Thompson basically made the Warriors a lottery team from the start. Steph had just returned from a broken hand and looked ready to get back into the swing of things before the suspension occurred on Wednesday.
Currently the Warriors are sitting in last place of the NBA which would give them the highest chance for the #1 pick. Still uncertain of how and when this season will end, it's still a guarantee that they are in the bottom 3 of the league. The clear choice for the Warriors would be the center James Wiseman. Even with the chaos that ensued with the NCAA and James Wiseman which led to him leaving Memphis, he is still clearly a top talent in this year's class. The other top prospects consist of many guards which the Warriors obviously don't need. Wiseman would be a huge pick for the Warriors.
Throughout their dominant run over the past 5 years, the Warriors have never had a strong center with players like Andrew Bogut and JaVale McGee filling that role. Wiseman is a dominant rebounder and a great defender, and can run the court with Steph and Klay easily.
Also with the Warriors trading for Andrew Wiggins he may be a valuable piece for them. Wiggins has never truly lived up to the #1 pick but its mainly because of his work ethic. Now that he has joined the Warriors, a complete opposite of the franchise that is the Minnesota Timberwolves, hopefully it will be able to rejuvenate his passion for the game.
Wiggins is still a very good offensive player averaging 21.8 PPG and could be a great fit for this team moving forward. Hopefully with Curry, Klay, and Draymond all being healthy and ready to go they can motivate Wiggins in a way we have never seen before. He's been stuck in the rebuilding Timberwolves organization for years but now gets the opportunity to playing with one of the leagues best franchises with a winning mentality.
If Wiggins proves to not have this mentality and continues to be known as a selfish player who's there to get stats, one can definitely see the Warriors moving him.
Wiggins will still have trade value if he can continue to average around 20 PPG and the Warriors wouldn't need anything crazy in return to improve their team. For a team that has been in the championship picture the past 5 years there is a lot of flexibilty with what they can do with their team, with the only knowns being Steph, Klay, and Draymond. Just these three players alone are enough to atleast get the Warriors as a top four seed and a chance to go to the NBA finals.
With Steph returning and Klay making very good progress after the torn ACL, it looks like both of them will be fully healthy and back on the floor for the next season. Also if the Warriors decide to keep Andrew Wiggins, he would be a good wing fit with this team and can give you offensive production from the forward spot, while Draymond and Wiseman are mainly focused on the defensive side of the ball.
A fresh start
This team could potentially be better than we've ever seen before with great players at each position and a bench that was able to play a lot of minutes this season. Players like Paschall and Burks become very valuable for them and are great young guys that seem ready to play. The Warriors are one of the only teams which, while being a dominant dynasty still has this amount of flexibility with their roster.
It will be interesting to see how the draft odds workout for them and if they decide to trade or keep Andrew Wiggins. This team could be back to being the dynasty that we know them as and put the rest of the league on notice. It was easy to focus on other teams like the Lakers, Clippers, Rockets, and all the other big teams that made huge deals over the summer but it became easy to forget about Golden State. With all the talk around the league about the Lakers and Clippers the Warriors will look to prove people wrong. If the Warriors are able to return fully healthy and and get a top pick to select James Wiseman, the Warriors will instantly be back in the title picture.
