Where the Warriors At?

This is one of the reasons why maintaining contendership is so harp these days.  Being a contender likely means you're paying at least two players an excessive amount of money.  That means there's only so much left for everybody else and that you're going to have a bunch of lesser known players on the squad.  But once the team proves successful, those players are going to want some dough.  And once you can't pay them, they're going to be compelled to bounce.

The 2021-2022 Warriors were like the only team I ever saw, in decades of watching the NBA, where virtually every regular player on the roster, from 1 to 15, was serviceable.  The only other team I can think of who were like that were the Lakers during the Kobe/Shaq years.  And even as far as Quinndary Witherspoon, after everybody else bounced the Dubs should have kept him, if for no other reason than out of respect for continuity.

Last season's Warriors were so deep that when you come across these articles mentioning the players they've lost since, they don't even mention Nemanja Bjelica, who was perfect for the Dubs coming off the bench.  Juan Toscano-Anderson was mainly relegated to the bench-riding duties, but he held that role down as if he were a member of the Grizzlies.  Damion Lee did virtually nothing as far stats are concerned.  But every game I saw him play in, he had an impact.

The Warriors are still the Warriors, sometimes.  But one of the reasons they're worst this year is because now when the starters get hurt, they don't have that glut of players coming off the bench who were at least able to put up a respectable fight against any group of starters.  Now it's like 'oh, let's put the onus on Jonathan Kuminga' type shit.  But that's what they were supposed to do last year - put him in a position to at least compete for ROY - when he was hot he and when other teams were more distracted with the Steph and/or Klay than they are now.  So it's sorta like a 'too little, too late' kinda feeling.

CONCLUSION

If the Warriors flunk out this postseason, maybe people will start taking the power of good-fitting bench more seriously.  It's like the Lakers going on to lose Caldwell-Pope, Caruso, Kuzma, Rondo and others shortly after winning a championship a couple of years back.  It's like everybody is dickriding the superstars so hard that they forget that these days, Lebron can't carry a mediocre roster like he used to.

But sometimes it isn't about braintrusts dumbing out but rather players growing more expensive.  And basically every member of the Warriors (with the exception of Witherspoon, I guess) came out a hotter commodity after last season than they were going into it.  Oh well, it just sucks being a fan, watching that roster fall apart and the Dubs now feeling like they're lost.  So it's like now, I'm on the verge of declaring the Rockets my favorite team.