The Golden State Warriors lost some valuable members of their second unit this offseason, including Leandro Barbosa, Festus Ezeli, Marreese Speights, and Brandon Rush. The Warriors aren’t buying that their bench got worse, though, per Connor Letourneau of SFGate:
The new-look second unit, however, is impressing early.
David West has flashed his fundamentals and savvy posting up younger big men. Rookie Patrick McCaw is building off a strong performance at the Las Vegas Summer League. Ian Clark, in his second training camp with the team, has been more self-assured handling the basketball. A training-camp invitee on a nonguaranteed contract, JaVale McGee is cementing his status as Golden State’s best rim protector.
“I think a couple people have either said or written that our bench is going to be … weaker than last year,” head coach Steve Kerr said. “I think we’ve got every reason to believe we can play the same way, strength in numbers.”
Said Iguodala: “I think our second unit will be better, actually.”
…
“With some of the pieces we’ve added,” Draymond Green said of the bench, “it can be really good for us.”
Guys like West and even McGee will definitely prove useful off the bench for Golden State, though I’m not sure that I buy that the bench as a whole will be better than it was last season. Regardless, it will still have Iguodala and Shaun Livingston; it’ll be just fine.
