The Golden State Warriors are weeks away from facing one of the biggest challenges they’ve faced in their recent run. After giving Draymond Green a $100,000,o00 extension, the Warriors still need to figure out what to do with Steve Kerr, Klay Thompson, and their expiring contracts. The 2023-24 season hopefully helps the management get some clarity about the same. At the same time, for the players, it’s a big season, considering the age of the core, and with Chris Paul on the roster. Draymond talked about the same during his interaction with the media on Media Day.
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Earlier, at the start of the offseason, there were a lot of rumors flying about Draymond Green and his future. Testing the free agency market, Draymond decided to come back home to the Warriors on a 4-year, $100,000,000 team-friendly deal. After a subpar postseason last year, Dray is surely ready to go out there and be a winner again.
Draymond Green addressed the ‘urgency’ heading into the 2023-24 season
For the longest time, Draymond Green has been the vocal leader of the team. The position was a bit compromised last year, with the Jordan Poole incident, but he’s back at his role. Speaking to the media, Draymond explained the urgency the Warriors have heading into the season.
“Anytime you’re coming of a championship your sense of urgency won’t be what it will be when you’re not coming off a championship… You work so hard to reach the mountain top, and when you reach the mountaintop, you appreciate that. The time you spend appreciaiting that, is time you don’t spend getting better… Sometimes you have to lose to win and last year we lost and I think it’s put us in better position to win this year.”
Time is of the utmost importance for the Warriors trio. Stephen Curry is 35 and would be 36 by the time the season ends. Both Draymond and Klay Thompson are already in their 30s. The time frame for them to add more rings to their four is getting narrower. Hopefully, the rest of the Warriors would reflect the same sense of urgency that their leaders do.
What all decisions do the Warriors have to make?
For this season, the first and foremost decision Steve Kerr has to make is the starting lineup. The lineup from last year, Steph, Klay, Draymond, Wiggins, and Looney, was the most efficient lineup in the league. However, with the addition of Chris Paul, we may see some changes.
As for the management, they have to think about Klay Thompson’s contract, Steve Kerr’s contract, and at the same time, extensions for Jonathan Kuminga and Moses Moody. The 2023-24 season and their performance during the same can impact a lot of these decisions. We’ll have to see how things turn out and what call the management makes.
