As those legendary poets The Bee Gees might ask, if they were hanging around Thrive City:
How deep are the Dubs?
Welcome to the post-Klay Thompson Warriors, and with a robust one out of 82 precincts reporting, the early returns are . . . encouraging?
I couldn’t couch that previous sentence with more asterisks. I mean, they played the Portland TrailBlazers, who may be in Cancun Mode even before Halloween. And one regular season game in the NBA holds somewhere less than a thimble full of meaning.
But last summer’s parting with Klay, while fraught with emotions, left me intrigued as to the next chapter. And when then next chapter did not land the Warriors a legit star to pair with Steph Curry — no Paul George, no Lauri Markkanen — I was intrigued to see what the lean, angular mug of Mike Dunleavy, Jr. would do for a roster.
His answer: load up on basketball players and play basketball.
Novel concept.
There was something calmly efficient about Dunleavy’s acquisition of talent that left me impressed. Need another shooter? Go get Buddy Hield. Need some wing defenders? Go get De’Anthony Melton and Kyle Anderson. Need an injection of youth? Give Brandin Podziemski and Trayce Jackson-Davis more playing time. Need veteran leadership? Ask Draymond Green to not get suspended so much. (Jury still out on that one.) Need a potential All-Star to play like one? Politely ask Andrew Wiggins to play like Andrew Wiggins can.
Keeping Jonathan Kuminga (for now) and extending Moses Moody and even adding back-of-the-bench options like new fan favorite Lindy Waters III (I just made that up; why not?) made for lots and lots of basketball players.
Add already-existing Gary Payton II and Kevon Looney to the mix — oh, and toss in a global icon named Steph Curry — and you have … let’s see … onetwothreefourfivesixseveneightnineteneleven TWELVE legitimate contributors to try and win a basketball game.
Add in my guy Waters and that makes 13.
I confess, I didn’t hate the plan.
Do not get me wrong on this. I am a gigantic Klay Thompson fan. In another life, I want to go to the dog park with my dogs and his dog Rocco, then go for a boat ride on the Bay with him, stocked with an ice chest of beers while discussing life philosophy and listening to reggae. I’m still waiting for Klay to get back to me on that.
That said — saying goodbye to Klay was not always the worst idea, in my mind. The idea of running it back again and trying to re-create 2016 was not a good idea, as I was just saying to my local election workers down at the ballot box.
And so I wanted to see what Dunleavy had in mind. By most accounts of those close to the team, his answer has been one of competence. You don’t always get that with GMs, you know. We won’t mention names, because we’re being polite.
Also, he may not be done. Depending on how these next few months play out, Dunleavy seems the kind of guy who is not afraid to make another move. Let’s see how Kuminga plays, what value he brings. Let’s what Podziemski — or ‘Sideshow Podz’, as a Simpsons-friendly listener dubbed him, what with that squiggly nest of hair — does, what value he brings.
In the meantime, the Warriors are 1-0 and, while we aren’t banking on an 82-0 run, brought some features that piqued my interest. The Deep Dubs. Many hands make light work — and fresh legs for defensive intensity and ball movement.
Let’s see the new iteration. Will they be a top seed in the West? Unlikely. You can’t always win 73 games in a season, you know. And besides, we know how that turned out.
I’m on the post-Klay Dubs. So far. You never know when the Jock Blog can turn.
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