Watching the NBA playoffs through Warriors-tinted glasses

The Warriors have been eliminated from the postseason, but that doesn’t mean the playoffs are irrelevant to them. 

How the championship is won can be instructive to the rest of the league. Which types of rosters and which types of styles work in the most intense environments can inform how the Warriors modify their own approach. 

Last season, Boston won the title by pushing 3-point math to its limits. At the top of the Warriors’ offseason priority list? Increasing 3-point volume. (Golden State jumped from fourth to second in the NBA in 3-point attempts.) 

Especially as general manager Mike Dunleavy looks to retool the roster around Steph Curry, Jimmy Butler, and Draymond Green, seeing the playoffs as an exercise to superimpose particular players onto the Warriors can be useful. 

Imagine these players in specific situations with the Warriors: cutting baseline after a Green short-roll to the foul line, defending the point-of-attack as Green and Butler lurk as help defenders, running in transition alongside Curry. 

This is not a collection of potential Warriors offseason targets (though some could become available this summer). A partial list can be found in our offseason overview. The players below, rather, are in the conference finals providing archetypes that could be relevant to the Warriors.

It’s been easy for years to say that Naz Reid would look nice in blue and gold. The Warriors have always needed a stretch-big to play next to Green. Reid is that and more. 

Reid shot better than 40% from 3-point range last season, when he won the Sixth Man of the Year award. As Minnesota has cycled through variations of frontcourt options, Reid has been malleable; he can play next to Julius Randle, Rudy Gobert, and Karl-Anthony Towns — all bigs with varying skill sets — or as a center in small-ball configurations.

At 6-foot-9, Reid is an underrated rim protector. Watch how he rotates from the help side to stifle Shai Gilgeous-Alexander at the rim. 

He also slides his feet pretty well on the perimeter, a necessary skill for any big man in the modern NBA. 

Decision-making isn’t always Reid’s strength, but imagine him drawing opposing bigs out to the perimeter or trailing the play as Curry pushes the ball up the court. 

Reid has struggled at times in these playoffs as Randle’s unbelievable run has shifted his role slightly. He has a $15 million player option that makes for an interesting decision for him and his agent this summer.

The Warriors don’t need a Mike Conley on their team. But they might need Brandin Podziemski to play more like him. 

Conley plays on and off the ball, he rarely turns the ball over, operates out of the pick-and-roll comfortably, shoots without hesitation off the catch, finishes floaters in the lane with either hand, and defends with savvy. Conley never gets sped up, and every teammate he has ever had appears to fully trust him. 

Conley connects the game. The word “connector” can have a dismissive connotation, but it’s an honorable way to play. Conley has played 18 years and made about $300 million for doing so. 

Maybe it’s more quarterbacking than connecting. Whatever the term, Podziemski has embodied it when he’s at his best. He has gotten into trouble when he’s asked to do more or insists on it. 

Podziemski has five inches on Conley and is already an excellent rebounder for his position. He understands team concepts defensively, like Conley. He is already developing tricks to finish around the basket, like the deceleration step, as Conley had to. 

Both Podziemski and Conley have to use angles to break the paint, to attack closeouts, and use all sorts of ball fakes to make up for what they lack in athleticism. Podziemski doesn’t project to be a high-volume scorer but instead an all-around impact player who can regularly score in the high-teens, à la Conley. 

Many in the Warriors organization, including the guard himself, believe Podziemski has All-Star potential. There’d be no shame in studying some Conley tape to get there.

The perfect backcourt mate for Curry is someone who can defend opposing point guards, play with and without the ball, and create for himself. 

Andrew Nembhard fits the bill. 

In each of the past two seasons, Nembhard has significantly elevated his game in the postseason. When the calendar turns to May, it seems like he just doesn’t miss.

Through the Pacers’ first two series, Nembhard shot 50% from 3 on 4.4 attempts per game. He spent time on Donovan Mitchell and Darius Garland against the Cavaliers and will likely draw significant minutes against Jalen Brunson in the conference finals (though he struggled in that matchup last year). 

The Pacers play a similar style to Golden State, especially in the open court, so watching anyone operate well alongside Tyrese Haliburton is a convenient analog. 

(Note: The Warriors selected Patrick Baldwin Jr. three spots ahead of Nembhard in the 2022 Draft.) 

Chet Holmgren is the Platonic ideal of the modern big the Warriors need. Reid and Pacers center Myles Turner fit the mold, too — but not like Holmgren. 

Holmgren is skilled enough to pop out to the perimeter and strong enough to finish inside on dives. The 7-footer swallows up drivers at the rim as the Thunder have often put him in a matchup that allows him to roam, but he can also guard in space. Look at how he uses his 7-foot-6 wingspan to recover after Donte DiVincenzo beat him off the bounce and tried to use the rim to protect his reverse layup. 

Players of Holmgren’s size who also have guard skills used to be considered unicorns. They’re more common now, but they’re still among the toughest players to acquire. If the Warriors somehow found one, it’d solve all their problems: size, length, shooting, decreasing Green’s lift, and athleticism. 

Velociraptors on defense who hit open shots on offense? The Warriors need them, and the Thunder have them. 

Alex Caruso is basically Guard Draymond, defending Nikola Jokic in Game 7 and now checking Anthony Edwards. Watching him navigate ball screens is a thrill in itself. Cason Wallace has made himself indispensable with his two-way play. Aaron Wiggins, the 6-foot-6 wing, would thrive in any system. 

The Thunder don’t play point-five basketball, but their role players often do. Watch how quickly Caruso, Wallace, and Wiggins make decisions with the ball. Shoot, drive, or keep it moving — that’s exactly what the Warriors want out of their complementary players around Curry, Butler, and Green. 

The Warriors know as well as any team how valuable 3-and-D wings in this league are. They’ve had Harrison Barnes, Andre Iguodala, Kevin Durant, Andrew Wiggins, and Klay Thompson. 

And they reportedly mulled trading for OG Anunoby a couple of seasons ago. 

The Knicks acquired Anunoby for RJ Barrett and Immanuel Quickley before making him the highest-paid player in franchise history. 

Defensive versatility is the name of the game, and Anunoby can credibly guard one-through-five in most matchups. His defense against Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown in the second round was among the chief reasons the Knicks advanced. 

The Warriors had the No. 1 defense in the league after the All-Star break. They’re already elite. But think of all the wings in the West: Durant, Edwards, Devin Booker, LeBron James, Luka Doncic, Kawhi Leonard, Jalen Williams, and many other stars. The more players who can match size and physicality with them, the better. 

All those long scoring droughts the Warriors seemed to endure? A bench player like Deuce McBride could help with them.

McBride is the type of volume, microwave scorer the Warriors have rarely had. He takes a ton of 3-pointers and can be inefficient at times. But he’s also capable of getting hot for a few minutes at a time and swinging games. 

The Warriors are always looking to survive in the minutes Curry rests. Butler was a boon for those situations. But over the course of a full regular season, heat-check artists off the bench could be useful, too.