If the next few days proceed to their satisfaction, there is a strong likelihood the Warriors will open training camp with a 14-man roster, leaving one spot vacant.
Moreover, it would suggest they are taking an atypically passive approach to addressing their most glaring weakness, relying not on impactful addition but on internal development.
The defending champions have 12 players under contract and are looking at adding two more. The players being targeted, according to multiple league sources, are third-year wing Pat McCaw and veteran power forward Jonas Jerebko.
Stay in the game with the latest updates on your beloved Bay Area and California sports teams! Sign up here for our All Access Daily newsletter.
If McCaw returns and Jerebko clears waivers and signs, that would leave only the slightest opening for their greatest need, a shooter -- Michael Beasley and Jamal Crawford come to mind -- that has a history of providing firepower off the bench.
Though McCaw and Jerebko are capable of scoring, it’s not McCaw’s forte and Jerebko, often described as a “stretch four,” has played eight seasons without averaging more than 0.9 triples per game.
This is, on paper, more hope than promise. And it signals that general manager Bob Myers and CEO Joe Lacob are in this instance being more risk-averse than usual. They’d presumably be counting on the bench that shot 33.3 percent from deep last season to take a leap forward.
Which is surprising insofar as the Warriors Lacob and Myers usually take a more aggressive approach to roster deficiencies. And the consensus in the front office is that bench scoring/bombing has been insufficient.
Golden State Warriors
“I’m the first one to say we don’t get a lot of bench scoring,” Myers said recently.
After finishing 29th in the NBA with an average of 2.1 3-point makes per game off the bench in 2016-17, the Warriors hoped to remedy that with the signings of Omri Casspi and Nick Young. That failed, as the Warriors got worse, finishing 30th -- dead last -- with an average of 2.0 triples per game. Their 3-point shooting percentage dropped from 35.2 (11th) to 33.3 (28th).
The Warriors in each of the last three seasons have finished in the bottom 10 in bench scoring and in the bottom three in 3-point makes. Clearly, the presence and production of starters Stephen Curry, Kevin Durant and Klay Thompson has been essential in offsetting such ineffectiveness. Aside from blowouts, at least two of the three are on the court together.
Anticipating another long season, is that really the way they want to play it again?
Questioning the wisdom of the league’s most successful team may be impolitic, but of the reserves already under contract, the most dangerous 3-point shooter is Quinn Cook. And while he did a splendid job transitioning from two-player last October to NBA player by March, he remains the third-string point guard, squarely behind Shaun Livingston and Curry on the depth chart.
Maybe McCaw, whose 3-point production dropped by more than half from his rookie season (41 to 19), can find his stroke. In two NBA seasons, he’s shooting 29.8 percent from deep. He’ll have to do appreciably better.
Perhaps Jerebko, who made a season-high four triples in a Utah win over the Warriors on April 10, can be the designated bomber off the bench and become the threat that Young/Casspi could not.
The Warriors appear to be leaning this way. They could reconsider and pursue someone who has snapped a few more nets, for the longer such players are on the market, the less financial leverage they have.
And that might be enough for the Warriors, should they sign McCaw and Jerebko, to conclude it is worth the money to use that 15th roster spot after all.