Draymond Green is there. So is Stephen Curry and Kevon Looney.
But the core of the Golden State Warriors roster is very different this season. Klay Thompson is sidelined for training camp. Kevin Durant also is sidelined but in Brooklyn. Andre Iguodala and Shaun Livingston are gone. D’Angelo Russell, Willie Cauley-Stein, and Alec Burks are in.
With that, team chemistry is a work in progress, Green told Nick Friedell of ESPN. Things are just not the same.“A lot different,” Green said after Friday’s practice at Chase Center. “But it’s fun, though.”...
“Just the lack of familiarity,” Green said. “You get used to a certain thing for so long, and then it’s not that. The normal reads that you would make, just kind of second nature, you got to make sure they’re there. It’s just a lot more making sure everyone’s on the same page, or getting there. Everybody’s not on the same page, which is to be expected, so just getting everybody there is the difference.”
One of the secret weapons of the Warriors in recent years was continuity. For the past six years, the core of the Warriors was there every year, and while players on the fringe changed it was easy to get them to blend in. The one exception was the addition of Durant, but fitting in a seven-footer whose silky-smooth shots that fell from anywhere wasn’t that difficult, it just took some sacrifice.
This season is different, this is a largely new Warriors team, one that is going to take time to adapt to one another. Then they will have to go through it again when Thompson returns.
That said, count the Warriors out at your own risk. They are going to be good, and a potentially serious playoff threat if everything goes their way.