Golden State Warriors Poised to Take off Next Season

With the Golden State Warriors' new ownership group taking command of this long-suffering franchise and giving it direction by hiring personnel that many consider stable and wise, the future for the Warriors and their fan base went up a few notches in brightness without a game having been played.

History has shown that without stability at the top, players on the floor have no chance to be successful. By bringing in the brain trust of Jerry West and Bob Meyers to the front office and Mike Malone and Mark Jackson to the bench, the Warriors have put themselves in position to be an attractive place for future and current NBA players to bring their basketball skills.

Of course winning solves all problems, and that is an area the Dubs have started to gradually improve upon. If this past season was any indication of the direction the team was heading on the floor, with strong personalities and intelligent leadership now in place at the top, the Warriors should be a playoff team next season.

Recent stories had Golden State trading Monta Ellis for any number of people to any number of places. The Houston Rockets offered the Warriors a bag of peanuts and some loose pocket change for the right to take Andris Biedrins off their hands.

Thankfully, the Warriors said no thanks. If the Warriors took a real hard look at the past season, they would see the they have a good core already in place; they just have no depth.

Early last season, the Warriors came out of the gate playing great basketball before David Lee's elbow injury in New York. Subsequently, they lost 16 of their next 19 games to fall into a tailspin that would see them drop as many as 12 games under .500.

Golden State was without Ekpe Udoh for almost the first two months of the season, and never really had a backup point guard or small forward to come in and replace their starters.

By drafting Klay Thompson and Jeremy Tyler, they have addressed scoring and rebounding needs by simply adding better talent to the bench. With the signing of maybe one or two free agents to improve that depth, Golden State would have a top-to-bottom roster as solid as most of the teams in the last three playoff spots this past season.

Knee-jerk reactions always seem to make teams that struggle continue to do so. The Golden State Warriors are much improved in many areas, from the front office to their roster's depth.

So far, they have refused to make the same mistakes that past ownership and coaches have made with this team, and they now stand poised to reap great rewards for their efforts next season.