Breaking Down the Roles of the Golden State Warriors Bench in 2014-15
The Golden State Warriors entered the offseason in dire need of revamping a bench unit that ranked among the worst in the league last season, and came out of it with considerably more firepower. With key additions at both the guard and forward spots, figuring out how all those pieces fit together will be their biggest challenge.
One luxury that the Warriors currently have is health in the starting lineup. With David Lee, Andre Iguodala and Andrew Bogut all missing considerable amounts of time last season, the bench was spread thin as key figures like Draymond Green were forced into the starting unit.
That won’t be the case to start the season, and the bench should thrive as a result. By simply returning Green to his sixth man role, the Warriors have already dramatically improved their reserve unit.
We know what we’re getting from Green, though. It’s the rest of the bench that must find a role to fill on the team.
Guards
The Warriors took out the trash this offseason and replaced what was possibly the weakest reserve guard unit in the NBA with solid producers. Shaun Livingston was signed to replace the surprisingly ineffective Steve Blake, while Leandro Barbosa will look to be the offensive spark off the bench that Jordan Crawford wasn’t.
They even brought in three-point and defensive specialist Brandon Rush to fill any existing holes. Quite simply, the Warriors upgraded everywhere.
The pressure now falls on head coach Steve Kerr to use his newfound talent correctly. Last season, Mark Jackson failed miserably in his rotations and substitutions, playing offensively-challenged units for extended minutes and watching the leads his starters had accrued slip away.
The starting unit of the Warriors was among the best in the league last season, but their woeful bench ensured that big leads were unsustainable, courtesy of Kurt Helin of Pro Basketball Talk:
"Last season when the Warriors' starting five were on the court — Stephen Curry, Klay Thompson, Andre Iguodala, David Lee and Andrew Bogut — they outscored their opponents by 15.5 points per 100 possessions (or if you prefer 15 points per 48 minutes).
That is impressive. It also means their bench wasn’t nearly as impressive (as a team the Warriors were +4.8 per 48).
"
Luckily for Kerr, he now has far more to work with than what Jackson had. Shaun Livingston started 54 games last season for the Brooklyn Nets and at times looked like the best guard on the court. When the other guard is Deron Williams, that’s saying something.
Livingston is a big, versatile guard who can play with either Stephen Curry or Klay Thompson. While the three-point shot has never been in his repertoire (he attempted only six all of last season), the Warriors do not need that from him. His ability to penetrate and look over smaller guards will enable him to create open shots for his teammates.
Rush, while not exactly your prototypical guard, could be one of the beneficiaries of Livingston’s creativity. For his career, Rush has shot the three at a 41 percent clip. For a team that thrives on outside shooting and spacing the floor, he is a perfect match.
His size also makes him a pesky defender. That will allow the Warriors to mix and match on the defensive side of the ball and keep Curry fresh throughout the game.
Barbosa has one job on this team: Score. It’s something he has done throughout his career, most notably during his tenure on the run-and-gun Phoenix Suns. While Barbosa has shot the three at a 39 percent clip throughout his career, that number dropped to just 28 percent last season in limited minutes.
It will be crucial to both the Warriors and Barbosa for him to revert to the mean. If he does, the Warriors could be deadly. If he does not, however, minutes will be hard to come by.
Forwards
The Warriors did not make any additions in this department in the offseason, and quite frankly, they didn’t have to. With Iguodala and Lee starting and Harrison Barnes and Green coming off the bench, the Warriors have the forward position locked down nicely.
Green is their super-sub, a Swiss army knife that can handle any responsibility asked of him. He made huge strides last season, as he transformed from simply a defensive specialist to a key part of the rotation. When Bogut went down for the postseason, Green valiantly battled Blake Griffin in the post in a losing effort.
In the Game 7 loss to the Los Angeles Clippers, Green played 40 minutes and poured in five three-pointers. If he can improve on his 33 percent shooting from outside, he could be an even bigger part of this new Warriors offense.
Barnes is the wild card here. He has been for the last two seasons, and he will continue to be until he either self-combusts or breaks out. Talent has never been the problem with Barnes, as the talent is there in spades. He just hasn’t been able to put it all together.
Barnes was moved to the bench last season with the arrival of Iguodala, and the plan was for him to be the ultimate sixth man and the leader of the reserves. That never materialized, however, as teams keyed in on him and he became more passive by the game.
Confidence is the biggest issue with Barnes. He has proved to be more than capable of the taking the ball to the basket, but when the shots don’t fall early in the game, he begins to drift further and further away. Rather than rely on his athleticism, he relies on his jumper.
He willingly bails the other team out.
This season will be the turning point of his career, as the Warriors will soon have to decide if they want to continue on with the Barnes experiment. Barnes will have plenty of opportunities to prove his worth, as once again he will be the biggest offensive weapon coming off the bench.
It will be on him to do something with those opportunities.
Lastly, we have Marreese Speights. If there was one move the Warriors wish they had back, it was giving Speights a three-year contract. Brought in to be a banger in relief of Lee, Speights has been anything but that, drifting farther and farther from the basket and shooting jumpers at an alarming pace.
All is not lost, however, as Kerr recently said that his early impressions of Speights are promising, courtesy of Diamond Leung of the Contra Costa Times:
"Speights looks good. I wasn't here last year, but everybody says he was really heavy and not ready. He was in the Bay early this year and put in some work, and he's had a good first few days of practice.
"
Unless he changes his game, though, the only minutes Speights will see are during garbage time.
Center
This is where things are already getting dicey for the Warriors. Festus Ezeli missed all of last season after knee surgery and now will miss at least the Warriors’ first three preseason games with a shin injury. With him out, it will be on Speights and Ognjen Kuzmic to pick up the slack.
We know what we’re getting from Speights, but Kuzmic is still a complete mystery. He played in just 21 games last season and averaged just over four minutes in those contests. He’s as rough as he was last season. If Ezeli’s injury lingers, however, he might have to step up and pick up some of the slack.
With Bogut injury-prone in the starting rotation and Ezeli going down again, there will be minutes to be had at the center spot. There’s just no clear answer right now where those minutes will go.
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