If you want to say which team has the most mixed feelings this summer, I think Warriors fans should be at the top of the list.
Not long ago, Klay Thompson, whose contract with the Warriors expired, deleted all the content related to his 2022 championship on social media and expressed his dissatisfaction, and finally he chose to leave and join the Mavericks. In addition to Klay, Chris Paul, who regarded the Warriors as a temporary foothold, also parted ways with the team when the free market officially began, and finally chose to sign a short-term contract with the Spurs, bidding farewell to his past as a Warriors player. With the departure of these two important players, the depth of the Warriors has also been greatly reduced, but it has also freed up considerable salary space and has made a lot of achievements in the free agency market this year: Melton, Hield and Lee Kyle are now a Warriors.
The Warriors' first move was to sign D'Antoni Melton, and they made a very generous move, directly giving him an annual salary of 10 million. Melton is a very typical 3-and-D player, known for his defense, and was once considered the best template for James's son Bronny's future development, and Melton's arrival is obviously to fill the gap of Klay's departure - although he is far from the level of Klay's three-point shooting, and the Warriors have never expected him to be a perfect replacement, but his defense is no worse than Klay, and even younger He will be better if he doesn't do well in this regard. Interestingly, in 2013, Melton, who was still a student, took to social media to express his approval of Curry. Melton's arrival solved the team's backcourt defense problem, and also shared the pressure on Curry in a real sense, and in addition to defense, there were offensive teams that never fell behind.
As we mentioned earlier, Melton can only say that to a certain extent alleviates the team's pressure on the defensive end after Klay's departure, but Klay's three-point shooting, even if it was at the level of last season's career trough, still makes many people look at it, and in this case, the Warriors recruited Hield, a pretty good shooter. Hield has been known for his three-point shooter since he entered the league, and he is a pure shooter, and after the expiration of his contract this summer, he has been closely watched by many teams, and even the Lakers, who want to increase their scorers, and the Pistons, who want to be led by veterans, directly chose to defect to the Warriors, and the reason given is also very neat: they can win more games. Hield's arrival has kept the team's three-point shooting threat, and it's worth mentioning that when he was in the draft, the best template was Stephen Curry.
Of course, the most important reinforcement, how can we miss our "own person" Li Kaier? Lee Kyle was cold in the free market and didn't get much interest from the team, because he did have a significant decline in performance last season compared to before, but his characteristics as an excellent organization and support system that make the whole team better are still there, and finally came to the Warriors through a sign-and-trade approach, and the annual salary is quite cheap. Li Kaier can come to revitalize the organizational ability of the Warriors' whole team, and his defense on the front line can still add a lot to the team, and most importantly, the team has also raised the height to a new level - Li Kaier's registered height is 206 cm, which is an obvious change for the Warriors who used to have guards who were stacked and two meters up meant that it was difficult to be reused by the coach.
In addition, this year, the Warriors also got some rookies, although there is no high pick, but combined with the sudden rise of last year's "dirt egg" Tress Jackson Davis, don't be too negative, maybe the next surprise will appear on them, and even the Warriors hope to win Markkanen to join, if so, then the team seems to be stronger than in the past. Now that Paul and Klay have left the team, and Atkinson in the coach's box has also gone to serve in the Warriors' old rival Cavaliers, Curry and Green are still staying, but it seems that young people have begun to occupy more roles, and now there are strong reinforcements to join, and unconsciously, the Warriors have entered a new era. If the 73-9 in the 15-16 season is 1.0, Durant's two-time championship is 2.0, and players like Wiggins, Poole, and Wiseman arrive and call it 3.0, then we are now entering the fourth version. It's just that I don't know if the 4.0 warriors can achieve better results.