Someone born in the San Francisco Bay Area in May of 1994 has seen one playoff berth for the Warriors in their lifetime despite the fact more than half of the league qualifies on an annual basis. Ownership changed in the offseason, but it largely felt like business as usual despite a 10-game improvement in the win column.

The Vitals for the Golden State Warriors

• Efficiency Differential: -2.5 (21st)

• Points Scored Per 100 Possessions: 108.2 (12th)

• Points Allowed Per 100 Possessions: 110.7 (26th)

• FIC Differential: -7.3 (23rd)

• Pace: 94.8 (5th)

• Offensive Four Factors: eFG%: .510 (9th), TOV%: .133 (14th), ORB%: .267 (14th), FT/FGA: .183 (30th)

• Defensive Four Factors: eFG%: .509 (21st), TOV%: .145 (5th), DRB%: .693 (30th), FT/FGA: .259 (29th)

• Record Against Winning Teams: 15-31

• Record Against Losing Teams: 21-15

• Record In Games Decided By Three Points Or Less: 4-4 

The Player Assessments

While the Warriors were a good offensive team from the perimeter, their inability to establish any type of low post game and general lack of size hurt their ability to score in the interior.

Without question, the Warriors’ two best players are Stephen Curry and Monta Ellis. There are arguments to be made for and against both players as the superior talent, but what is clear is they are incongruent playing beside each other.

Curry may turn the ball over too much and be athletically ordinary, but he had an eFG% of 55.1% compared to 49.3% for Monta Ellis. He didn’t seem to take much of a step forward from how well he was playing towards the end of his rookie season, but at least he put up some strong numbers over a whole season where he wasn't sneaking up on anyone. My main concern for Curry are his body holding him back from matching his skill and the malaise I sense he has in being a member of this franchise. 

Meanwhile, Ellis has made strides as a defensive player but is consistently forced to guard big shooting guards that put him at an immense size disadvantage. His usage offensively is also occasionally difficult to swallow.

Despite their apparent limitations, Curry and Ellis typically outperform their counterparts and are really the only two players that are ‘starter quality’ for nearly every team in the NBA.

David Lee played much better in the second half when his elbow began to heal, but anyone expecting much more than what he showed in Year 1 didn’t watch him much with the Knicks. His stats always ring hollow and even those were down significantly with the Warriors. As a player drafted with the final pick of the first round on a rookie contract, Lee is great. But as a franchise centerpiece on a contract worth eight-figure annually, the likelihood of team success is relatively slim.

But at least David Lee isn’t Andris Biedrins, who has become nearly unusable. I’m not sure I have seen a player be as productive as Biedrins as he was during the 07-08 and 08-09 season at such a young age and become completely useless with a major health issue. He is painfully passive on the floor since he doesn’t want to go the foul line and that has infected his entire game.

Dorell Wright exceeded all expectations, becoming a highly effective spot-up shooter and playing above average and versatile defense. Preferably, he can slide into a role as the first man off the bench by improving the small forward position, but he is far and away the best value of any non-rookie contract player on this roster.

Ekpe Udoh had some encouraging moments and probably should have played more minutes, but Keith Smart was coaching for his job all season. His block rate is encouraging, especially since the Warriors get nothing in that department from Lee, but he doesn’t rebound very well and his offense will almost exclusively come from garbage points and wide-open 15-foot jumpers.

Defensively, the Warriors were better than they had been in other seasons, but they were still unmistakably atrocious. Their individual perimeter defense is weak and they also give up way too many easy opportunities in the post and dunks/layups out of cuts at the bucket. 

The Front Office Assessments

There are justifiable reasons to criticize the regime of Chris Mullin, particularly some of his contracts, but this was the least talented roster the Warriors have put on the floor since the late 90s. Even if the Warriors only won 30 games in past seasons, they at least had players other teams coveted. Since Ellis requires playing in a certain system beside a certain sized point guard, Curry is the only player on the roster other teams universally would strongly want to acquire.

A positive grade is well-deserved for signing Dorell Wright since few people expected him to have such a strong impact.

But the Warriors badly miscalculated market trends and were left with expiring contracts in a year where teams had no desire to clear cap room. A year ago, the Warriors could have accumulated first round picks, or maybe a player like Kevin Martin and they were unable to accomplish anything except shift around dead weight.

I won’t knock Golden State for selling off a second round pick that could have become Landry Fields since that would be a complete armchair criticism, but Udoh feels like a reach to me as the sixth overall pick. It felt like a reach at the time and even more so following a very encouraging rookie season from Greg Monroe.

Where To Improve

Because the Warriors are largely handcuffed with their absence of meaningful cap space and being competitive enough to avoid being near the bottom of the lottery, the Warriors will almost certainly need to trade either Curry or Ellis to proactively improve the team.

Curry has more value and seems less happy with the Warriors, so it shouldn’t be a foregone conclusion to say Ellis even though that’s where I would lean.

Beyond that situation, which is beginning to feel like Dylan McKay trying to choose between Brenda and Kelly, there really aren’t many assets to work with.

Golden State will certainly look at acquiring a veteran center in free agency, but I’m not sure Samuel Dalembert or Nazr Mohammed brings more than one or two more wins to this team.

Sadly, the Warriors best chance at improving may just be to find a way to save the career of Biedrins.

In terms of competing in any meaningful way, the Warriors have a difficult if not impossible path ahead of them. Joe Lacob said it would be easy to turn the team into a winner, but I just don’t see how it is possible given how stuck they are right now.

Bob Myers is a very interesting choice to run the front office and could very well become the next great general manager, but it is impossible for it to happen quickly the way it did for a Sam Presti who was dealt pocket aces in comparison to this quagmire.