The Golden State Warriors didn’t make many moves in free agency. They got a couple of great players in the NBA Draft and will get Klay Thompson back from injury and think that’s enough to go back to championship contention.
Some fans went at the team’s front office and called them out for not making big trades. They believe that their championship window is closing and that they needed to be aggressive and pursue another star.
The team, on the other hand, is pretty confident in their ability to compete at the highest level, and coach Steve Kerr even said that they have a new secret weapon. Per Kerr, the X-factor won’t be Stephen Curry, Klay Thompson, or Draymond Green, but Nemanja Bjelica.
Steve Kerr Says Nemanja Bjelica Will Be The Warriors’ X-Factor
(Transcript via The Athletic)
“I think it’s really exciting. You think about it, we’ve never had a pick-and-pop big. Actually, I shouldn’t say that. We had Mo Speights. What I should say is we haven’t had a 3-point shooting pick-and-pop big. When we had Mo, he was a 20-foot-and-in jump-shooter, and he helped us win a lot of games. A fan favorite. Mo Buckets, he was great and played a really important role on our team.”
“I look at Bjelica as the 3-point-shooting version of Mo, in many ways. Because all of a sudden, you’re looking at a spaced floor when you consider Klay’s return and Steph’s play last year, the ability to play Bjelica with Draymond, which basically turns Draymond into the five and the pick-and-roll guy with Bjelica spaced. Really exciting.”
While never a superstar, Bjelica is a serviceable and dependable veteran who’s tailor-made for the Warriors system. He can roll to the basket or pop to the perimeter and is an underrated help defender and passer as well.
Bjelica may not play big minutes or be as good as Kerr says he’ll be. But the Warriors have made the most of every single guy on their bench during their championship run, so who knows?