SAN FRANCISCO – Five Western Conference teams won 50 or more games in the 2023-2024 NBA season. The Warriors weren’t one of them. They racked up 46 wins, two more than the previous season, but fell all the way to No. 10, failing to make the playoffs for the first time under coach Steve Kerr with a healthy Steph Curry, Klay Thompson and Draymond Green .

Thompson left for the Dallas Mavericks in the offseason. The Warriors were unable to add a second star besides Curry as they were unable to make a deal for Paul George or Lauri Markkanen. Instead, general manager Mike Dunleavy’s patient approach formulated a historic six-team trade, adding veteran players the Warriors believe should make them a better team that can form a clear identity.

“The first thing that comes to mind, just a deep, deep team,” Steve Kerr responded Tuesday when describing the Warriors ahead of Wednesday’s regular-season opener in Portland against the Trail Blazers.

“Everyone deserves to play, (but) not everyone can.”

Steve Kerr discusses the Warriors’ depth this season pic.twitter.com/lGjTNthjnC

— Warriors on NBCS (@NBCSWarriors) October 22, 2024

Kerr has already told Lindy Waters III and Gui Santos they will not be in the rotation for the season opener. Both are players that Kerr has said can help the Warriors win games. Waters shot 44 percent from 3-point range in the preseason and was one of the Warriors’ best players in plus/minus. Santos, 22, is a young player that the Warriors continue to rate highly, and his sharp skillset makes him a good fit for just about any combination.

However, that’s how this version of the Warriors came to be. They have 12 players vying for about 10 spots to get real playing time, and the team believes in the two looking out immediately. The Warriors added proven veterans: Kyle Anderson, Buddy Hield and De’Anthony Melton, who fit Kerr’s goal of being a defensive first team that launches three-pointers and is much better in transition on both sides of the ball.

Curry is 36 years old and turns 37 in March. Green is 34 and will be 35 just 10 days before Curry blows out two more candles than his old teammate. As the search for a second established star continues and hopes that Andrew Wiggins can return to his All-Star form and Jonathan Kuminga can develop into the star he envisions himself to be, the Warriors are primed for a strong regular season in which they should do that. aim for a 50-win team.

“I think it will be one of our strengths, that we can withstand injuries,” Kerr said. “I think Kyle is ready to fill in for Draymond if Draymond is gone, back-to-back, whatever it is. That’s a huge addition for us because Kyle is such a good player and a comparable player with an edge in points, with tremendous basketball IQ.

“I can go down the list, we have a lot of players who can come in if we have injuries. I’m excited.”

Steve Kerr is confident Kyle Anderson can replace Draymond Green on the floor when needed pic.twitter.com/tC4Rt7mi1L

— Warriors on NBCS (@NBCSWarriors) October 22, 2024

The Warriors are going to shoot threes, and lots of them. In their undefeated 6-0 preseason, they shot 254 threes and made 97. That amounts to more than 42 three-point attempts per game and more than 16 made threes per game, shooting 38.2 percent as a team, all while Curry missed two games played and averaged less than 20 minutes played in the preseason.

They want to be a top defensive team again after falling off the last two seasons. It’s only the preseason and all six wins will be forgotten if the Warriors get off to a slow start, but Golden State held opponents to 40.6 percent shooting, including a modest 25.7 percent from three and just 95.3 points. The Warriors averaged six more rebounds per game than their opponents and blocked a total of nine more shots than them in their regular-season preparation.

“The premise of this thing was based on depth, and that’s what we’re going for,” Dunleavy said. “So far so good.”

Even the Warriors know they’re not considered a championship contender, and behind closed doors they’re not making plans for a victory parade just yet. They are the hunters, not the hunted. Their sexy factor is gone, lightening the load at a time when expectations are still high from having an all-time great in Curry coming off a summer of Olympic heroics.

Words like “spicy” and “fresh” have been thrown around Chase Center over the past month. Frankly, they embrace it. Competitors at heart, Curry and Green, as well as Kerr and Dunleavy, still have a checklist of the playoffs, progressing round by round for a chance to win a title. Realists will argue the Warriors’ chances, but after their grand plan was discarded this offseason, they’ve created a team-wide personality that should be able to chase and steal wins.

“What I tell the players all the time is that everyone is going to judge us, but only we can really judge our success or not, whether we are getting better every day, whether we are connected, whether we are fighting for each other,” Kerr said.

“All those things lead to success, and we measure that every day.”

Conversations about their playoff fortunes can wait. A clearer picture could be painted around the February trade deadline depending on how new additions have fared alongside the development of young players like Kuminga, Moses Moody, Brandin Podziemski and Trayce Jackson-Davis. Other teams will have to fall in favor of the Warriors, at a time when almost everyone in the West is trying to be better than last season.

The Warriors consider themselves part of that improving group. Built for the regular season as currently built, the Warriors’ entertainment value and win totals should both see a spike.

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