The Career Rehab Warriors
The Warriors have been known for making players shine in their role.; however, they have also had their share of fizzle outs. I thought it would be interesting to take a look at players who's value the team has raised and lowered throughout the years (in particular since the start of the run). Note I consider career rehabilitation and performing significantly better in GSW than a later contract as a "rehab". Leaving out the stars but keeping recent rookies.
**Benefited:**
* Shaun Livingston: Plagued by injuries early on, Livingston had a few productive years but was very much a journeyman in the later part of his NBA career. In Golden State he was able to find a home and be a productive ball handler off the bench while providing timely buckets. * Javale Mcgee: Javale was essentially out of the league before joining the Warriors. After joining, we had his fair share of "Shaqtin" moments, but he learned his role and was really good at it. Got some good contracts afterwards and is an Olympian now. * Andrew Wiggins: Quite literally considered the worse contract in he league, Wiggins has been getting some calls for being borderline all defensive while being a productive starter. His 3 point shooting has gotten better as well as shot selection. At times can be passive, but hopefully with a more well defined direction he will improve. In no means is his contract great, but he is now a productive overpaid player. * Jordan Poole: Now a fan favorite, Poole was considered the worst NBA player by many metrics last year. Many thought he would be out of the league this year, yet he has proven to become a microwave scorer off the bench. Damion Lee: Went from a player most considered a product of Nepotism to a decent 3 point shooter with quite bad defense. By no means should he be a starter (and hopefully not even second string player), but a fairly good progression considering his start
* Quinn Cook: Never scored a lot for us but managed to make a few open 3's. Could be attributed to the talent around him, but the Lakers seemed to be pretty high on him to start, keeping him for 2 years (though trading in between). He was much better suited for his role in GSW and never was truly able to replicate that success (it helps the talent was so great here) * Patrick Mccaw: A super bizzare storyline all around. He refused to talk the Warriors, but somehow Cleveland signed him and traded him to Toronto where Nurse gave him a lot more time than he deserved. Essentially out of the league now. * Marquesse Chriss: Another "out of the league" player that managed to revitalize his career on Golden State. Probably would've gotten a long term contract with us had he not gotten injured. Hopefully he can return this coming year * Jordan Bell: A young player on Golden State, his most memorable moments include a self alley oop and drinking too much at the championship parade. That said, a decent amount of teams liked what they saw as they gave him a chance; however, none liked him enough to keep him around and he wasn't really able to replicate the highlights or general success that he did on the Warriors. * Alec Burks: Was on a bit of a donwards spiral since his days on the Jazz. After joining the Warriors in their tanking season, he managed to up his value and now has a long term deal for the Knicks.
**Ended up Worse:**
* Demarcus Cousins: Coming into the Warriors, Boogie already had a torn achilles. On the team he wasn't exactly great and had defensive lapses fairly frequently and was not nearly as productive as we hoped on offense. A lot of this can be attributed to his horrible injury luck. A torn quad during the playoffs is never a good sign. Poor decision at the time and I understand the high upside; however, I think if we had Brook that year (who we were slated to get), we win it all * Kelly Oubre: Oubre, from most accounts, has always been the player he showed to be on the Warriors. His historically awful shooting start of the season along with his low iq choices definitely cost us games. While he came along in the system over time (never a major plus but at the same time not a huge negative), injuries prevented him from getting in a flow. * Omri Casspi: If I recall, the year before he came, he got in a 3 point duel with Steph. When on the team, he was very passive and looked scared to shoot. Possibly due to the fact there were always 2-3 better shooters than him on the floor. * Brad Wanamaker: Though his defense was ok. Quite literally everything else was bad. He had a pretty good year the year before with the Celtics but this year he couldn't crack the Hornets play in rotation even though literally every other player played.
This coming year, hopefully Wiseman and Porter adds themselves to the first list. The Dubs have been historically quite good at making talent shine in the right places assuming they buy into the system. With a solid development staff, I'm hoping we can see at least one of our rookies play, and contribute, around mid year, if not earlier
Feel free to add any other examples I may be missing from recent years