The offseason looms.
If you can believe it, NBA free agency starts in just about a month. In the next few weeks, an NBA champion will be crowned, a draft will take place, and countless teams will have reports and rumors surface about them.
And then free agency will kick off, and it will be a frenetic scene, like it always is. Players will leave teams, sign head-scratching contracts, and get traded. It will be wonderful. It always is!
This time of year, I’m always curious to see what players are being targeted by Golden State Warriors fans. Obviously we all would love for Nikola Jokić and Victor Wembanyama to find their way to the Dubs, but that’s not realistic. But there are plenty of players who are realistic, either through free agency, trades, or even the draft. And most fans tend to get a little bit attached to some of them.
So who is your white whale? Who is the player that you really want to see find his way onto the Warriors?
For me, it’s Brook Lopez. I’ve been a fan of Lopez since his collegiate days, and I’ve been entertained and baffled by the way he’s completely changed the course of his career, from a traditional back-to-the-basket center to a modern stretch five.
This is one of my favorite NBA stats ever: in his first seven seasons, Lopez attempted 31 threes, total. In his eighth season, he attempted 387.
But he did it while maintaining his defensive excellence. Even after 17 years, Lopez is still a strong defensive presence in the paint, and he’s remarkably durable. He could give the Warriors the spacing that their starting lineup sometimes lacks, while also being the missing piece in a defensively elite lineup. And of course, he could provide strong mentorship to Quinten Post, who should be modeling his game after Lopez.
So that’s my white whale for the Dubs (I’d be happing with a De’Anthony Melton reunion, too), though there’s a good chance he ends up outside of their price range. Who is yours?