The Golden State Warriors depth is different, but the core is still together

The Golden State Warriors will head into the 2019-20 season with a very different looking roster, but the team’s core still remains relatively the same.

The Golden State Warriors are set to look very different this season. With a near 60% roster turnover rate, we are sure to see plenty of new faces take the floor once the season kicks off this fall.

This was an offseason that was always going to bring change to the Warriors organization — it was unavoidable. The inevitable remodeling of the Warriors roster was highlighted by the loss of superstar Kevin Durant this summer.

While many had hoped that Durant would end up staying in the Bay Area, the 2014 NBA MVP elected to leave for Brooklyn. His departure was accompanied by the likes of Andre Iguodala, DeMarcus Cousins, and Shaun Livingston who all followed suit.

Other lesser-known commodities such as Jordan Bell, Quinn Cook, and Jonas Jerebko also went elsewhere in free agency completing the full reshaping of the Warriors roster.

But while much has been made about the new faces on Golden State’s roster, many do seem to be overlooking one simple thing. No matter how much change that this team has undergone, the original core still remains mostly intact.

This isn’t a team that was built with a reliance on Durant. Cousins was only here for one season. Perhaps the biggest losses from a core standpoint are Iguodala and Livingston but even they aren’t the players who initially got everything started.

Sure they are all gone, but Stephen Curry is still here. So is Draymond Green. And Klay Thompson may be out for most of the regular season, but it doesn’t appear that he’s going anywhere anytime soon.

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The Warriors original trio of drafted talent is still leading the roster and come April, that trio will hopefully be leading the team to another deep playoff run.

We could even throw in 23-year-old big man Kevon Looney who — despite not being an original core member — has quickly become a core piece of the roster. Retaining him was one of the most underrated moves of the offseason and it should help ease any transitional process.

Sure, the Warriors bench looks completely different than last season. But if we were to weight the roster turnover by contribution/playing time, we would see that the change is less significant than at first glance.

Let’s do a little ratio work real quick.

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Out of all 17 players who suited up in a game for the Warriors last season, only seven are expected to do so this year. And that’s including recently re-signed two-way player Damion Lee.

That means that nearly 60% of the Warriors 2019-20 roster will be made up of players who have never played a game with the team. However, the remaining 40% accounted for a staggering 51% of total minutes last season.

Basically, while we may see many new faces, the primary contributors are still on the roster.

The same principle could be applied for total points scored in which a whopping 5,082/9,650 (53%) of points were scored by players still on the team. In fact, in pretty much every metric, you will find that 50% or more of the team’s production last season came from currently rostered players.

So what does all of this mean?

Essentially, the majority of the Warriors roster may be new. But the majority of the team’s contributors are the same as last season.

Durant and company may be gone, but the current era of Warriors basketball will still look a lot like its predecessors. Only with a different supporting cast.