It is not your beloved Golden State Warriors. After doing some extensive math work, I devised a new stat that I call 'Actual Playin Age'(I know, not that clever). It is a much better way to mesure the age of team than raw age average. I decided to compare the Warriors to 4 other Western Conference teams: the Memphis Grizzlies, the Portland Trail Blazers, the Minnesota Timber Wolves, and the Oklahoma City Thunder to see where we stood.
When taking a look at the stats you can see that not only are we not the youngest team, but we are not even built as a young rebuilding and up and coming team. Observations on the other teams
Thunder's top 3 players in minutes played are Kevin Durant, Jeff Green, and Russell Westbrook. 3 young guys they want to build there future around. The rest of the guys are supporting cast are veteran players and a few young role players to fill out the bench. Building around those 3, they can change the other parts as they get ready to make push in the West.
Grizzlies's have played their rookie OJ Mayo more than they have played anybody else. Followed closely by Rudy Gay. Both of those guys are potential future All-Stars. The next 5 guys that play are also very young players. Marc Gasol, Mike Conley, Hakim Warrick, Kyle Lowry, and Darrell Arthur. The end of the bench is filled by veterans, in effect the exact oppostie of how the Warriors are constucted.
Timber Wolves's have Randy Foye and Al Jefferson, that is there future along with Kevin Love and Corey Brewer. Corey Brewer is out of the season, and the Timber Wolves are bringing along Kevin Love slowly and seeing if Ryan Gomes and Sebastian Telfair can make it as solid NBA players. The rest of the bench is filled with veterans and young a couple of young NBA hopefuls with Rodney Carney and Craig Smith.
Trail Blazers's are already an elite Western Confernce team. LaMarcus Aldridge and All-Star Brandon Roy are the team captains and lead the team in minutes. In fact other than veteran point guard Steve Blake and ridiculuos rebounding machine center Joel Przybilla, all their roatational players 25 or under.
The difference from those teams and the Warriors is that they have a plan and we do not. Maybe for the TWolves, Thunder, and Grizzlies it doesnt work out, but they are trying something and sticking to it.
What is the Warriors plan? If everything works out and we might get to fight for the 8th seed and a 1 and done in the playoffs the next 2 -3 years? It is nice to know that that is our BEST case scenario for our team.
On the tables below, pct refers to what percent of total playing time that player has played for the team. For the Warriors, pct A factors in Demarcus Nelson and Al Harrington, and pct B does not. We are still a very young team, but maybe not as young as you would like to think. Actual Playing Age is a much better way to represent the team's average age than just the average age of the players of the team.
Golden State Warriors
Player |
Age |
Minutes Played |
Pct A |
Pct B |
Jackson |
30 |
1854 |
.136 |
.140 |
Azibuike |
25 |
1557 |
.114 |
.117 |
Biedrins |
22 |
1549 |
.114 |
.117 |
Crawford |
28 |
1492 |
.110 |
.112 |
Watson |
24 |
1283 |
.094 |
.097 |
Maggette |
29 |
1213 |
.089 |
.091 |
Turiaf |
26 |
1099 |
.081 |
.083 |
Morrow |
23 |
762 |
.056 |
.057 |
Belinelli |
22 |
696 |
.051 |
.052 |
Wright |
21 |
524 |
.038 |
.039 |
Randolph |
19 |
507 |
.037 |
.038 |
Ellis |
23 |
432 |
.032 |
.033 |
Kurz |
23 |
243 |
.018 |
.019 |
Nelson |
23 |
171 |
.013 |
- |
Harrington |
28 |
166 |
.012 |
- |
Williams |
23 |
53 |
.004 |
.004 |
Davidson |
24 |
14 |
.001 |
.001 |
Portland Trailblazers
Player |
Age |
Minutes Played |
Pct |
LaMarcus Aldridge |
23 |
2013 |
.151 |
Brandon Roy |
24 |
1909 |
.145 |
Travis Outlaw |
24 |
1480 |
.111 |
Rudy Fernandez |
23 |
1406 |
.106 |
Steve Blake |
28 |
1276 |
.096 |
Joel Przybilla |
29 |
1212 |
.091 |
Greg Oden |
21 |
1053 |
.079 |
Nicolas Batum |
20 |
968 |
.073 |
Sergio Rodriguez |
22 |
931 |
.071 |
Jerryd Bayless |
20 |
495 |
.037 |
Channing Frye |
25 |
458 |
.034 |
Ike Diogu |
25 |
73 |
.005 |
Shavlik Randolph |
25 |
16 |
.001 |
Martell Webster |
22 |
5 |
.000 |
Michael Ruffin |
32 |
4 |
.000 |
Raef LaFrentz |
32 |
0 |
.000 |
Memphis Grizzlies
Player |
Age |
Minutes Played |
Pct |
O.J. Mayo |
21 |
2093 |
.157 |
Rudy Gay |
22 |
1941 |
.146 |
Marc Gasol |
24 |
1646 |
.124 |
Mike Conley |
21 |
1525 |
.114 |
Hakim Warrick |
26 |
1408 |
.105 |
Kyle Lowry |
22 |
1071 |
.080 |
Darrell Arthur |
20 |
967 |
.073 |
Quinton Ross |
27 |
834 |
.062 |
Darko Milicic |
23 |
744 |
.059 |
Greg Buckner |
32 |
571 |
.042 |
Marko Jaric |
30 |
271 |
.020 |
Darius Miles |
27 |
196 |
.014 |
Javaris Crittenton |
21 |
44 |
.003 |
Hamed Haddadi |
23 |
14 |
.001 |
Minnesota Timber Wolves
Player |
Age |
Minutes Played |
Pct |
Randy Foye |
25 |
1986 |
.150 |
Al Jefferson |
24 |
1836 |
.140 |
Ryan Gomes |
26 |
1747 |
.131 |
Mike Miller |
28 |
1448 |
.108 |
Sebastian Telfair |
23 |
1339 |
.102 |
Kevin Love |
20 |
1318 |
.100 |
Craig Smith |
25 |
1001 |
.074 |
Rodney Carney |
24 |
646 |
.049 |
Rashad McCants |
24 |
636 |
.048 |
Kevin Ollie |
36 |
429 |
.032 |
Brian Cardinal |
31 |
368 |
.026 |
Corey Brewer |
22 |
307 |
.023 |
Jason Collins |
30 |
203 |
.014 |
Mark Madsen |
33 |
61 |
.003 |
Calvin Booth |
32 |
1 |
.000 |
Oklahoma City Thunder
Player |
Age |
Minutes Played |
Pct |
Kevin Durant |
20 |
2197 |
.163 |
Jeff Green |
22 |
2073 |
.153 |
Russell Westbrook |
20 |
1786 |
.132 |
Earl Watson |
29 |
1474 |
.109 |
Nick Collison |
28 |
1261 |
.093 |
Desmond Mason |
31 |
1064 |
.079 |
Chris Wilcox |
26 |
719 |
.053 |
Joe Smith |
33 |
691 |
.051 |
Kyle Weaver |
22 |
579 |
.042 |
Damien Wilkins |
29 |
520 |
.038 |
Nenad Krstic |
25 |
461 |
.034 |
Johan Petro |
23 |
342 |
.025 |
Robert Swift |
23 |
245 |
.018 |
Chucky Atkins |
34 |
84 |
.006 |
Mouhamed Sene |
22 |
23 |
.002 |
Thabo Sefolosha |
24 |
18 |
.002 |
Steven Hill |
23 |
2 |
.000 |
Team |
Average Roster Age |
Actual Playing Age |
Minutes Leader |
Golden State Warriors |
24.1(24.3 17 man) |
25.7(25.6 17 man) |
Jackson(30) 1854 |
Portland Trail Blazers |
26.3 |
23.8 |
Aldridge (23) 2013 |
Memphis Grizzlies |
24.2 |
23.3 |
Mayo(21) 2093 |
Minnesota Timber Wolves |
26.9 |
25.0 |
Foye (25) 1986 |
Oklahoma City Thunder |
25.5 |
24.7 |
Durant (20) 2197 |