A Little Warriors Love

"Heading into the final weekend in Las Vegas, the Golden State Warriors stand as the final undefeated team (4-0) of either NBA summer league. This has not happened by accident.

While most teams send a nice prospect or two, and may be looking to unearth a diamond in the rough to fill out the roster, the Dubs are stacked with talent -- and they know it. So in an environment geared toward evaluating individuals, the goal for Golden State is to cultivate its promising young core into a group that can find its way to the top of the standings once the games start to count.

"That was our goal coming into it when me, Harrison [Barnes] and Festus [Ezeli] first got drafted," said Draymond Green, the third of three picks from this year's draft that figures to play a significant role in the organization's future. "We said we were going to have a great summer league team. We're building towards the season, and when our vets get with us, we know they want to win, as well."

As summer league coach Pete Myers said to his team: "Why not, we're here, let's just run the table."

Now, only Saturday's game against the New Orleans Hornets stands in their way.

Even with second-year "veterans" Klay Thompson and Jeremy Tyler sitting out, they were able to fend off a feisty Chicago Bulls team, 66-57, thanks to a game-high 20 points from Barnes, eight points and 11 boards from Green and a nice game from Charles Jenkins, a promising young point guard from last year's draft.

In total, the team has signed six players from the past two drafts, and it hopes that each of them can contribute to what is becoming a very interesting youth movement by the Bay. The team isn't going anywhere if its two cornerstones, Steph Curry (only 24 years old himself) and Andrew Bogut, can't stay healthy, but the Warriors are finding out this week that, despite some struggles from their young draft picks, they may have drafted a playoff-caliber supporting cast.

Just like they planned for."