How well has Golden State developed their young Warriors since 2019?

When Kevin Durant departed the Golden State Warriors at the end of the 2019 season, many declared Golden State’s dynasty to be dead.

Since then the Warriors have played four seasons, with winning records in three of them, two playoff appearances, and a world championship to boast.

It was less than a year ago that Golden State’s owner Joe Lacob, basking in the glow of that title, emphatically heralded the team’s strategy of aggressively gathering young talent around the team’s stars:

“You have to take some risk, you can’t just do what everyone else is doing. Everyone wanted us at the beginning of the year, I know, to trade all these young players and these draft choices and to go get one more guy, one more established, over 30-kind of star ... I know what we did was risky, but I believed and Bob Myers believed, that if we were going to win this year, how far we were going to go was going to be determined by how good Steph Curry, Klay Thompson and Draymond Green (were).”

“But I really wanted to make sure we kept these young players because I am a great believer in James Wiseman,” Lacob added. “And I know a lot of people when they’re not in front of him, they forget how good this guy is. He’s incredibly talented, I’m not trading him away, let’s make sure to give him a shot. It takes a lot longer with a big guy. That’s number one. Our two lottery picks, Kuminga and Moody, I think they are incredibly talented. And Jordan Poole’s already shown what he can do.”

Wiseman was the team’s highest draft pick in decades, going #2 overall in the 2020 draft. Kuminga and Moody were drafted the next season at #7 and #13 respectively. And Poole was the team’s first round pick immediately after KD departed.

Afterhis year’s herky jerky regular season and disappointing second round exit, there has been plenty of criticism on how the youth movement is being developed. Wiseman was shipped out midseason in a mildly surprising trade.

Kuminga was a bright spot on the depth chart in the extended absence of Andrew Wiggins, but his playing time vanished during the playoffs as his coach Steve Kerr relied on the returning Wiggins and the newly acquired Gary Payton II to soak up the wing minutes. Also, Kerr noted he needed more rebounding from Kuminga, something that should stick with the sophomore going forward.

Moody didn’t get a ton of playing time in his second year, averaging 13 minutes a game in 63 appearances. But in the playoffs he turned into a reliable contributor, with a reliable jumpshot and a scrappy defensive demeanor.

And then there’s Poole, who as I’ve mentioned before was the man who many felt was the heir apparent to the Splash Throne before these playoffs started. JP has received the most criticism for his scoring, or lack thereof, during this postseason.

Last year, Poole was a red-hot 50% from the field (39% from deep) in Golden State’s title run, scoring 17 points per game. This postseason that average fell to 10.3 PPG on 34% shooting from the field (25% from beyond the arc).