There will be something new in the NBA this season. On the floors as always obviously, with the changes of players or coaches, but also in the internal regulations. The new collective agreement has entered into force and with it new standards to be respected.
The most notable is perhaps the famous “second apron”, which harshly punishes teams who spend too much. Thus, sanctioned franchises will no longer be entitled to exceptions to sign players and will even lose future Draft choices!
Then, the owners voted so that stars could no longer miss matches televised on the national network and that teams could no longer rest two stars together for the same meeting.
Two weight changes that Mike Dunleavy Jr. and the Warriors accept with a smile as they believe are the basis of the NBA’s choices. The 2022 champions having exploded their finances in recent years.
“I think, first of all, for Joe Lacob and the franchise, these rule changes are a compliment,” comments the GM of Golden State for The Athletic. “They’re putting rules in place to stop us from being successful and I think some of us, including the owner, see it that way. There are now financial issues that could prevent us from reaching a certain level. »
The price of glory
However, with the extension of Draymond Green and the departure of Jordan Poole, plus the arrival of Chris Paul whose 2024/25 season is not guaranteed, Mike Dunleavy Jr. managed to negotiate well in the summer to give himself the air on a financial level, which was not won just a few months ago.
“It’s not just about the ‘second apron’, but also about having flexibility which allows us to be below the luxury tax”, continues the Warriors GM. “We look at things in several ways: we have financial flexibility and a good team at the same time. We are in an ideal situation at the moment. We will see what happens next and we will approach things year after year. »
In addition, with Stephen Curry, Chris Paul, Draymond Green and Andrew Wiggins affected by the definition of “star”, the Warriors are the franchise most “targeted” in the league by measures against “load management”, with the Wolves , which also have four players under this definition.
“The logic of resting the stars seems, a little, set up to target training like ours”, analyzes Mike Dunleavy Jr. “I find that this too should be taken as a compliment. It’s a bit like with Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, when the NCAA banned the dunk to prevent him from dominating. We must accept it and tell ourselves that we have done things well so that changes are seen as necessary. »
| Shots | Rebounds | |||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Players | MJ | Min | Shots | 3pts | L.F. | Off | Def | Early | Pd | Bp | Int | Ct | Party | Pts |
| Stephen Curry | 56 | 34.7 | 49.3 | 42.7 | 91.5 | 0.7 | 5.4 | 6.1 | 6.3 | 3.2 | 0.9 | 0.4 | 2.1 | 29.4 |
| Klay Thompson | 69 | 33.0 | 43.6 | 41.2 | 87.9 | 0.6 | 3.6 | 4.1 | 2.4 | 1.8 | 0.7 | 0.4 | 1.9 | 21.9 |
| Jordan Poole | 82 | 30.0 | 43.0 | 33.6 | 87.0 | 0.4 | 2.4 | 2.7 | 4.5 | 3.1 | 0.8 | 0.3 | 2.6 | 20.4 |
| Andrew Wiggins | 37 | 32.2 | 47.3 | 39.6 | 61.1 | 1.6 | 3.4 | 5.0 | 2.3 | 1.3 | 1.2 | 0.8 | 2.9 | 17.1 |
| Jonathan Kuminga | 67 | 20.8 | 52.5 | 37.0 | 65.2 | 1.0 | 2.4 | 3.4 | 1.9 | 1.4 | 0.6 | 0.5 | 2.3 | 9.9 |
| Donte Divincenzo | 72 | 26.3 | 43.5 | 39.7 | 81.7 | 1.1 | 3.4 | 4.5 | 3.5 | 1.6 | 1.3 | 0.1 | 1.8 | 9.4 |
| Draymond Green | 73 | 31.5 | 52.7 | 30.5 | 71.3 | 0.9 | 6.3 | 7.2 | 6.8 | 2.8 | 1.0 | 0.8 | 3.1 | 8.5 |
| Kevin Looney | 82 | 23.9 | 63.0 | 0.0 | 60.6 | 3.3 | 5.9 | 9.3 | 2.5 | 0.5 | 0.6 | 0.6 | 2.7 | 7.0 |
| James Wiseman | 21 | 12.5 | 62.8 | 50.0 | 68.4 | 0.9 | 2.6 | 3.5 | 0.7 | 0.7 | 0.1 | 0.3 | 1.9 | 6.9 |
| Ty Jerome | 45 | 18.1 | 48.8 | 38.9 | 92.7 | 0.2 | 1.6 | 1.7 | 3.0 | 0.7 | 0.5 | 0.1 | 1.4 | 6.9 |
| Anthony Lamb | 62 | 19.3 | 47.1 | 36.7 | 76.7 | 0.9 | 2.6 | 3.5 | 1.5 | 0.9 | 0.5 | 0.3 | 2.2 | 6.7 |
| Jamychal Green | 57 | 14.0 | 54.0 | 37.8 | 77.6 | 1.3 | 2.3 | 3.6 | 0.9 | 0.9 | 0.4 | 0.4 | 1.8 | 6.4 |
| Gary Payton II | 7 | 16.1 | 60.7 | 44.4 | 66.7 | 2.0 | 2.3 | 4.3 | 1.1 | 0.6 | 0.9 | 0.6 | 2.0 | 5.7 |
| Moses Moody | 63 | 13.0 | 47.6 | 36.3 | 69.8 | 0.4 | 1.2 | 1.7 | 0.8 | 0.5 | 0.3 | 0.1 | 0.9 | 4.8 |
| Patrick Baldwin, Jr. | 31 | 7.3 | 39.4 | 38.1 | 66.7 | 0.0 | 1.3 | 1.3 | 0.4 | 0.4 | 0.2 | 0.1 | 0.5 | 3.9 |
| Lester Quinones | 4 | 4.5 | 40.0 | 50.0 | 66.7 | 0.3 | 0.5 | 0.8 | 0.5 | 1.3 | 0.3 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 2.5 |
| Andre Iguodala | 8 | 14.1 | 46.7 | 11.1 | 66.7 | 0.4 | 1.8 | 2.1 | 2.4 | 1.1 | 0.5 | 0.4 | 1.4 | 2.1 |
| Ryan Rollins | 12 | 5.2 | 35.0 | 33.3 | 100.0 | 0.3 | 0.8 | 1.0 | 0.5 | 1.3 | 0.1 | 0.1 | 0.8 | 1.9 |
