As the league overlord who has reached the Finals for five consecutive years, including three championships, the Golden State Warriors' luck in these two seasons has been really bad. Last season, the Warriors' former general was injured, and the star Stephen Curry only played five games. I thought it was time to transfer this season, but I didn't expect that the second boss Klay Thompson was reimbursed in advance due to injury for the second consecutive year, and the performance of many main players was also difficult to say. As a result, although Curry still maintains his peak level, the Warriors missed the playoffs for the second consecutive year after two consecutive losses in the playoffs, and it is clear that the Warriors urgently need to make changes.
Unlike other teams in the lotto zone, even if they have a poor record, they can choose to dive and swing and enter the reconstruction period again. But the Warriors certainly can't do that, because Curry is still at its peak, and combined with the salary and age structure of the main lineup, it is difficult to rebuild. And the Warriors don't have as many draft picks as other rebuilding teams, so they have to find a way to continue to upgrade the lineup and try not to waste Curry's final peak. In addition to the draft and free market reinforcements, the Warriors also need to find ways to retain role players who are more suitable for the team system. The US media published an article in which they listed the free agents that teams should keep most in the offseason, and the Warriors side was on the list of forward swinger Kent Bazemore.
As a losing draft, Bazemore also had a rough start in his career, and his first team in the NBA was the Golden State Warriors. Of course, at that time, Bazemore was still just a full-fledged substitute player, averaging only about 5 minutes per game, and the data was naturally mediocre. To put it bluntly, Bazemore's luck at that time was not very good, the Warriors were full of talent on the outside, and the opportunities left for him were naturally few and far between.
Before the 13-14 season deadline, the Warriors decided to send Bazemore away, and the latter came to the Lakers, who were still in the rebuilding period at the time. This gave Bazmore more opportunities to perform, and he played as a starter for most of the season, averaging 13.1 points, 3.3 rebounds and 3.1 assists per game. However, the discerning people know that Bazemore's data is somewhat watery, and the Lakers do not think that he will become part of the team's future plans, so in the summer of 2014, the Purple and Gold Army gave up the matching right in Bazemore's contract, which was the default to let him go.
It was during that offseason that Bazmore's career that was a turning point, when he switched to the Atlanta Hawks as a free agent and immediately became a member of the team's main rotation. When the Hawks joined the Raptors in the summer of 2015 with the Hawks' original starting small forward DeMare Carroll, Bazemore successfully took the position and started in the new season. During his last four seasons with the Hawks, Bazmore averaged double-digit points per game, was fairly good at shooting and defending, and occasionally carried out ball-carrying offense.
But from the beginning of the 17-18 season, as a large number of key players grew older and lost, the Hawks side also began to enter a reconstruction period, and Bazemore is no longer a member of the team's future plans. He played for the Blazers and Kings last season, especially in the second half, when Bazmore averaged 10.3 points and 4.9 rebounds per game, and he managed to prove that he could still get a foothold in the NBA. So in the offseason last year, Bazemore and his old club Warriors continued the front rim, and he also returned to the place where his dream began. Baezmore has also performed quite well this season, averaging 7.2 points, 3.4 rebounds and 1.6 assists per game, shooting more than 40% from both the field and three-point range.
For the Warriors, they know Bazemore can help the team in many ways. First of all, Bazemore's three-point shooting rate has been above 35% for many years, and this season it has reached a career high of 41%. Everyone knows that with Curry, teammates around them will get a lot of opportunities to shoot in the open position, and in this case, a player with a stable projection threat like Bazmore can naturally help. The second is that Bazmore can bring great value on the defensive end, and he can even go from the second position to the fourth position of the opponent, allowing the Warriors to continue to use the unlimited defense system on which they are famous. Finally, Bazmore is full of fighting spirit at all times, and such a player will obviously be loved by the coaching staff and fans.
And there are rumors that Kelly Oubre intends to fight for a long contract with an annual salary of about $20 million, not to mention whether he can finally get it, he already has such an idea, then the Warriors with extremely tight salary space must not be able to keep him. On the contrary, the renewal of Bazemore should not have to pay too much price, the team's head coach Steve Kerr is also very fond of him, in the second half of the season, Bazemore has been a long-term starter, it seems that the possibility of the two sides continuing to work together in the offseason is still quite large.