When the Golden State Warriors failed to land a marquee player like Paul George or Lauri Markkanen in the offseason, and were unable to re-sign their free agent homegrown Hall of Famer in Klay Thompson, they pivoted to something less flashy but perhaps equally valuable: depth.
The Warriors stacked up depth upon depth upon depth, so much so that their first offseason addition, Lindy Waters III — brought in explicitly to be a key bench piece — was squeezed from the team’s laughably-large 12-man rotation.
When Steve Kerr announced the 12-man rotation, he said that he “couldn’t justify” taking two players out of the mix.