Splash Brothers Curry and Thompson
December 3, 2013; Oakland, CA, USA; Golden State Warriors point guard Stephen Curry (30, left) and shooting guard Klay Thompson (11) celebrate during the fourth quarter against the Toronto Raptors at Oracle Arena. The Warriors defeated the Raptors 112-103. Reuters

Led by the “Splash Brothers”— the hot-shooting three-point bombing pair of Stephen Curry and Klay Thompson— the Golden State Warriors have risen to prominence in recent years. Will this be the year that they finally make some serious noise in the postseason and perhaps, all the way to the NBA championship?

Golden State Warriors Roster/Depth Chart

Point Guards: Stephen Curry/Shaun Livingston/Aaron Craft

Shooting Guards: Klay Thompson/Leandro Barbosa/Brandon Rush/Nemanja Nedovic/Jason Kapono

Small Forwards: Andre Iguodala/Harrison Barnes

Power Forwards: David Lee/Draymond Green/Marreese Speights/James Michael McAdoo/Mitchell Watt

Centers: Andrew Bogut/Festus Ezeli/Ognjen Kuzmic

Key Losses (new team): Jermaine O’Neal, Steve Blake (Portland Trail Blazers), Jordan Crawford

Key Additions (previous team): Leandro Barbosa (Atlanta Hawks), Shaun Livingston (Brooklyn Nets)

The player personnel is practically the same in Golden State as the franchise chose to stick with their core led by Curry (24.0 points, 8.5 assists and 1.6 steals per game in 2013-2014) and Thompson (18.4 PPG) but continue to stack up the bench and back-up players.

Watch the Splash Brothers Curry and Thompson light it up in Spain, where they helped Team USA to the gold medal:

(YouTube/Golden State Warriors)

They improved a little bit in the back-up PG spot with the arrival of Shaun Livingston (8.3 PPG, 3.2 RPG and 3.2 APG with Brooklyn in 2013-2014), who replaces previous no. 2 PG in Steve Blake from last season. They also re-acquired Brandon Rush (8.3 PPG career) plus veteran Leandro Barbosa (11.9 PPG career) should provide spot minutes and production behind Thompson, who was retained after being involved in multiple offseason rumours that would have netted the team Kevin Love, previously of the Minnesota Timberwolves.

The SF combo is still one of the best in the league with veteran Andre Iguodala (9.3 PPG, 4.7 RPG and 4.2 APG) and the soon-to-explode Harrison Barnes (9.5 PPG and 4.0 RPG), who may slide to PF depending on the match-ups. David Lee (18.2 PPG and 9.3 RPG), Andrew Bogut (7.3 PPG and 10.0 RPG), Draymond Green and Marreese Speights are all capable of handling rebounding and the paint plus provide additional scoring.

Perhaps the biggest change in the Golden State camp is replacing Mark Jackson with Steve Kerr. The former did enough to bring the Warriors back to respectability— winning 47 and 51 games in his stint in Golden State the last two season— but couldn’t seem to get them over the hump. Kerr, who lacks experience as a head coach in the NBA, is now tasked to bringing these Warriors to another level.

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