Following an underwhelming offseason where the Warriors couldn’t land a single new player via trade or free agency, failing to acquire any major target they pursued, and now having a tough situation with the franchise’s greatest player, Golden State needs something new desperately.
They kept their key pieces in Draymond Green, Kristaps Porzingis, Al Horford, and more specific role players, but at some point, the burden of creating offense in Golden State has to fall on someone other than Stephen Curry.
The Warriors closed last season at 37-45, tenth in the Western Conference, averaging just 114.6 points per game, ranking 22nd in the league. Injuries were a factor, but the deeper issue surfaced every time Curry sat or cooled off: too many lineups could move the ball around the perimeter without a single guard capable of beating his man off the dribble and manufacturing a shot.
That vulnerability carries even more weight heading into 2026-27. Jimmy Butler is working back from a torn ACL, and Moses Moody is dealing with a significant knee injury of his own. Curry, at 38, is still producing at an elite level (he averaged 26.6 points a night last season) but leaning on him to shoulder every difficult scoring task isn’t sustainable, particularly for a team that already missed the playoffs once with him doing exactly that.
Golden State re-signed Gary Payton II and De’Anthony Melton, players that restore some defensive versatility and toughness to Steve Kerr’s rotation. Both are solid players, but neither is built to check into a game cold and manufacture 12 points in six minutes.
With two standard roster spots remaining, the Warriors aren’t shopping for a third star anymore. What they need is a low-cost guard willing to live with inconsistent minutes. Someone who can create his own look and change the temperature of a game when the read-and-react offense stalls.
Here are four names the front office should be evaluating for that bench-scoring void.
4. Mac McClung
Mac McClung’s name still triggers an involuntary Dunk Contest reference before anything else, which undersells what he’s done to G League defenses over the past several years.
He was named 2025-26 G League MVP after averaging 31.8 points, 3.4 rebounds, and 7.9 assists on 51.5% shooting from the field and 38.1% from three, leading the league in scoring, piling up 923 total points, and becoming the first two-time winner of the award. It’s a resume that, on paper, should have produced more than a weak NBA opportunity by now.
His limited NBA run last season didn’t reflect that dominance. In 11 games, McClung averaged 6.1 points, 0.9 rebounds, and 0.9 assists on 39.0% shooting overall and 23.3% from three. The sample size was minimal, and his role shifted constantly, so it remains an open question whether his G League efficiency survives regular NBA length and physicality.
Still, the fit in Golden State is worth exploring. McClung plays downhill, attacks without hesitation, and is capable of generating a shot when the initial action breaks down. The Warriors have plenty of system players, but lack someone willing to occasionally step up and simply get a bucket.
He’d also have real utility across an 82-game season. Curry will need scheduled rest, Butler may not be full-go early, and there will be nights Kerr doesn’t want to lean on his veterans. Ten minutes of McClung against second units, purely for pace, could have value.
The concerns are real: he’s undersized at 6-foot-2, unproven defensively, and could struggle to finish once fastbreak points disappear against NBA rim protection. Kerr has also historically been cautious with score-first, ball-dominant guards. But at minimum-contract or camp-invite cost, McClung is a low-risk swing worth taking over another aging veteran who’s lost his shot-creation burst.
3. Nick Smith Jr.
Drafted 27th in 2023 after once being considered a lottery-caliber prospect, Nick Smith Jr.’s stock took a hit due to injuries during his lone college season, and his first NBA years have amounted to spot minutes, garbage time, and G League assignments. He’s still only 22, which leaves real room for development.
Last season, Smith averaged 6.2 points, 0.8 rebounds, and 1.0 assists across 30 games for the Lakers, shooting 43.5% from the field and 39.5% from three. It was a marginal role, but knocking down nearly 40% from deep with almost no rhythm or consistent playing time is a promising indicator.
His G League numbers tell a bigger story: 19.7 points, 3.5 rebounds, and 5.7 assists across 22 games, evidence that he’s more than a stationary shooter when given the ball and a defined role.
That combination makes him an intriguing fit next to Curry. Smith has enough shooting gravity to play without the ball, but also enough shot-creation ability to lead bench units on his own. Golden State doesn’t need him to become a table-setter, but needs a player who can attack a closeout or use a ball screen without immediately reversing it back to Draymond Green.
Age is also on his side. Most of the bench scorers available in free agency are veterans chasing a final contract; Smith could realistically develop into a cost-controlled rotation piece for multiple seasons.
The concerns are legitimate: a thin frame, inconsistent defense, and a scoring profile that leans too heavily on jump shots without reliable finishing at the rim. When the shot isn’t falling, there isn’t yet a clear alternate skill keeping him on the floor.
Even so, the upside justifies the swing. Golden State needs youth, shooting, and bench-level creation, and Smith could offer all three without requiring a significant role or financial commitment.
2. Brandon Williams
Brandon Williams is the most obvious target on this list, both because the Warriors have already shown interest and because his production last season came against NBA competition, not just inflated G League stat lines.
Per Brett Siegel’s reporting, Golden State has been evaluating Williams as it fills out its remaining roster spots, though the Suns, Celtics, and Mavericks have also been connected to him, meaning the Warriors may need to move with urgency if they want him.
Williams averaged 13.0 points, 2.9 rebounds, and 3.9 assists across 66 games for Dallas last season on 47.2% shooting, doing so in just 22.2 minutes per night; an efficient scoring rate for a player who entered the season without a guaranteed role.
Williams can beat his primary defender, collapse the paint and force rotations, the kind of skill that turns Golden State’s elite passing into actual offense rather than just ball movement. He also has experience operating around a high-usage creator, having shared the floor with Cooper Flagg and other primary ball-handlers in Dallas, so he doesn’t need control of every possession to be effective.
The catch is the perimeter shooting. Williams connected on just 23.2% of his threes on 2.3 attempts per game last season, a number defenses will exploit by going under screens and packing the paint, particularly in units that already include a non-shooter like Green.
Still, his rim pressure carries more value than another average catch-and-shoot wing who can’t create off the dribble. Williams shot 47.2% from the field overall largely because of his interior scoring and drew 4.6 free-throw attempts per game.
Golden State wouldn’t need him in playoff-closing lineups. The job would be simpler: run the bench unit, attack tired second-unit defenders, and keep the offense functional when Curry rests. He’s already shown he can do that job at a reasonable level.
1. Cam Thomas
The most talented pure scorer on this list, and also the one most likely to test Kerr’s patience, is Cam Thomas by far.
Thomas put up 13.5 points, 1.7 rebounds, and 2.6 assists across 42 total games last season on 41.0% shooting overall, 31.0% from three, and 81.1% from the line, splitting the year between Brooklyn and Milwaukee. Those numbers represent a step back from his previous production, and the Bucks ultimately waived him after 18 games despite a 10.7-point average in 16.6 minutes off the bench.
Even accounting for the down year, no one else on this list has Thomas’s scoring pedigree. He carries career averages of 14.9 points, has multiple 40-point outbursts on his resume, including a career-high 47, and is capable of generating offense against nearly any individual defender without a screen or clean spacing.
That’s precisely the skill Golden State is missing. Curry remains the only healthy Warrior who consistently draws defensive attention as a pull-up shot-maker; Butler is more of a downhill attacker, Green rarely looks for his own shot, and most of the young core still needs the offense to generate its opportunities. Thomas, by contrast, could check into a bench unit and immediately become its primary scoring option.
Thomas is ball-dominant and shot-heavy, and doesn’t generate many easy looks for teammates (a contrast to an offense built on off-ball movement). His defense would also be a liability, particularly in minutes alongside Curry, with opposing offenses likely to hunt him in ball-screen actions. Kerr’s patience with a player who drifts on both ends could be short.
But the Warriors don’t need Thomas to be a different player. They need to give him a defined role and accept the tradeoffs that come with it: 15 minutes a night, bench-unit offense, and difficult shots taken in situations where the alternative is Green passing to a teammate with two seconds on the clock.
Golden State has spent years developing passing players, defenders, and system-ready role guys. What it may need now is a selfish scorer, and that’s not a knock. At 25, with career stretches of averaging over 20 points a night, Thomas may now be available on a minimum deal simply because his market collapsed. That’s a risk worth taking.
