How's this team looking compared the the championship one? Feeling good about their chances?
We can't afford a single injury at the guard position. We are deeper up front with Saric in the mix and Vlatko healthy but this is the thinnest I've seen us at guard since we ended up playing Campazzo and Howard in the back court in a playoff series a few years back.
Our guard depth is
PG: Murray, Westbrook, Pickett, [Alexander; two-way]
SG: Braun, Strawther
That's literally all we have. Pickett is unplayable in every sense of the word and Alexander is a raw undrafted rookie on a two-way contract (which means he can only dress for 50 regular season games regardless of how many he plays, and he's not eligible for the playoffs).
Last year our depth was
PG: Murray, Jackson, Pickett, [Gillespie; two-way]
SG: KCP, Braun, Holiday, Strawther
So we essentially swapped Jackson, Caldwell-Pope, Holiday, and Gillespie for just Westbrook and Alexander. And Gillespie is better than Alexander right now.
In a vacuum Westbrook is a big upgrade over Reggie Jackson, but Reggie is a much better shooter and we lost a bunch 3 point shooting. And Westbrook is also two years older and he had surgery during the season last year, so who knows how healthy he can be for us. Reggie played 82 games last year (he was broken down and barely able to walk by the end of the year, but he did it).