3 Burning questions for the Golden State Warriors heading into the offseason

The Golden State Warriors may be beaten finalists tonight, but they still remain the class of the NBA. If somebody had to place a bet NOW about the 2020 NBA title, they still remain the predominant favourites. Hungry as they have been, making championship runs year after year, this squad has proven time and time again that it remains a cut above the rest of the league at full strength.

A postseason that many people dismissed as a formality right at the start of the offseason took a sour turn right at the start when it seemed DeMarcus Cousins would be ruled out for the rest of the playoffs in Game 2 of their series against the Clippers. While Cousins made his comeback in the Conference Finals, the Warriors were struck a body blow with the loss of Kevin Durant to a calf injury in Game 5 of the semifinals against the Rockets.

While the guard-heavy Blazers did not pose that big a threat to the defending champions in the Conference Finals, the Raptors were a different breed to any threat the Warriors have seen in the past.

Their combination of guard depth and big man depth kept the Warriors fully engaged from all ends, and it was clear that without Kevin Durant, they were the inferior outfit of the two within the first 4 games of the series.

Let's take a look at the Warriors' 3 most burning questions entering the offseason:

#1 What kind of contract offer does Kevin Durant merit?

The Slim Reaper showed to the whole wide world in the first 11 games of the Warriors' playoffs that he merits being hailed as the best player in the world when fully fit. Full fitness, however, is now a thing of the past for the 30-year-old, who has been ruled out of the entirety of the 2019-20 NBA season by his team of doctors who finished a successful procedure on his Achilles the day following Game 5 of the Finals.

Can the Warriors afford to pay over and above the luxury tax for a player who will not be contributing till the fag end of the playoffs, if they manage to get there? Should Kevin Durant sign the last big contract of his career this summer, or should he opt into the final year of his current deal and secure his money for the upcoming year only?

These are questions that plague, not just the Warriors, but also KD himself as he tries to navigate through the most trying times of his professional career. In my opinion, it would make matters easier for all parties if KD were just to opt into the $30 million he's scheduled to make next season, play some ball and be fully fit and firing by the Olympics next year.

#2 Should the Warriors max Klay?

The Splash Brothers have defined the Warriors' resurgence from the doldrums of the league to being considered one of the great NBA dynasties of all time. One half of the duo, however, was unable to finish out the landmark Finals series of his career and indeed, the greatest 3-point shooting performance in a Finals series ever.

Klay Thompson averaged 26 points per game while shooting 59.4% on 41 3-point attempts through the series, comfortably beating Danny Green's previous record of 55% in 2013.

On the other hand, however, this ACL tear that he suffered following a rough landing on an attempted dunk on the break in Game 6 has called into severe question the kind of contract he merits. On the surface of it, it is a no-brainer decision for the Warriors - Thompson is a resident franchise legend and should not be offered anything less than a max contract.

But his recent injuries have ruined the market economics against his favour, and eventually, he may find himself putting pen to paper to a long-term contract guaranteeing a higher total wage but a lower annual wage than he may initially have thought. While Mychal Thompson has stated in public multiple times that Klay is a Warriors' lifer, things aren't as cut and dried as they seem in the business that the NBA is.

#3 Will Steph and Draymond be enough for a playoff run next season?

The Warriors have been placed in a cavalier situation not just in terms of free agency and cap space on top of injury, but also in terms of some surplus money being given to players not worth it. Shaun Livingston, for example, is slated to earn $7.6 million next season but hardly ever contributes in a manner befitting that wage.

Andre is a playoffs player - a 16-game player who's way past those days when he was an 82-game player. The Warriors' wing depth was depleted by Patrick McCaw's departure, and Alfonzo McKinnie is only a bit-part replacement for him. As a result, it looks like Steph will be leading a hobbled team through the majority of the next season even if Klay is re-signed to the max deal he wants.

The Warriors' cap restrictions mean that they can mostly only sign castoffs and rotation players from other teams. It remains to be seen what kind of savvy Bob Myers applies to fill their roster come October.