The Golden State Warriors announced a flurry of changes to their staff on Thursday, including the return of Zaza Pachulia, who will serve as a consultant to the team starting next season. According to a press release sent out by the Warriors, Pachulia will serve as a consultant “on both the business side and basketball side.”
Pachulia spent two seasons with the Warriors from 2016 t0 2018 and during that time, he was a staple of their defense, posting a defensive box plus-minus (DBPM) of +2.3 through two regular season campaigns and a DBPM +2.5 through two championship runs in the postseason. The 35-year-old Georgian center most recently played with Detroit Pistons.
The Warriors also announced that they promoted Mike Dunleavy Jr. to assistant general manager. Dunleavy was brought on as a scout last year.
Dunleavy played some of his best basketball with the Warriors from 2002 to 2007 and now he’ll have the opportunity to build on that success in the front office under the team’s general manager, Bob Myers. Together, they will attempt to stay in championship contention with their core of Steph Curry, Klay Thompson, Draymond Green and their newest addition, D’Angelo Russell. Combined, Curry, Thompson, Green and Russell will make roughly $118 million next season.
With an expensive new arena in downtown San Francisco, the Warriors will be expected to compete for a playoff spot next season, so hopefully the tweaking they did to their front office got them closer to that goal.
