What the 49ers Can Learn from the Golden State Warriors

The San Francisco 49ers and Golden State Warriors couldn’t be further apart, and we’re not talking differences between the NFL and NBA. But the Niners can learn some valuable lessons from their Bay Area friends, who have emerged as one of the most historic teams of all time.

The Bay Area boasts two professional franchises on completely opposite ends of the sporting-world spectrum: the San Francisco 49ers and the Golden State Warriors.

Yes, there are other teams mixed in there. And one may argue the San Francisco Giants have done enough to showcase their recent prowess — as three World Series titles in six years would attest — but there couldn’t be a bigger gap than where the 49ers and Warriors currently stand in their respective leagues.

And yet the Niners could stand to learn a thing or two from what the Dubs have done.

Here are the 2015-16 defending NBA champion Warriors, coming off a historic-best 73-win season, employing a soon-to-be back-to-back NBA MVP in Steph Curry, boasting one of the deepest and well-rounded rosters in the league and is in great position to make it back to the NBA Finals for the second-straight season.

We could go on, but fans know everything about the Warriors that could be known — unless you’ve avoided sports news up until reading this article.

And then there are the 49ers — the same 5-11 team, whose record seems to make last year’s efforts appear better than they actually were. A 5-11 finish seems to cover up how the Niners ranked at, or near the bottom of, nearly every significant offensive and defensive category last season.

This followed comments from 49ers CEO Jed York who, after hiring then-head coach Jim Tomsula, commented how Tomsula’s hiring could bring about the same sort of success head coach Steve Kerr enjoyed in his first season at the helm of the Warriors.

Tomsula was dismissed after one season, if you happened to forget.

But non-bandwagon fans will remember the Warriors used to be bad as well. And they were bad for a very, very long time. And, like the 49ers, there didn’t seem to be any fix in sight. Golden State was the laughingstock of the NBA — not unlike how many view the Niners right now.

The changes from that Warriors team to this one weren’t exactly popular or easy. Remember when co-owner Joe Lacob was booed nearly off the court following the team’s trade of its best player, Monta Ellis, back in 2012?

Those sentiments are very similar to those made towards York, general manager Trent Baalke and the 49ers organization.

Although it’s possible to fly banners over the 49ers home at Levi’s Stadium for all to see.

But the Ellis trade opened up the door for Curry to become the player he is today.

OK, so we should shoot down any notion the 49ers ownership should sell the team and/or find a new general manager like the Warriors did in Bob Myers.

Baalke is here until, well, he isn’t. And while Myers has all but sealed himself as one of, if not the best, general managers currently working in Bay Area sports, Baalke can learn some valuable lessons through his NBA counterpart.

Take a look at some of the players Myers brought in via the draft. Atop that list are guys like Curry, Klay Thompson, Draymond Green and Festus Ezeli.

Add in some other notable draft choices, and it’s easy to see how Myers started by building a core group.

Baalke and the 49ers lost a good chunk of that core prior to the 2015 season. Retirements, free-agent departures and off-the-field issues (yes, Aldon Smith) changed the makeup of the 49ers for the worse. And few teams, even those with the best front offices in the business, would be able to withstand that.

The good part is San Francisco didn’t veer into “panic mode” and sell the farm on lucrative free-agent deals this offseason. Free agency is where rosters are supplemented, not built. And this leads us to a major lesson.

Not long ago, Golden State wasn’t a preferred destination for top-tier players. It just wasn’t. But when that core group of the Warriors started to jell, free agents suddenly wanted to join the ranks. Veteran Andre Iguodala is a perfect example.

We can try to criticize Baalke’s draft efforts in recent years, and it’s fair to say a good chunk of those players selected between 2012 and 2014 haven’t panned out. But 2015 and, especially, 2016 focused far more on the trenches — the same core which made San Francisco strong not that long ago.

Get strong here first, and the rest should follow.

Equally important to the draft is the culture within the locker room. Everyone, from the head coach down to the final player on the roster, has to buy in with what the game plan is.

One might have had some questions about the Warriors’ own culture when the team dismissed former head coach Mark Jackson and replaced him with Kerr.

But Sportsnaut.com’s Vincent Frank summed up how that went a year ago:

"While Jackson should be commended for changing the culture within Golden State’s locker room, there’s little doubt that Kerr is one of the primary reasons this team is heading to its first NBA Finals in 40 years. From a pure coaching standpoint, the two just aren’t comparable. It also helps that Kerr made the relatively quick decision to bring in veteran assistants such as Alvin Gentry and Ron Adams. That shouldn’t go unnoticed in the grand scheme of things."

Head coach Chip Kelly may be worlds apart from Kerr. And that really doesn’t matter. Different coaching styles have produced success in every sport. What does matter is having a team buy into an approach 100 percent.

So far, initial returns on Kelly’s approach look positive.

“It’s a lot quicker,” 49ers tight end Garrett Celek said on Kelly’s offense, via Matt Barrows of the Sacramento Bee. “We have hand signals, so you can’t have 15 words through hand signals, stuff like that. It’s got to be: boom, boom, boom. So when you got less verbiage, it’s easier to remember. It’s kind of genius.”

Getting this to translate over to a 53-man roster will be the real challenge. And players will have to accept and understand their roles in order to make it work.

It worked in Golden State. Iguodala, a former All Star, comes off the bench for a team not needing him to start (unless it’s in the NBA Finals against LeBron James and Co.).

But, perhaps, the most important thing to remember — and the biggest lesson San Francisco can take away from the Warriors — is this will take some time.

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The optimistic view would point to the 49ers suddenly finishing 10-6, 11-5 or even better this season. That’s probably not going to happen even if the aforementioned lessons are put to use. San Francisco will likely be bad this year and maybe even next.

But there was improvement year after year for the Warriors too, which marked the transitional phase from laughingstock to elite.

Just ask Curry back in 2009:

The Warriors figured it out. Now it’s the 49ers’ turn.

Next: Early Projections for 49ers 2016 Rookie Class

All statistics, records and accolades courtesy of Pro-Football-Reference.com and Sports-Reference.com unless otherwise indicated.