A new threat has emerged to the Golden State Warriors in the Western Conference after the arrival of LeBron James at the Los Angeles Lakers.

LeBron's arrival, plus with other improvements in the West means the Warriors are no longer a  shoe-in to be the West's representative in the NBA Finals this season.

Golden State had to make changes themselves in order to improve their chances of staying on top of the conference, and they did so by signing DeMarcus Cousins.

However, Cousins is a very different player to the Warriors who constantly hustle up and down the court. This may cause some problems for the team once he is able to play later on in the season.

Steve Kerr, though, doesn't think this will be the case, as he plans to add more schemes to their playbook to accommodate their new player.

The Warriors head coach said on Cousins, via Scott Ostler of the San Francisco Chronicle: "We’re not going to change our style of play.

"We’ll definitely add a few plays for DeMarcus (Cousins) down on the block. But for the most part, we’re not going to change who we are."

Kerr believes he needs to tweak a few things in Warriors' practice sessions in order to keep things interesting.

He said: “I do think in order to keep their interest, and to keep them fresh, we’ve got to change some aspects of our routine, and we’ll see what that means. Could mean altering or even getting rid of shootarounds, (or) only having shootarounds occasionally.

"Could mean changing the structure of practice, changing the amount of time we’re on the floor, maybe mixing up some different drills.”

Cousins signed a one-year, $5.3 million deal with the Warriors this offseason, but he is still recovering from an Achilles injury and therefore isn't expected to play until sometime near the end of the year.

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