During the dog days of a challenging season, head coach Steve Kerr often spoke about how the Warriors aimed to make the most of what amounted to a rebuilding year.

This pragmatic approach gave a purpose to an organization that came off five-straight NBA Finals runs to post a league-worst record of 15-50. The Warriors, not among the 22 teams that will resume their season in Walt Disney World next month, believe the team’s development made it a productive season.

How they build on it will be the key question surrounding the most pivotal offseason in franchise history.

“It’s always difficult to lose games consistently and have to be on the wrong end of the score night-after-night,” Kerr told local reporters on a conference call Tuesday. “It’s a really hard thing to go through, and I’m proud of our players for still finding a way to make this season very productive.”

Even before Stephen Curry suffered a broken hand against the Phoenix Suns on Oct. 30, the Warriors knew much of the season would be spent revamping its bench. Bob Myers, the team’s president of basketball operations, replaced departed veterans Kevin Durant, Andre Iguodala and Shaun Livingston with draft picks and minimum-level free agents.

After executing a sign-and-trade to acquire then-23-year-old point guard D’Angelo Russell, the Warriors filled out the roster with guard Jordan Poole, the No. 28 pick in the draft, forward Eric Paschall, selected in the second round, and free agents Glenn Robinson III, Alec Burks, Willie Cauley-Stein and Marquese Chriss.

In February, the Warriors went through another remodel, trading Russell to Minnesota for 25-year-old forward Andrew Wiggins, Cauley-Stein to Dallas, and sending Robinson III and Burks to Philadelphia to duck the luxury tax. The moves were not easy for the front office to make, but they were necessary.

“I probably learned more this season than I have in the last five, as far as how to approach things, how to do things, what I think we need to do better,” Myers said on a conference call Monday.

Those players did not figure into Golden State’s long-term plans. By the time the NBA postponed play in mid-March, it was starting to become clear who could.

Chriss had established himself as the team’s starting center, thriving in his minutes — and especially so in the few he shared the floor with Curry. Rookies Paschall and Poole showed flashes of scoring and playmaking while improving defensively throughout the year.

Damion Lee and Ky Bowman, who both began the season on 2-way contracts, blossomed and earned standard contracts. Late additions like Juan Toscano-Anderson and Mychal Mulder made two-way contributions and earned at least a training-camp invite for next season.

“I’m looking for a big, big leap forward for some of our younger players to the point where they can get into our rotation,” Kerr said. “Now who that is, that’s up to them. They have to earn that next year in camp and exhibition season and all that. But that’s what we’re really looking for.”

Ahead of the most important offseason of their tenure, however, Myers and Kerr need to have an idea who could crack the rotation next season before training camp begins. Who can help alleviate the load on Curry, Klay Thompson and Draymond Green during the regular season? More importantly, who can be trusted to make a positive impact in a playoff series?

Despite the promising development of some youngsters, the Warriors have three avenues to add more talent this offseason: a top-five draft pick, a $17.2 million trade exception and a mid-level exception.

With those tools, the Warriors don’t plan to simply paint over the grinding work of their losing season.

So, while someone like Spurs forward Rudy Gay, 33, is an intriguing option for the trade exception, the Warriors may hesitate to acquire a player of his age on an expiring contract. With the core trio now all older than 30, the Warriors know they can’t rely on 30-something-year-old veterans like they once did.

The youth movement was not a one-year experiment. It was meant to set up the team to thrive for years, find value in roster spots five-through-15 and maximize a three-to-four year championship window. Doing that will be the best way to build on a rebuilding season.

A few more things from Tuesday’s call…

1. Kerr said he would not be interested in scrimmaging with other teams in an informal summer league, and prefers the NBA hold mandatory mini-camps during the months the league will be concluding its season in Orlando.

“We definitely need to get our team together for a period of time,” Kerr said, adding he would expect Curry, Thompson and Green to participate. “We’re not interested in a summer league … we’d be more interested in practice time.”

2. Over the previous five seasons, the Warriors never finished outside the top-11 in defensive rating in the NBA. That is, until this season, when they had the league’s 26th-ranked defense and gave up the highest percentage of made 3-pointers to opponents.

Though the Warriors had their moments — especially holding James Harden to 24 points on 9-of-18 shooting in a win over the Rockets on Christmas Day — Kerr zeroed in on that side of the ball as an area the team needs to improve if they are to vault back into contention.

“We want to be a contender, we want to be in the hunt, we want to establish ourselves as a team that can be a playoff team,” Kerr said. “In order to do that and give ourselves a chance, we’ve got to get much better defensively. I thought we made strides as the season went along, and I think we should be better next year.”

3. After joining Gregg Popovich’s staff on Team USA last summer, Kerr does not know if star players will commit to playing in the rescheduled Olympic Games next year. Despite Kerr and Popovich talking almost daily for the last couple of weeks, the two have not spoken about Team USA’s future.

“Believe it or not, I haven’t had a single conversation with (Popovich) about that, Kerr said. “And the reason is because we don’t know.”

4. Kerr has long respected Colin Kaepernick for the sacrifice the former 49ers quarterback made when he peacefully protested on NFL sidelines during the national anthem in 2016. The act was met with controversy and, since then, Kaepernick has been unable to find work in the NFL.

In the days since the police killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis, Kerr believes Kaepernick’s message against police brutality is being better understood.

“My sense a few years ago was that Kaepernick would ultimately be considered a hero,” Kerr said. “Based on the experiences Muhammad Ali had when he protested against going to Vietnam, and was barred from fighting for years and was one of the most hated men in America and eventually he became one of the most beloved.

“The very act of making a groundbreaking statement can be so surprising and shocking that it’s not fully appreciated until later on,” Kerr continued. “My sense is that, eventually, Colin will be recognized for the gesture that he made, and for the price that he paid for it.”