Despite being eliminated on Friday, Golden State may still have enough to win a title next season
The “last dance” talk began well before this series, and it’s not going to stop any time soon.
Steve Kerr said that it usually takes about 24 hours to get over a playoff loss. Take your lumps, contemplate your regrets, then move on. It’s going to take the Golden State Warriors much longer than that to get over the way that their season just ended.
After a mediocre regular season, the Warriors were blown out in Game 6 against LeBron James, Anthony Davis and the Los Angeles Lakers on Friday to put an end to their bid for a second straight title. If we’re being honest, Golden State could have been sent packing in the first round by the upstart Sacramento Kings were it not for a historic, superhuman 50-point Game 7 performance from Steph Curry.
The evidence was in front of us all season and, despite stretches that attempted to convince us otherwise, the truth became clear: These Warriors were just not good enough. That’s the reality. We know it, and the team knows it.
“To be fair, I think this team ultimately maxed out,” Kerr said after being eliminated on Friday. “We were barely in the playoff picture most of this year … This is not a championship team. If we were, we’d be moving on.”
When that’s the case, the urge to move directly to roster detonation can be strong. This team doesn’t work, the core has run its course, time to move on. You’ll undoubtedly read and hear plenty of ideas about how that can and should happen. Our Sam Quinn penned a very convincing argument involving the ramifications of the ungodly luxury tax bill headed toward the Warriors’ check book next season.
But what if blowing it up isn’t necessarily the answer? Assuming Curry, Andrew Wiggins and Kevon Looney aren’t going anywhere, let’s look at the three the most highly discussed options through a realistic prism.Get rid of Draymond Green
The Warriors’ chemistry was unquestionably off-kilter this season, and it doesn’t take Benoit Blanc to charismatically unearth the culprit. Draymond Green punched Jordan Poole before the season started and was not suspended for any regular season games. Even if the players, Poole included, said they quickly moved on, something like that lingers.
Alright, so let’s get rid of Draymond, right?
First off, it’s Green’s decision whether he wants to exercise his $27.6 million option for next season. If he opts in, the Warriors could trade him, but there is significant skepticism about how Green would fare in a system outside Golden State, so it would be interesting to see what the offers would look like. Green will turn 34 next season and has done nothing but win in his entire career, so the rumors about him opting out to sign with his hometown Detroit Pistons
Despite all the baggage that Green brings, he’s the engine of this team on both ends of the floor. He just made second team All-Defense, and led the team in assists for the seventh time in eight seasons. The Warriors aren’t the Warriors without him, so losing Green — whether in free agency or through a trade — would be a devastating blow.
