Is the team’s playoff exit the first domino to fall?
When the reports first broke about Draymond Green punching Jordan Poole during a practice session, observers thought of it as a warning sign that the Golden State Warriors- then reigning NBA champions, were about to implode. At the time, Green wanted a supermax contract extension- something the Warriors have yet to give, while Poole received a $128-million contract that will run until 2027.
Some took this as a sign that perhaps the front office was ready to move on from their veteran heavy core. While the Poole-Green altercation was slowly put behind them, it didn’t take a basketball savant to see the incident affected the Warriors’ chemistry as the team struggled to get anything going during the early stretch of the 2022-2023 season.
Eventually, the Warriors re-discovered their groove as they entered the 2023 playoffs as the sixth-seeded team in the Western Conference, but their struggles on the road continued well into the postseason.
Domino Effect
Surprisingly, the reigning champs needed a Game Seven against the Sacramento Kings to book a seat in the Western Conference semifinals against the Los Angeles Lakers. Despite Draymond openly “hoping” for a matchup against their in-state rivals, the Warriors very nearly were on the receiving end of a “be careful what you wish for” scenario.
While the Warriors were tagged as favourites against LeBron James and company, it was the Lakers who came out victorious in six games. That ultimately led to the now infamous Steve Kerr quote where the head coach remarked “This is not a championship team. If we were, we’d be moving on. You can look at the year in total and see all the ups and downs, and there was all kinds of stuff that went on and adversity that hit, but our group stayed together and competed till the end and made a pretty good run.”
A few weeks later, Warriors General Manager Bob Myers stepped down from his post after an 11-year stint. During his term, the Warriors won four NBA championships with the core of Steph Curry, Klay Thompson, and Draymond Green. The Warriors also won back-to-back championships with Kevin Durant from 2017 to 2018.
With one of the main architects behind an established winning team gone, and new CBA rules putting the team even further into luxury tax hell, many can’t help but ask the question: Is the Warriors’ dynasty over?
Unclear Road Ahead
Golden State will have plenty on their plate this offseason, chief among them finding a new GM. If Draymond Green doesn’t pick up his player option for the 2023-2024 season, the one-time Defensive Player of the Year can become a free agent by 2024. And if you’ve been following Draymond Green’s recent pronouncements, it seems he has been hinting at a desire to play alongside LeBron James in Hollywood.
While he may not be an offensive dynamo, few will argue with the fact that Green is the straw that stirs the Warriors’ drink on defense. Green averaged 9.3 points, 7.7 rebounds, 5.7 assists, 1.2 blocks, and one steal in the West semis.
But Green’s future isn’t the only uncertainty the Warriors’ front office needs to worry about in the 2023 offseason.
Klay Thompson’s five-year $189-million contract runs until 2024. He’s expecting a supermax contract extension as well. While many consider Thompson to be one of the greatest shooters of all time, his performance in the West semifinals only exacerbated concerns that he’s hoping for his past performance to shape the value and term of his upcoming deal.
Klay averaged just 16.2 points, 4.5 rebounds, 2.3 assists, and a very un-Thompson-like 38.1% shooting from the three-point line in the Lakers series. He shot two for 12 from the three-point line in the Warriors’ Game Six loss.
While Warriors Head Coach Steve Kerr still believes the Warriors can contend for championships with their current core, the fact that Thompson’s game is already slipping away, and Green wanting a bigger contract present serious complications. And even though many observers still believe Steph Curry remains the Warriors’ best player at 35, Curry can’t do it alone. He needs better reinforcements.
Then, there’s the question of who will replace Bob Myers as general manager. Right now, it appears to be between Kirk Lacob and Mike Dunleavy Jr. However whomever is ultimately selected will have perhaps the most daunting task in all of basketball in 2023-24:
-Negotiate a new deal with Green or trade him
-Negotiate a new deal with Thompson or trade him
-Rebuild the confidence of Poole who was a shell of himself in 2022-23
-Navigate the new CBA rules which would have the team pay historic fines
-Re-vamp the rotational players on the team’s bench
-And somehow thread the needle of appeasing the team’s veteran core, providing opportunities for their younger players, and keeping the team competitive so the fan base doesn’t turn on you
No pressure.
-Iggy Gonzales
Photo: Keith Allison. This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.0 Generic license.