DETROIT – The Golden State Warriors have gone from a team on a good streak to a mediocre team and are struggling to find the right formula to get back into the mix of Western Conference contenders.
Many around the league are wondering whether the team’s front office and management have the guts to make the necessary personnel moves to surround four-time champions Stephen Curry and Draymond Green with a realistic shot at a fifth title.
Somewhat surprisingly, Green is in line with the way the Warriors have gone about things. Despite overtures to the likes of Paul George over the summer, they have stayed the course, rather than going all-in on any strategy.
“The great thing about being in the space that we’re in is that Steve Kerr, Steph Curry and I all disagree with mortgaging the future of this organization and say we’re going for it now ,” Green told Yahoo Sports. on Thursday night after the Warriors’ 107-104 win over Detroit.
“Bad teams do that. Bad organizations do that. We are neither.”
On Thursday, Curry had one of his worst games of the season, going 5-for-21 from the field and missing 12 of his 14 three-pointers. But reserves Gui Santos and Lindy Waters III combined for seven triples, 24 points and seven rebounds, sparking a postgame celebration that belied the fact that it was one game of 82.
The Warriors once famously touted the “two timelines,” keeping their vets as headliners while hoping their youth could ramp things up, keeping them in the mix. The Warriors won the 2022 title with strong contributions from Jordan Poole – a surprise, it must be said, for the young core they planned to invest in.
But Poole is gone, traded for a season of Chris Paul. James Wiseman, the second overall pick in 2020, hasn’t played in the Bay Area or anywhere else thus far. Moses Moody has shown signs but has struggled to find a consistent spot in the rotation. The only one who has really shown promise is Jonathan Kuminga, who is in his second season as a second option, but even he has struggled to fit perfectly into Kerr’s attacking system.
Green, for his part, believes in Kuminga and even came off the bench for a few games to help the 22-year-old acclimatize. If the Warriors want to make a meaningful deal, Kuminga will likely have to be involved as they have not yet agreed to a contract extension with him.
“So as far as we’re concerned, if something’s going to happen, it’s got to be the right thing,” Green said. “We’re not going to jump and make the wrong decision because we panicked. This way you set your organization back five to seven years.”
With the new, highly restrictive collective bargaining agreement put in place over the past two years, it completely discourages teams from making big-money, big-money moves, effectively preventing them from taking advantage of exceptions and combining single-player players if they find is in the second apron.
It sounds like Green is well aware of the penalties for franchises, or at least has come to terms with how the Warriors will move forward. That’s why interest in disgruntled Heat star Jimmy Butler seems tepid at the moment. The only move the Warriors have made so far is trading to the Brooklyn Nets for Dennis Schröder a week before Christmas.
Schröder’s contract expires after this season – further evidence of how delicately the Warriors have handled this.
“We’re still going to compete at the highest level,” Green told Yahoo Sports. “We’re still going to do everything we can to win, but I don’t know a single person who has been in the NBA for a long time and wins every year. So you don’t auction your future because you won’t win in a year or two.”
Their 12-3 start was immediately followed by a 3-12 stretch that brought them back to .500. Green, in turn, is still effective. He shoots 36 percent from three-point range and is averaging almost six assists and more than six rebounds.
But he admitted it isn’t easy to ramp up his usual intensity and said he is regaining his edge after a rut. Even after the victory in Detroit, he wouldn’t boast that all is well; it was just a small step in the right direction.
“I told them it’s all my fault,” he told reporters on Thursday. “I’ve got to get my lead back, and then we’ll get our lead back, you know? So when you have moments where you have to speak to the team and you can’t tell them where you’re failing, no one will listen to you.”
Even Curry has experienced some slippage at age 36, and if the Warriors want to make a decent run, they’ll likely need to recruit someone to make the game easier for Curry. Otherwise, they will continue on the path they have been on since winning their fourth title: They have won just one playoff series since then, losing in the play-in tournament against Sacramento last April.
“You have to keep building. And for us, that will always be the focus,” Green said. “It will never be, ‘Something is going wrong.’ Make the dumbest move you can make.” We are not that organization.”
He envisions a day when he’s retired and still an active part of a thriving franchise — not one ashamed of moves made out of desperation — as connective tissue.
“When I’m done, when Steph’s done, I want us to come back. When Steve’s done, I want us to come back, sit on the field and talk so much trash to everyone,” Green said. “Because our organization, our team, is so good.”