On the heels of a loss to the Toronto Raptors on Monday, the Golden State Warriors, after a 12-3 start to the season, have dropped 18 of their last 25 games to fall below .500 (19-20). If the season ended today, they wouldn’t even make the Play-In Tournament. Woof.
Reasonable minds can disagree on the two-timeline approach the Warriors have taken and/or the hard line they have, to this point, drawn on not mortgaging their future for a short-term trade in one last effort to put a contender around Stephen Curry before his star fades out. But it doesn’t really matter what anyone else thinks. Curry himself said on Monday night that as badly as he still wants to win, the team shouldn’t make a desperate move as the trade Feb. 6 deadline approaches.
“Desperate trades or desperate moves that deplete the future, there is a responsibility on allowing or keeping the franchise in a good space and good spot when it comes to where we leave this thing when we’re done,” Curry said, via ESPN. “Doesn’t mean that you’re not trying to get better. It doesn’t mean that you’re not active in any type of search to — if you have an opportunity where a trade makes sense or even in the summer free agency [move] makes sense. You want to continue to get better. Nobody wants to be stale or be in a situation where you’re passing up opportunities. But it doesn’t mean that you’re desperate just flinging assets all around the place just because you want to do something.
“… [Warriors GM Mike Dunleavy Jr.] understands we want to win,” Curry said. “We want to be in that position where we’ve always said that you want to be relevant in the championship type of chase. While we understand we’re getting older and deeper into our careers and allowing some of the young guys to kind of blossom, it doesn’t mean you’re getting desperate.”
Kudos to Curry for continuing to be a model superstar. He doesn’t question the coach. He doesn’t question the front office. He doesn’t — unlike, say, a certain guy in Miami (or all the others we could name) — demand trades. He just goes out and still, at age 36, plays at an All-NBA level.
Still, it sucks to watch the Warriors be this bad when Curry is still this good. Over their last 25 games, the Warriors rank bottom 10 in offense (27th), defense (20th) and net rating (24th). Watching them try to create even the slightest individual offensive advantage is painful. Watching them when Curry goes to the bench is downright dangerous to your health.
Maybe they end up finding a way to thread the needle and make a meaningful trade at the deadline without giving up the young guys in which they have, rightly or wrongly, invested so much by way of previous lost trade opportunities. They went and got Dennis Schroder, mostly because he didn’t cost them anything. It seems unlikely they strike another one of those deals.
But even if they do, it’s not enough to make them a contender. If you read between the lines, it sounds like Curry is saying he’s OK with that. That’s admirable and kind of sad at the same time.
