Golden State Warriors: The end of a dynasty is nearly here

For the Golden State Warriors, the end of one of the NBA’s most dominating dynasties is practically here and it’s hard to ignore the signs

If you ask each Golden State Warriors player individually, on the record, they’ll give you the political answer. You know, some variation of, “we’re not focused on the offseason and are trying to win an NBA Championship.”

However, no matter how knee-deep they are in their current series against the Houston Rockets, in which they are now essentially in a best-of-three series with a trip to the Western Conference Finals on the line, the signs are almost impossible to ignore.

Even if the Warriors manage to win their third straight NBA Championship, and fourth in five years, there’s a very good chance that this is the end for this franchise’s dynasty.

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Call me reactionary or a prisoner of the moment, but let me quickly paint a picture for you as you continue to try and tune out the noise that only seems to be getting louder and louder.

Just for the sake of it all, let’s say the Warriors go on and win the NBA Championship. Enter the summer, DeMarcus Cousins, Klay Thompson, and Kevin Durant – three of their top five players – are all free agents. While the expectation is that the Warriors will offer Durant the max amount of money they could offer, it would be, at this point, a huge upset for him to re-sign with the Warriors.

The overwhelming opinion and growing thoughts are that he’s going to take his talents East and possibly join the New York Knicks. In fact, at this point, it would probably be a bigger surprise if he re-signed with the Warriors than there would be if he signed with the Knicks. Similar to what happened with LeBron James this past summer. Everyone knew he was signing with the Lakers, and it’s exactly what happened on July 1.

And as soon as Durant leaves the Warriors, to a certain extent the dynasty is over. Even then, though, they’d still probably be the favorite to win the championship again next season. However, the exodus from Golden State likely doesn’t stop there.

Barring another unforeseen injury, Cousins will likely get his big money, long contract that he was looking for the last offseason. The Warriors can’t really offer him that kind of money, and that’s understandable.

Then, there’s Klay Thompson. And this is where it gets really interesting and, in my opinion, the straw that could break the camel’s back.

Once Durant and Cousins leave the Warriors, there’s a big decision that the Warriors will need to make – and it’s whether or not they will give Thompson the max contract that he’d easily command on the open market.

If given the opportunity, there will be teams lining up to give Thompson max money this summer – with the Los Angeles Clippers, Los Angeles Lakers and Brooklyn Nets being three of them. For the Warriors, it’s not that simple. For one, there’s no team out there that will have more information than Golden State when it comes to Thompson.

He’s been a key cog to the dynasty for the last eight seasons, but at the same time thrived as the team’s third best player over the last few years. The last time Thompson was forced to be the second-best player, the Warriors were either beating a short-handed Cleveland Cavaliers (who were without both Kyrie Irving and Kevin Love) team in the NBA Finals or blowing a 3-1 series lead to LeBron.

Plus, when the team has needed him most, he’s been relatively average. Thompson, through the first four games against the Rockets, is only averaging 15 points on 38 percent shooting from the field and 30 percent from 3-point range.

With Stephen Curry struggling, the Warriors have needed Thompson to step up and be the second option to Durant against the Rockets. That simply hasn’t happened and isn’t what you want to see from a player that could be in line to make max money this summer. That, at least to a certain extent, has to throw a bit of doubt in the minds of Golden State’s front office as they head into the summer.

So, with the safe assumption that Durant and Cousins leave in free agency this summer (no matter what happens over the course of the next month and a half), the Warriors have either two plans of action: they could either overpay Thompson and hope that Curry still has a few top prime years in front of him (and hope effective Draymond Green can hang around for a bit longer too), or the team that has prided itself on being “light years ahead” can simply hit the soft reset button and rebuild a new core around Curry.

No matter which course of action they take, one thing’s for sure. The end of the Golden State Warriors as we know them is near.