The Golden State Warriors face an uncertain future
After losing two key players for the foreseeable future, and the NBA Finals, the Golden State Warriors face an uncertain future
As a fan, I’ve haven’t been the biggest fan of the Golden State Warriors, especially since Kevin Durant joined the team back in 2016 but after the 2019 NBA Finals, I have a newfound respect for both Durant and the entire Warriors team.
It was because of the way they fought and continued to play through all of those notable injuries in the. From KDs ruptured Achilles to Boogie, Kevon Looney and Andre Iguodala who all had injury troubles of their own and then the final nail in the coffin was when Klay went down with an ACL tear in Game 6.
That’s not the way any team wants to go out, especially a dynasty like this Golden State team. But despite losing and despite all the injuries, the dubs went out like they were supposed to; fighting. And that moment – after going down – when Klay hobbled back on to the court to shoot his two free throws and then to try to stay in the game to play defence. It was emotional, inspiring and just all around cool to see in what was the last game ever played in the Bay Area.
All of that aside though, the team came up short in the NBA Finals and now find themselves in a pretty sticky and interesting financial situation going forward. Let’s take a look at the state of the Warriors’ future…
*And if you want to hear me dive deep into this topic plus a whole lot more, be sure to check out the latest episode of the Around the Arc podcast (listen below)!
The Team’s Core
First off, they’re likely going to look to sign both Klay Thompson and Kevin Durant to full, max contract extensions. Even if they do re-sign both KD and Klay, each of them will miss at least the majority of next season and it’s not looking too likely that Durant will still be sticking around anyway. Because of this – barring some sort of miracle run – The Golden State Warriors will likely be out of contention, at least for next season.
But that’s not where this story ends…
It’s more than feasible to expect Klay to make a full recovery from his ACL tear so once the team’s original core returns to full strength, it just becomes a matter of filling out the rest of the roster around the Splash Bros (and maybe Draymond) and if they can ace that, then yes I think Golden State can have a few more contending years before this era is well and truly over.
Looking at Draymond Green now; yes, he had an awesome playoff run and yes he really stepped up in KD’s absence, but he’s not quite the same defender he was a couple of years ago and his perimeter shooting has inexplicably fallen off a cliff in the last year or two.
Also, he becomes a free agent next summer where he’ll more than likely demand a lot of money. Now even an older, less athletic Green can still be a pivotal piece of the Dubs’ future title chances but a real question is going to be, is it worth maybe overpaying him to keep him, or is it better trading him sooner rather than later?
If the Warriors are leaning more towards the latter, it wouldn’t be crazy to see a Draymond Green trade, maybe as early as this offseason!
The Rest of the Roster
As a team, Golden State’s financial situation is not pretty and it’s going to become more and more expensive for them to keep this core together. If they’re going to keep Durant as well as the other core guys, it will actually become historically expensive to do so.
So going forward, this puts additional pressure on every single player they sign, however small the contract is because there won’t be nearly the same margin for error there was before, especially if KD is gone, plus with Klay’s injury and Draymond’s slow but steady decline.
On the plus side, however, they do still have almost all of their draft picks which can either be used as potential trade assets or tools for building into the future, maybe looking beyond the Steph, Klay and Draymond days.
Next. 2019 NBA Draft: 4 value picks for title contenders. dark
In conclusion, the Golden State Warriors are still going to be a good team. They’ll probably make the playoffs next year and if they do return to full health, while doing a respectable job filling out the rest of the roster, then yes, they can become real contenders again, but for the time being anyway, the NBA – and the Western Conference in particular – has been blown wide open.