Will 2023-24 season be ‘the last dance’ for Golden State Warriors core?

Heading into the 2023-24 NBA season, there’s reason to believe it will be approached as “the last dance” for the Golden State Warriors.

The Golden State Warriors have some big questions to answer about their future but there could be a chance that the team elects to push all that down the road for one more season. There’s a growing feeling that the 2023-24 NBA season could be viewed as the team’s “last dance” with their current core.

That’s the feeling that The Atheltic’s Tim Kawakami is getting after he reported that Stephen Curry wants the team to keep the core together for at least one more season. And there’s reason to believe that if that’s what Curry wants, there’s a good chance that’s what he will get.

What that possibly means for Draymond Green

That could add some clarity to this team heading into the offseason, especially when it comes to Draymond Green’s situation. Draymond has a player option for next season and could test free agency if that’s something he wants to do this summer.

While in the past he has voiced the possibility of him moving on from the Warriors, he recently made it clear that in an ideal world, he would retire as a Warrior. But the Warriors’ salary cap issues do make that complicated.

The easy move to avoid all that and push back that huge decisions would be for him to opt into the final year of his contract. That would essentially put Draymond on the same timeline as Klay Thompson, two parts of this team’s core.

Both would be expiring contracts after next season and could set up the team for some big changes then, if that’s something they want to explore. That would appease Curry’s call for “one last dance” for this Warriors’ core and would give Golden State the option next summer to either keep the band together or to effectively move on altogether.

There’s no question that it’s a huge decision that could have huge implications for the franchise. But as soon as Bob Myers stepped down from his position as the team’s president and general manager, it was clear that it was the end of an era.

But Curry, Klay, and Draymond may all want one more crack at it. They want a shot to get back to the mountaintop. After a disappointing title defense season in which they lost in the second round of the playoffs to the Los Angeles Lakers, how could you blame them?

This upcoming season could end up being “the last dance” for this Warriors’ core. If so, it’s been one heck of a ride.