Warriors must realize current youngsters nothing like championship past originally appeared on NBC Sports Bay Area
There will come a season when the Warriors can’t attack opponents with Stephen Curry’s peerless offense and the unique defense of Draymond Green, two players whose careers will be punctuated by entrance into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame.
The expressions uttered the past few days by coach Steve Kerr, as well as Curry and Green, imply that Golden State will continue to be a force in the NBA. Which suggests they believe a future contender can be built around young players on the current roster, the under-25 battalion.
The comments advising general manager Mike Dunleavy and his fellow knights at the golden roundtable to avoid a desperate move should not be inferred as a sign of surrender. For one, desperation begets error. For two, that’s not how Kerr, Curry and Green are built.
“Anybody who thinks that I’m OK with just being on an average basketball team is insane,” Curry told reporters Wednesday night in Minneapolis, where the Warriors got back to .500 (20-20) by holding on for a 116-115 win over the Timberwolves.
“Take whatever I said, I still stand on it,” Curry added. “But that doesn’t mean that you’re not in a situation where you’re trying to get better, make appropriate moves that help you do that. Mike knows that. We’ve talked about it. That’s the expectation for me.”
Those comments indicate that the Kerr-Curry-Green leadership panel is aware of this team’s limitations but believe it is better than what it has shown the last two months. But the panel does not see a clear path to add a superstar (there isn’t one) and would justifiably question Dunleavy & Co. giving up their best youngsters in a move that would not be massively significant now and perhaps in years to come.
“I hope there’s not a misconception that we’re not fighting and scrapping and hoping that we can do everything possible to keep this thing going – because that’s what we’re doing,” Kerr reporters in Minneapolis. “But it almost feels like the narrative became ‘the Warriors are giving in.’ We’re not giving in. We’re just not going to give away the future. That’s two totally different things.”
From here, it seems the grades Kerr, Curry and Green are assigning to the team’s recent draft picks are loftier than what has been on display. If so, they are grossly depreciating their previous greatness.
The youngsters on the current roster do not belong in the same conversation as those who lifted the Warriors to dynastic heights. Jonathan Kuminga, Moses Moody, Trayce Jackson-Davis and Brandin Podziemski – the under-25 battalion – have what it takes for long and prosperous careers. Maybe there will be some NBA All-Star Game appearances among them.
But if those with a voice in Golden State’s decision-making process honestly believe their young core is too precious to tamper with, there needs to be an explanation. Or an investigation.
This Warriors roster has no “next” Curry. No “next” Draymond. No “next” Klay Thompson. And certainly no “next” Kevin Durant. That quartet, with capable assistance from such culture-altering vets as Andrew Bogut and Andre Iguodala and Shaun Livingston, built a monument.
Five consecutive trips to the NBA Finals represent a mythical achievement; no team had done in more than 50 years. Four championships in eight seasons? Only one other team has ever done it.
None of the youngsters on the Golden State’s roster has established himself as someone around whom championships can be built. Each, including Kuminga and Moody, in their fourth seasons, has questions yet to be answered about their true ceiling.
Then, too, all four have too much potential to send out for a short-term rental or someone who might help the Warriors win three or four more games this season.
“When you’re in a situation like our organization, where everything is, rightfully so, compared to that championship expectation, everything’s going to get micro-analyzed,” Curry said at Target Center. “Obviously, what I’m talking about, (what) Draymond was talking about, (what) Steve was talking about . . . you forget the part where we’re (saying) we’re always trying to get better.
“What does that actually mean? It’s obviously not our job to worry about that on a daily basis. And these three weeks before the trade deadline like our job was to win as many games as possible and, thankfully, we got one tonight.”
This season will have to take care of itself. A trade remains likely, but any “Let’s do it for Steph” vibes that existed in October have vanished. The Warriors are struggling to win three consecutive games – it hasn’t happened since mid-November – and hoping to pull themselves together, reach the playoffs and make noise once they get there.
But no matter what is said by Kerr, Curry or Green, the future the Warriors seem disinclined to “blow up” shows no sign of the all-time greatness of the squads that owned the league. Those Warriors were populated with one-of-one talents. They have not been duplicated elsewhere. Might never be.
But if they genuinely see on their roster a young core capable of relighting that torch and carrying it into the next decade, it is fair to check the color of their glasses.
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