All Signs Suggest The Warriors Are Old, Tired, And Over The Hill
It’s been a sad and disappointing season for the Golden State Warriors, but everyone should have seen this coming. Father Time leaves no stone unturned, especially in the young man’s league that is the National Basketball Association.
Stephen Curry is 37, Jimmy Butler is 36, Draymond Green is 35. That’s an ancient core by NBA standards, and for some reason, the Warriors felt like it was a good idea to add 39-year-old center Al Horford to that mix in the offseason. (Horford might be regretting leaving the Boston Celtics, by the way).
The Warriors have a losing record so far this season (14-15), and a lot of that has to do with missed time from the above guys. Curry has missed nine games. Horford has missed 16 games. Butler (four games missed) and Green (six games missed) have been slightly more durable, but not exemplary.
Even Steve Kerr has looked tired and beyond his wits this season. Once again, he’s been unable to make the Jonathan Kuminga situation work, which has been a massive failure of ego management and locker room chemistry (or lack thereof) for pretty much all of Kuminga’s career, on and off. The Warriors look nothing like a playoff contender. Not even a Giannis trade could salvage this mess.
Everyone sees it, fans and pundits alike. NBA personality Charles Barkley recently went on the The Tom Tolbert Show and asserted that the Warriors as we know them are done.
“They had one of the greatest runs in NBA history but it’s over,” Barkley said. “They’re just old. Steph is on the Mount Rushmore but he gonna keep breaking down. I don’t think Jimmy is the same player and Draymond definitely not the same player.”
The problem with the Warriors is that they failed to extend the dynasty by transitioning responsibilities to a younger core as time went on. Curry remains elite, but to keep this team championship-level, Kerr’s task (and the task of the front office) was to continue recalibrating the roster around Curry to keep it youthful, athletic, and hungry.
The thing that’s most frustrating for Warriors fans about the above failure is that Golden State has actually had the young personnel in place to do exactly this, but they’ve mismanaged that personnel in an ugly way. Kuminga is a guy that should have been morphed into a fringe All-Star type contributor, but Kerr managed him terribly by always keeping his leash too long or too short, and never establishing a consistent role for Kuminga.
Then there’s the Jordan Poole situation, which the Warriors also completely botched, although the fault with that one lies mostly with Draymond. Things were never the same once Green infamously punched Poole during a practice, but Warriors fans can remember a time when Poole was Golden State’s second-best offensive player and an obvious replacement for Klay Thompson’s dwindling capabilities alongside Curry.
Golden State lucked into another Splash Brother and volume scorer in Poole, who was going to be able to keep the Warriors dangerous offensively for years to come, lasting all the way throughout Curry’s career.
Greed and selfishness from Green messed up that entire situation, as he essentially pushed Poole out of the Warriors’ blueprint. In the end, Golden State’s front office and leadership should also be held responsible for siding with the wrong people and/or failing to make all the pieces work.
Now, it’s simply too late. Curry deserves better, but it’s hard to see the Warriors putting a title-worthy product on the court between now and his retirement. It would be awesome to see Curry orchestrate a trade to a contender so that he can keep playing for a title, but that has a close to zero percent chance of happening, given his loyal nature.
Barkley is correct. The Warriors are cooked.