The Golden State Warriors have now missed the playoffs for the second consecutive season after failing to win the eight-seed play-in game at home against the Memphis Grizzlies on Friday night. Because national talk show hosts like Colin Cowherd were so used to watching the Warriors win over the past six or seven years, they might be quick to think that the Warriors’ window to win championships is over.
“You’ve got to blow this team up. It’s over,” Cowherd said after Golden State’s loss to the Lakers. “You can’t live in the rearview mirror with the Warriors. It’s over and it’s time to dismantle this puppy.”
Cowherd’s statement couldn’t be farther from the truth.
Curry is the Greatest Shooter in the World Playing at an MVP Level
It would be understandable if Cowherd wanted to say that the Warriors should blow it up if their best player was declining, but Stephen Curry isn’t. He actually is getting better compared to recent years.
In 2021, the seven-time All-Star averaged a career-high 32 points per game. Yes, higher than when he won the MVP in 2015 (23.8) and 2016 (30.1). Also keep in mind that he did this without much help at all offensively, as we saw in the play-in games. Curry scored 37 and 39 points, respectively, with both games against the Lakers and Grizzlies resulting in close losses.
When players are performing at an MVP level as Curry is right now, you don’t see their teams just give up and not try to win. Giannis Antetokounmpo came into 2021 winning back-to-back MVP awards and the Bucks went out and got him Jrue Holiday and P.J. Tucker. Even the Wizards tried to mix things up by bringing in Russell Westbrook to pair with their star, Bradley Beal, before this season, and now they’re in the first round of the playoffs.
Cowherd said on Thursday that “Steph has got a lot of titles in him” and his “skills will age really well”, so why would the Warriors not try to capitalize on the possibility to win him a few more rings over the next few years?
A Hall of Fame Addition Next Season
People are reacting to Golden State’s early exit as if the Warriors were at full strength and still ended up missing the playoffs. They weren’t.
Klay Thompson suffered a season-ending Achilles injury on the night of the NBA draft, which essentially ended the Warriors’ chances of going deep into the playoffs. Then, they were missing their #2 overall pick, James Wiseman, for a significant chunk of the season after he underwent knee surgery to repair a torn meniscus on April 15.
The Warriors are essentially going to be adding two very important players to their roster next season, which will boost their chances of winning a title exponentially.
Warriors Situation Entering 2021-22 Mirrors 2020-21 Nets
The Brooklyn Nets were a mediocre team (35-37) when they had one star player on the court during the 2019-20 season (Kyrie Irving). But then this season when they essentially added a future Hall of Famer in Kevin Durant, who was returning from an Achilles injury that he suffered in the 2019 NBA Finals with Golden State, Brooklyn entered the regular season with the third-best odds to win the NBA Finals.
The Warriors are in the same situation right now. They were a mediocre team this season (an eighth seed entering the play-in tournament) but will be adding a future Hall of Famer in Thompson, who is widely considered as one of the best shooters of all time at the start of the 2021-2022 season.
It’s hard to believe that the Warriors’ preseason odds before next season won’t be in the top five of the Western Conference, if not the entire league.
What Does ”Blowing It Up” Accomplish?
Even if we don’t even look at the fact that Thompson and Wiseman are returning next year, it still wouldn’t make much sense to trade any of their stars.
Trading Draymond Green would make Golden State’s defense much less effective because they wouldn’t have a player that could actually guard the LeBron James‘ of the world.
Don’t even bring up the possibility of trading Curry to Warriors fans. He is the face of the franchise and arguably the best player to ever wear their uniform. Curry has said he wants to stay in a Warriors uniform for the rest of his career so if GM Bob Myers were to trade him, then it would absolutely infuriate the fan base.
Just one reason it wouldn’t make fans happy is that there is no player that Golden State could select in the NBA Draft that would have as good of a career as Curry is having. You could also say that they would trade Curry for an All-Star, but Curry is one of the elite players in the world alongside James Harden, Durant, LeBron, and Giannis.
You’re not going to get a Durant back in a trade because any team acquiring Curry would want to pair him with their other star player.
It’s simply not the time to even think about the Warriors rebuilding because there’s too much talent on their team to give up.
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