SAN FRANCISCO -- This Warriors season dawned with a sharp reduction in expectation, from the usual 60 or so wins and the NBA Finals to maybe winning just enough to sneak into the playoffs.
At best.
The most optimistic preseason projections were based on two things. One, that Stephen Curry, all by his lonesome, would pour in 35 points per game and shimmy his way to the top of the MVP race. Two, that D’Angelo Russell would fill the void created by Klay Thompson's absence.
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Two months later, Curry has missed 29 of 32 games, and will miss at least that many more. And Russell has filled one half of that void -- the offense.
Which is why the Warriors, even after a three-game win streak, sit at 8-24 -- dead last in the Western Conference.
Yet the encouraging performance over the past week has spawned a subculture of fans who hope -- or fear -- that this might be the beginning of a magical playoff run. As in, “Hey, they’re only six games out of the No. 8 seed, so maybe ...”
This is not the year, folks, nor should it be. Too many teams are more talented, or more consistent, or both.
Golden State Warriors
Though it might be nice to gloat about the Warriors reaching the playoffs in eight consecutive seasons, they stand to get far more mileage out of a very high draft pick than a first-round series with the Clippers. The franchise has accepted this, not only because it should but also because reality demands it.
It has been 23 seasons since a sub.-500 team made the playoffs in the West, when three such squads slipped in, and the Warriors would have to go 33-17 the rest of the season to get there. What’s sobering about that is where such a record would fall in comparison to the last two seasons, when they actually were built to win it all.
They were 36-14 over the final 50 games last season and 32-18 in 2017-18. These Warriors are not, even in the deepest recesses of the most addled mind, a mere three games inferior to the team of last season, and no way are they one game superior to the championship team of 2018.
Oh, but this might be the season that a sub-.500 team sneaks in. The conference is light at the top, with just two teams, the Lakers and Nuggets, playing .700 ball, and very heavy from No. 3 through No. 14. The Suns (11-19), for example, have lost seven in a row yet only are two games out of the No. 8 spot occupied by the Trail Blazers (14-18).
This should not, however, be considered an opening for a 36-win team to crawl its way beyond April 15. Even if it were, the Warriors won’t, and shouldn’t, be that team. The playoffs are at zero priority because they’re looking at this season as one to build toward the next few.
This always was going to be considered a “gap year” because Thompson was out from the start, and a week into the season, Curry joined him on the sideline.
It’s a gap year because Draymond Green’s battered body could benefit from a 60-game season, and 55 would be even better.
It’s a gap year because Russell is the type of player unlike any Warrior since World B. Free in the early 1980s whose presence requires extended time with his teammates to have any chance of developing a rhythm. It is, two months in, still very much a work in progress.
It’s a gap year because Kevon Looney’s future is cloudy, because the roster includes three rookies -- two of them not yet 21 -- and, finally, because there are six contracts that expire before next season.
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The Warriors are just 12 days removed from a fourth consecutive loss, coming against the lowly Kings, after which coach Steve Kerr dropped the E-word: Embarrassing.
So, let’s maintain perspective. Consider the losses a step toward a brighter future. And consider the wins for what they are, a respite from the monotony and a way to raise the value of tradeable assets.