Do not go gentle into that good night,
Old age should burn and rave at close of day;
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.
—Dylan Thomas
LOS ANGELES — The Warriors know the party isn’t going to last forever.
They also refuse to believe it is ending now, even if from the outside it seems like the lights are on, the bartender yelled “last call” 15 minutes ago, and the staff is flipping the chairs on top of the tables.
Golden State’s dynasty feels like it is teetering, if not already quickly sliding down the hill toward extinction — the Warriors are old, expensive, both their offense and defense have been pedestrian this season, and after Thursday’s loss to the Clippers they have dropped 12 of their last 16 games. The four-time champs are four games below .500 and looking up at even the last play-in spot in the West (by three games).
Yet the confidence of a champion remains.
“We’ve got to take it one game at a time, as crazy as it sounds that’s not something we’re used to saying,” Stephen Curry said. “But we were just talking about it in the locker room, like we just need to win on Saturday [at home against Brooklyn]. It’s okay to kind of take small bites at this thing. Because I think were obviously a long way away from the tier that we want to be in. So let’s just win Saturday.”
That win Saturday — and any future ones over the next few weeks at least — would have to come without their defensive anchor Draymond Green, who has been suspended indefinitely by the league for clubbing the Suns’ Jusuf Nurkic in the head. The tension over the future of this team is just part of the context of Green’s actions.
“He can’t do what he’s been doing. He knows that. We know that. Everybody knows that,” Curry said. “What that means to change, I think that’s the search for the answer, right? Like, that’s the journey that we’re on now. I think the tone has obviously changed from any other suspensions.”
Kerr shakes up Warriors’ lineups
Jonathan Kuminga started at the four in Green’s place against the Clippers and finished with 15 points and five rebounds. That one change opened the door for coach Steve Kerr to make a more dramatic one: Inserting rookie Brandin Podziemski into the starting lineup in place of struggling Andrew Wiggins.
Podziemski and Kuminga brought a much-needed jolt of energy and athleticism to the starting five for the Warriors. Kerr had been slow to move away from a starting lineup that had been the best in the NBA last season statistically, but had a -10.2 net rating this season. It changed because Klay Thompson was in a shooting slump and not near his vintage self, center Kevon Looney has been a step slower, and at age 28 Andrew Wiggins suddenly looked like a shell of the guy who got a big contract extension after the Warriors 2022 title.
“Changes were necessary,” Curry said. “When you’re a team that is struggling to find identity, and trying to find momenum and win basketball games consistently, you have to experiment. You can’t keep doing the same thing and expect different results. So I think energy was was good tonight. We did some really good things.”
Not enough good things to beat a Clippers team that has won six in a row, and got 28 points and 15 assists from James Harden. Without Green the Warriors defense let them down Thursday, with the Clippers putting up a ridiculous 130.3 offensive rating for the night.
Defense, once the calling card of the Warriors dynasty, is not something the Warriors have done well all season. What the Warriors have done well this season is shoot — much of which is about Stephen Curry still playing at a top-10 in the NBA level at age 35 — and they rebound the ball. Thursday was Klay Thompson’s turn to get hot shooting, he scored 30 points on and hit 8-of-12 from 3 — he looked as close to his vintage self as he has all season. It was a welcome sign, but can he start doing that consistently? His up-and-down play (more down than up) has been an issue this season.
Klay up to 30 POINTS ‼️ pic.twitter.com/JfKVq1FrA7
— Warriors on NBCS (@NBCSWarriors) December 15, 2023
Time for trade to blow up Warriors?
Even the return of peak Thompson was not enough to get a win. Nothing has been.
All of which has led to speculation about the Warriors making a bold trade as we move toward the Feb. 8 deadline. Both Kerr and, earlier in the day, GM Mike Dunleavy Jr. said a lot will be decided during the next 10-15 games. They will evaluate where this team is at in the West, look at the trade market as it develops, and consider going all-in on something big to get this team back to what Curry called the “reasonable contender” tier.
Most likely that would mean trading Chris Paul, who has played reasonably well for Golden State but shows his age at 38 and has an expiring $30 million contract (technically he has a non-guaranteed $30 million for next season but any team would waive him rather than pay that, Warriors included).
Could they even break up this championship core and trade the expiring contract of Klay Thompson as the sides remain apart on an extension? Would they consider trading Draymond Green? (Good luck with that. Green has three years, $77.7 million left on his contract after this season, is showing a fading skill set and would not fit as naturally in another system as he does in Golden State.) To be clear, none of the core players on the Warriors (Looney included) are getting traded without Stephen Curry’s approval — he is still the franchise and if he wants to continue playing with Klay and Draymond, he will get to do just that.
Even if the Warriors are willing to break up their core, who could they get that would change the trajectory of this season? Zach LaVine out of Chicago is not the answer and is very expensive. Do the Warriors have the trade assets to get in the mix for a player like Pascal Siakam or OG Anunoby in Toronto — if the Raptors even make them available? There is no easy fix.
Any trade may not be about winning — if these next 10-15 games prove to the Warriors they are done for this season, any deal could be about lowering the record estimated $192 million tax bill owner Joe Lacob and the Warriors are facing. This is the most expensive roster in the NBA and if they are looking at the play-in or worse we could see cost-cutting moves.
A lot rides on the next 10-15 games — and most of those are at home. Saturday’s contest against Brooklyn starts a run of Golden State having 11-of-13 in the Chase Center — and to a man the Warriors talked about that being a chance to change the narrative of their season in that stretch.
"[Being 10-14] Not the ideal record we’d like, but we know we have the ability to flip it around and I’m looking forward to just having a great homestand…" Klay Thompson said. “If it was easy and if every year we won 65, 73, or 50 games or whatever, I don’t think we appreciate as much. So this year I think we have time to turn around and I was excited for the opportunities ahead.”
“I think we’re deep and I think we’re going to we’re going to make a run here. I really believe that,” Kerr said.
That depth — and moving some bench players into the starting lineup — gave the Warriors starting five some energy against the Clippers. Kerr said he would stick with this group for a few games and evaluate them. In that time, the bench must find itself; that group struggled against the Clippers with slow rotations. James Harden and Norman Powell (21 points) carved them up.
The Warriors need their first run of consistent play this season, something nobody on this team has done outside of Curry. The Warriors of years past were about using the regular season to build good habits for a deep playoff run, but good habits have been hard to come by for Kerr and the Warriors this season.
Is this what the end of the dynasty looks like? It sure feels that way.
But Curry and company will rage against that dying of the light for as long as they can.
