Warriors dynasty nearing the end?
The revolutionary nature of his shotmaking, and the distinctive brand of showmanship paired with it, will always be Stephen Curry’s standout traits. Yet there’s also a sentimental side emerging with Curry, which he’s finding difficult to conceal as he enters his 10th — yes, 10th — NBA season.
Curry’s Golden State Warriors begin their final campaign at Oracle Arena on Tuesday night when they host the Oklahoma City Thunder, tipping off the two-time reigning champions’ farewell to the league’s oldest building in earnest. As soon as someone brings up moving on from the birthplace of the NBA’s latest dynasty, Curry admits it’s hard not to feel sappy.
“I would say that I’m envisioning a special moment in June, hopefully playing another Finals in Oracle, hopefully winning another championship, going out with a bang,” Curry said last week before an exhibition game in Las Vegas, Nev. “We would love to give Oracle and Oakland one last ride. There’s so much history baked into it.”
There are limits, though, to how far Curry, at 30, is willing to peer into the future. He’ll hoist the ball from just about anywhere once he crosses midcourt — and revealed that one of his first pro goals was topping his father Dell Curry’s 16 seasons in the league — but Curry is adamant about tuning out any talk of these Warriors nearing the end of their reign.
Since media day Sept. 24, when coach Steve Kerr described his team as “well aware” its recurring sta-
tus as the overwhelming preseason favorite to win it all is “not going to last forever,” Golden State’s last season in Oakland before moving into the glitzy Chase Center in San Francisco has been increasingly billed as the potential beginning of the end of its dominance.
It’s a supposition that stems from the fact that the All-Star duo of Kevin Durant and Klay Thompson will both be free agents in July, with their fellow All-Star Draymond Green hitting the open market in July 2020. The All-Star newcomer DeMarcus Cousins, meanwhile, is widely expected to spend only one season as a Warrior after joining them on a cut-rate deal worth $5.3 million.
But Curry and Kerr, Golden State’s only cornerstones signed to longterm contracts, caution that it’s far too early for the rest of the NBA to engage in such wishful thinking.
Asked about growing speculation Durant and Thompson will want to play elsewhere starting next season, Curry said: “Maybe there is a little bit of fatigue in terms of covering us, because it feels like people trying to plant seeds that aren’t there. At the end of the day, NBA players have the opportunity to go where they want to go, but I feel like people want to be here. We have a great thing going that we want to sustain and keep together for as long as we can.
“Whatever happens next summer is going to happen — regardless of what anybody says right now. So my job — and I think the way we’re all approaching this — is that this year is about this year. It’s nothing for us to worry about right now, because it’s all kind of wasted breath.”
Said Kerr: “When I said what I said, I didn’t mean for it to be that this could be the end. What I meant was, ‘We’re in the middle of this run and let’s enjoy it.’ We’re aware we’re in that sweet spot.”
Obsessing over future player movement inevitably tantalizes fans as much as than the chase for the championship. It’s especially inevitable this season, after the rich-get-richer Warriors increased their roster total to five All-Stars from last season by signing Cousins — and after LeBron James fled the Eastern Conference for Los Angeles without a second established star.
Even after another dizzying flurry of summer player movement, from LeBron landing with the Lakers to the makeover of the Houston Rockets’ supporting cast, Golden State nonetheless appeared to widen the gap on the chasing pack as it pursues a fourth championship in five seasons — unless the Boston Celtics reach their full potential upon welcoming Kyrie Irving and Gordon Hayward back from injury.
“This league is crazy, things change from year to year, and nothing’s guaranteed obviously — but if we take care of business when it counts, in the playoffs, then we can’t be beat,” Curry said.
Kerr is focusing instead on the looming prospect of working Cousins’ unique skill set into the Warriors’ mix. He’s also eagerly anticipating the prospect of Durant, Curry, Thompson and Green being healthy to easily top the mere 41 games they managed to play in together last season.
Kerr himself is an excellent place after his long-standing complications from 2015 back surgery, feeling good enough physically to commit to a side gig for the next two offseasons as an assistant to Gregg Popovich with USA Basketball.
Wednesday night, Kerr was mostly feeling grateful for his years in Chicago alongside the coaching genius Tex Winter, who passed away earlier that day at 96. Kerr was struggling to hang on to his spot as a journeyman guard when Winter persuaded the Bulls to sign him to a nonguaranteed contract entering the 1993-94 season. Winter was certain the heady Kerr would be a perfect role player in the famed triangle offense he was running for Phil Jackson; Kerr is the first to admit now that the success he found as a contributor to three Bulls championships was the springboard for everything else good in his basketball life.
“I literally never would have been coach of the Warriors without Tex Winter,” Kerr said, savoring his own slice of history.