Curry’s out. So what should the Warriors do now? Tank!
Broken left hand suffered Wednesday to sideline star for extended period of time
SAN FRANCISCO » You probably have heard of LaMelo Ball.
But do you know who Anthony Edwards is? What about James Wiseman? Cole Anthony?
Warriors fans should start getting familiar with those names now, because after Stephen Curry broke his left hand in the Warriors’ latest embarrassing loss Wednesday, the path forward for this team is clear:
Pack it up. It’s time to tank the season and get a high pick in next summer’s NBA draft.
We don’t yet know how long Curry will be out. Curry saw hand specialists Thursday and the team will likely release the findings of a CT scan today. But the best- case scenario has him missing at least a quarter of the season.
Yes, Curry’s injury means this Warriors season is lost. It was probably already lost, but now it’s official. The Warriors now need to do everything they can to maximize their 2020-2021 season. That means even more minutes for young players and building up their 2020 NBA draft lottery odds.
The Warriors need to make it a priority to lose as often as possible going forward. Given what we’ve seen so far, that shouldn’t be a tall order.
It’s early, of course — four games — but the Warriors were so egregiously bad in three of those first four games that it was fair to wonder how soon the team should pack it in. How could your mind not go there
when they fell behind 4714 to the Suns — the Phoenix Suns! — in the second quarter Wednesday?
But when Curry tumbled over the Suns’ Aron Baynes — a 7-foot center who was, for some reason, taking a charge against a 6-foot-2 guard — the answer was given.
Call it a small sample size if you must, but the Warriors didn’t look like a team that was going to be competing for the playoffs with Curry. Without him, they don’t stand a chance of making the postseason.
It doesn’t matter if Curry is out for a few weeks or a few months, either. He needed to play at least 70 games for this Warriors team to be competitive, and even that might not have been enough. That number looks like it will come in well under with this injury, even if the bestcase scenario — a threeor four-week absence — comes to pass.
Curry’s hand will heal, of course. He’ll be able to play again at some point this season, but I’m not sure there will be much to play for once that happens. There’s no value in mediocrity in the NBA and that’s likely the Warriors’ ceiling with Curry out of the lineup for an extended period of time.
So they might as well keep him on the shelf for as long as possible. Right? He’s played in five straight NBA Finals — rest those legs for a while, fella.
In the meantime, the Warriors should let D’Angelo Russell dribble excessively and shoot a contested floater 40 times a game. Give Jordan Poole 30-plus minutes of run, too. Give those twoway contract guys all the minutes they can handle. Let’s see if rookie Eric Paschall is the second coming of Draymond Green by resting Green some games. There’s no need for him to use up any of his valuable but dwindling mileage on a lost season.
Will owner Joe Lacob like it? Of course not. He just opened up a brandnew arena that he built with his own money. Is Steve Kerr going to like it? Not at all — he’s a competitor. Green is for sure going to hate it — losing eats at his soul.
But effectively turning this season into a developmental camp is the pragmatic thing to do for the long-term future of this team. It’s a worthy sacrifice for a brighter tomorrow.
The Warriors will be fine next season, regardless of where they pick in the 2020 draft. The core of (a should-be rested) Curry, Green and Klay Thompson will be back together again. And Andre Iguodala is likely to be back in the fold, too. The Warriors will be a formidable team.
But the better the draft pick the Warriors can get out of this season, the better chance that core can expand to include another premier player, either via trade or selection. You can’t land an MVP talent, such as Giannis Antetokounmpo, with Russell as your only chip.
And in this league, we know that premier players are everything.
It’s absurd, but over the team’s last six games, they’ve lost Kevin Durant (to injury and for good), Thompson (ACL) and now Curry to serious injury.
The basketball gods have spoken. They are cruel and perhaps unjust, but their message is unmistakable:
Shut it down, Warriors. Turn this into your 1997 Spurs season — the year San Antonio tanked so it could land Tim Duncan with the No. 1 pick. The rest is history, four championships in eight years and five overall.
It might hurt now, but I swear, it’s for the best.