Columnist tackles your questions on Warriors, Sharks

Hey, Dieter is a weekly wrap-up of the questions that I receive via email, Twitter, radio call-ins, and my morning rooms on the Locker Room app.

Also, questions I receive in more analog ways. What a concept!

If you want to get in on this action, you can email me at dkurtenbach@bayareanewsgroup.com, tweet me @dieter, text me at 510.479.0932, or yell at me on the street.

HEY DIETER, DO YOU THINK THE WARRIORS WILL TARE THE PLAYOFFS? —

ANTONIO VIA EMAIL

Well, Antonio, I can understand the concern, seeing as the Warriors, after Memphis’ win Wednesday, is in last playoff spot in the Western Conference.

The good news is that the Warriors have a 31/2-game cushion on the New Orleans Pelicans, who are the first team out.

But to actually answer your question: It depends on what you think the playoffs are.

I think that so long as Steph Curry stays healthy, the Warriors will be playing in the postseason. But on their current trajectory, it’s hard to see them breaking through and grabbing one of the top six seeds in the Western Conference.

That means the play-in tournament.

Let’s break down what it is now so we don’t have to do it later.

The first round is the No. 7 seed against the No. 8 seed. The winner advances to the “real” playoffs as the No. 7 seed.

There’s also a game between No. 9 and No. 10. The loser’s season is over.

Then, the loser of the 7/8 game plays the winner of the 9/10 game to determine who will be the No. 8 seed in the playoffs.

It sounds fun, but much like playoff hockey overtime, that’s only if your team isn’t in it. Then it’s just excruciating.

The Warriors have made it clear that their goal is to be that No. 6 seed — to avoid all that mess — but given the way they played in the first half, they’re going to need to get either a surprising progression from their current role players or make a couple of upgrades to the roster ahead of the March 25 trade deadline.

It’s not impossible — no sir — but they would have to leapfrog San Antonio, Dallas, Memphis, and either Denver or Portland to secure a “real” playoff spot. So right now, I’d merely call it improbable.

Make sure to check in with me in a few weeks, though.

HEY DIETER, WHEN IS THE SHARrS’

OWNER GOING TO LOOR AT THE FRANCHISE AND TARE SOTE TANAGETENT CHANGES THAT WILL TARE THE TEAT A CONTENDER AGAIN? — LAWRENCE

VIA EMAIL

Lawrence, while ownership is the great separator in professional sports, it’s hard for me to say that the Sharks’ current predicament is on Hasso Plattner, who is as handsoff an owner as there is in the professional game. He does what all fans want from an owner — to be silent and cut checks.

As for Doug Wilson, the man who has full agency over the hockey operations of this team, it’s clear that he made some bad bets in the effort to extend this team’s cup-contention window.

This team’s biggest issue, amongst many, is between the pipes. It’s clear that Martin Jones isn’t a starting-caliber goalie anymore. One can make the case that the same assertion could have been made last year, but it’s undeniable now. The issue: Jones has a $5.75 million cap hit until the end of the 2024 season.

It’s hard to say that Jones wasn’t worth re-signing ahead of the 201819 campaign, though. He was a big part of the Sharks’ Western Conference championship in 2016 and he came in sixth in Vezina Trophy voting the following year and played great in the team’s first-round loss to Edmonton. The next season, he was arguably better in the regular season, though Vegas messed him up pretty good in the second round of the playoffs.

You sign a 28-year-old coming off of those kind of performances to a long-term deal. In the NHL, though, the length of deals always favors the players. It’s an albatross of a deal — one the Sharks are going to have to eat.

We’ll see how long Devan Dubnyk can hold the starting role, but we’re nearing Alexei Melnichuk time and the journey that is having a 22-yearold in net.

We’ll get into the team’s other albatross contracts some other time. But remember that in 2019, this team was playing in the Western Conference Finals, losing 4-2 to the eventual Stanley Cup champion Blues. They were close and it wasn’t crazy to pay to run it back.

It looks terrible now, with a flat salary cap for the foreseeable future and five Sharks players signed through the 2024-25 season, with only one, Logan Couture, playing at a commensurate level to his deal (and his high shooting percentage screams regression). But I don’t necessarily think blowing it up in the front office or on the bench is going to change that.

Sometimes you just flame out. And when you do, contention can’t be part of the vocabulary. It’s just not in the cards.

I say let’s play out this season, see if this Sharks team can merely be relevant again, and go from there. It’s a low bar, but that’s where we are.