After losing on Monday night to the Utah Jazz on their home floor by a final score of 122-108, the Golden State Warriors have fallen to 2-9 on the season. Stephen Curry is out 3+ months with a fractured hand, Klay Thompson is out for likely the season as he recovers from a torn ACL, and as a whole, this Warriors team looks nothing like they have in past seasons. Their starting lineup against the Jazz was D'Angelo Russell, Jordan Poole, Draymond Green, Glenn Robinson III, and Willie Cauley-Stein. Talk about a different looking lineup!
What makes this extra painful for the Warriors is the fact that they just moved into the Chase Center, their new arena in San Francisco. When you move into a new arena, you're beginning a new era and no team wants to begin a new era like this. Ideally, they would be playing competitive basketball and once again putting themselves in the mix to get a high seed in the Western Conference.
But alas, that is not the case. The Warriors are struggling and instead are on pace for the worst record in the Western Conference and possibly the NBA! It's crazy how much they've fallen from last year! The only silver lining in all of this is that with Thompson likely out for the year anyways, the Warriors were not going to win the NBA championship this year. This was going to be a rebuilding season, so if you're going to rebuild for a year, why not take it to the max and go full tank mode?
The Warriors' core trio of Curry, Thompson, and Green is getting older and they won't be around forever. Getting a really talented rookie to add to the mix just might be what this team needs more than anything else, hence the need to tank. If they can somehow land a top three or even top five pick in next year's draft, the Warriors may bounce right back and once again be a contender within a year or two.
As much as the Warriors' front office doesn't want to swallow this pill, the best thing they can do is just ignore this year and be willing to lose as many games as possible. The higher the draft pick they get for next year, the better.
One major decision the Warriors have to make is what to do with D'Angelo Russell, who has shown some promise as is evident by his 52 point explosion against the Minnesota Timberwolves. He could be a nice piece for them to hang onto or he might be better used as a trade chip to help them rebuild. It's not obvious what the Warriors should do with him, so they better use these next couple of months to closely evaluate him. If there's one thing Warriors fans should watch for this season, it's what their team does with Russell.
Given that they're already tanking the season without even trying to, the Warriors might as well embrace the current and flow with it. Fighting it and trying to salvage this season in the long run is the wrong thing to do. Their sights need to be set on next season and beyond. If they can have this perspective, things should work out alright for them.
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