The Golden State Warriors have been the gold standard in the NBA over the last decade, but The Ringer’s Zach Lowe believes the good times won’t last. On an episode of the Zach Lowe Show, Lowe stated that the Warriors’ future looks bleak once Stephen Curry is out of the picture.
“The other depressing thought about the Warriors as currently constructed,” Lowe said. “Depressing but also like the most likely outcome by far to the end of a dynastic era, is that the two timelines thing has not happened. And the post-Steph future, despite all the talk about it, all the careful planning for it, several savvy picks like [Brandin] Podziemski, looks like a good pick for where he was drafted.
“Even a guy like [Trayce] Jackson-Davis looks like a good pick for where he was drafted,” Lowe continued. “Despite all of that, the post-Steph future looks incredibly bleak. The Kuminga transaction, whatever it is, to me is maybe the single most important franchise-building transaction that’s coming in the next two to three to four months in the NBA.
“And I just don’t see a world in which that transaction sets the Warriors up for a happier post-Steph future,” Lowe added. “Because I don’t think that’s going to be, we re-sign Kuminga and he’s a breakout star for us. I think it’s going to be a sign-and-trade in which the return is slightly underwhelming.”
The Warriors attempted to pull off a two-timeline approach that would have allowed for a seamless transition from the Curry era to another successful one. They found themselves in a unique position to even potentially pull something like that off, thanks to their big guns missing time due to injury.
After winning NBA championships in 2015, 2017, and 2018, the Warriors ended up getting the second pick in the 2020 NBA Draft and then the seventh (via trade) and the 14th pick in 2021. A team that already had Curry, Klay Thompson, and Draymond Green was getting three lottery picks, too.
Now, some teams would have traded away those picks and made win-now moves, but not the Warriors. They saw an opportunity for two timelines and went for it. While the Warriors did win another NBA title in 2022, the draft picks didn’t quite pan out as hoped.
The Warriors selected James Wiseman with that second pick in 2020, and he proved to be a disappointment. They would land Jonathan Kuminga and Moses Moody with the seventh and 14th pick, respectively, the following year, but neither has turned into a star.
Kuminga believes he is one, though, and remains a restricted free agent as he seeks a massive payday. As Lowe pointed out, even if the Warriors trade the forward, they aren’t getting much in return.
In all, the Warriors now don’t really have a succession plan in place for the post-Curry era. There is no real young star to build around on that roster, and a rebuild is very much on the cards in a few years.
The Warriors at least have their future picks, but they’ll have to hit the jackpot in the draft like they did with Curry, Thompson, and Green if they are to avoid becoming a basement dweller.
