Many of their issues right now stem from them trying to ride the fence between the Curry Warriors and whatever is coming next. I’m sure there might be an example or two, but off the top of my head I can’t think of a team that won with a generational player and smoothly transitioned into winning with a younger team as that player aged and eventually retired.
The Spurs probably had the best chance to do it because they had Kawhi, but that fell apart pretty shortly after Duncan retired. I guess you could say from Robinson to Duncan, but Duncan was 1st Team All-NBA as a rookie and the Spurs didn’t win without Duncan so I don’t think that quite qualifies.
I would imagine this year is the last rodeo with the Curry-Thompson-Green core. They probably should trade Green to get some value out of him, but I have a feeling they’ll just let him walk as a free agent. Next offseason is the likely fork in the road as Wiggins and Poole become tradeable contracts. They’re either going to have to commit to the young guys and make moves accordingly, or commit to chasing another chip with Curry and consolidating pieces for a big fish (maybe KD?).
Anyway, there’s just such a vacuum that occurs when a player like Steph retires that it’s almost impossible not to go in the dumper for a bit unless you have another generational guy waiting in the wings. They just need to maximize the title window with Curry and slide Thompson to a Love like role off the bench.
