SAN FRANCISCO — Three more wins. If you’re looking for an appropriately calibrated target for this wildly uncalibrated Golden State Warriors season, I’m offering up a simple one right here.
Count them down: Beat the Kings in Sacramento on Tuesday, just like the Warriors memorably pulled off in a do-or-die Game 7 in the first round last season; then go back on the road and qualify for the first round by beating the loser of the 7-8 game between the New Orleans Pelicans and Los Angeles Lakers; and finally, the Warriors can conclude this season somewhat honorably by winning at least one game and maybe putting a minor scare into the 1-seed Oklahoma City Thunder in the first round.
If the veteran, title-proven Warriors can summon some of the old, good stuff a few more times in the next few weeks, won’t that be enough evidence that it’s worth keeping most of this core together for one more go-for-broke season? I think so.
But if the Warriors don’t make it fairly deep into the first round, if they just look too old to pull off anything significant … that’d be falling below the qualifying line for a reasonably solid finish, IMO, and I don’t think the team’s front office and accountants would disagree.
Does that seem reasonable? Obviously, the Warriors want to win their fifth championship of this era and wouldn’t be overjoyed if they’re stopped anywhere short of that in the next few weeks. But the Warriors’ path as the Western Conference’s 10 seed is designed to be extremely rough because, well, nine teams finished ahead of them and deserve easier routes. We can judge the Warriors for the slip-ups and issues that led them to this fate, and absolutely it all plays into the conclusions that will come this summer.
But what about right now? What do the Warriors need to do to show that there’s still enough life and talent left around Stephen Curry to keep the core of this roster together and the payroll deep into the luxury tax?
Three more wins, that’s what I’m saying. Fight their way to the first round. Get to OKC. Get a game. Maybe even two. (Note: The Curry Warriors have won at least two games in all 29 of their playoff series.) Then see what happens.
And while Curry and the rest of the Warriors are rightly determined to remain in the moment and focus strictly on the next game, I think the leaders of this team mainly agree with this larger-picture standard.
“Not really concerned about this ‘next season’ conversation,” Curry said before the Warriors bused up to Sacramento on Monday; but then he continued with some additional perspective. “I think it’s pretty obvious it’d be a disappointment if we’re not in a playoff series and have an opportunity to compete at that level. You can make up whatever narrative that would bring up.”
When this Warriors season is over, however it ends, it’ll be judged in the context of everything that has happened before and everything that has to be applied to the future.
It will be viewed in the last remaining light of the Warriors’ dynasty and calculated with the faith that Curry probably has at least one more great season left in him. But also, there’s the understanding that Warriors owner Joe Lacob is unlikely to maintain the franchise’s record-setting $400 million total payroll commitment into next season without a realistic sense that a very deep run is possible next postseason. The best way to prove that? By going on a decent run this postseason — and racking up a few home playoff box-office payoffs along the way. (A reminder: the Warriors’ total revenue from early-round home dates is about $7 million per game.)
A good run could solidify Andrew Wiggins’ place on the roster next season after a very sluggish start this season. It could make Lacob much more amenable to paying Klay Thompson’s free-agent market rate this summer. It could soothe the lingering prickly feelings over the lost time and lost games during Draymond Green’s two…
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