Steph, Draymond, Kerr have discussed Warriors’ reality together originally appeared on NBC Sports Bay Area
If the Warriors figure things out and put together an NBA playoff run, it would be a welcome sight. But three people at the franchise’s core aren’t willing to forgo the team’s future to help facilitate postseason success.
After Golden State cornerstones Steph Curry and Draymond Green recently explained why they don’t believe the Warriors, who sit one game below .500, should make a desperation trade, Steve Kerr shared it has been a topic of conversation between the trio.
“We’ve talked about this,” Kerr told 95.7 The Game’s “Willard and Dibs” on Tuesday. “You know, the three of us have been been together for so long. We have these kind of conversations, and so yeah, the discussion has been had. And I’m so impressed with these guys and how much they care about the Warriors and the future of the Warriors. And I think you’re right — I mean, a lot of lot of players in their situations would be saying, ‘Screw that, let’s trade everything and see what we can do.’
“That’s not who they are, and I think part of that is they’re Warriors for life. That’s part of the meaning as a player who’s only on one team for his entire existence. You see Dirk Nowitzki now watching Dallas games, he’s on the sidelines like a fan, and that’s really cool. I love that. And I think that’s how Steph and Draymond are going to be once they’re retired. They’re going to be Warriors fans. They want the best for this franchise going forward, and so they have a reasonable mind about this stuff.”
After Golden State handed the Toronto Raptors their second win in 18 games on Monday night, Curry told reporters the Warriors shouldn’t make a “desperate” trade. And last week in Detroit, Green told Yahoo Sports’ Vince Goodwill that mortgaging off Golden State’s future to go for one last championship is something “bad teams” do.
Curry, Green and Kerr all are on the same page.
“We’re just in a really unique spot, in a really difficult situation, through no one’s fault,” Kerr said. “By the way, this is just the reality of sports and life. [We] had this amazing run, and we’re at the tail end of it, and we’re trying to hang on to it, and it’s a young man’s game. We know that, you know? And we were that team 10 years ago. We were Oklahoma City. We were Houston. We were just on the rise. And so now, here we are, and we’re on the decline. We know that. Steph and Draymond and I have talked about it together. It would be so irresponsible for this franchise to trade everything away for one final swing at a title.
“I think you have to know where you are organizationally. You have to know the position of the rest of the league, the landscape. And this does not feel like a time, in my estimation, I think in Mike’s and Steph’s and Draymond’s, where you just push all the chips in the middle and take a wild swing. That would be so irresponsible. So we’re aware of that, but what does that mean? It means we are where we are. We’re in the middle of the pack with a bunch of teams that are either good enough or not good enough. And we have to find out if we are. And by good enough, that means can you climb your way into the playoffs and give yourself a chance? And that’s what we’re trying to do.”
Nearly halfway through the 2024-25 NBA season, the Warriors still are trying to find a winning formula. Kerr took the blame for Golden State’s struggles after Monday night’s loss in Toronto, and the on-court evidence shows that anything less than a franchise-altering trade wouldn’t be enough to push the Warriors back to the NBA mountaintop.
Curry, Green and Kerr have been their plenty of times, though. And they would rather give the next generation of Warriors stars a fair shot at reaching it, too, instead of making an irreversible gamble for one more taste of glory.
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