The warriors are confident that they will return, but not with this group

Melissa Rohlin

FOX Sports NBA Writer

You knew this was coming.

You heard it when Blue Draymond said “I’m not myself” on his podcast in January.

Have you ever seen it Steph curry Dejectedly walked down the court after this season, chewing his mouthpiece.

You really believe it when Klay Thompson failed in Game 6, when he usually shined.

This time, the golden empire warriors can’t pull it out. This time, the three people who always tried to be stubborn could not. This time, things were different.

Warriors eliminated from the knockout round with a 122-101 loss first Los Angeles Lakers in Game 6 of Friday’s Western Conference semifinals at Crypto.com Arena. This is the first time Curry, Green and Thompson have lost a series against a Western team since 2014.

Now, many questions arise for the brand that has dominated the NBA over the past decade, reaching the Finals six of the past nine years, winning four championships.

What will Green do with his player selection? Will this be Bob Myers’ final season as general manager? Will Thompson get a contract extension? Do by Jordan Poole This post-season struggle put him on the trading block?

Warriors coach Steve Kerr admitted that this iteration of the Warriors has “maximized” its potential.

But when asked to consider what might happen in the future, he stressed that he still believes firmly in the key pieces of its incredible past.

Kerr said of the group’s upcoming decisions: “I think maybe I’m too rudimentary to think about that right now. “One thing I will say is that Draymond, Klay and Steph, our core guys, they have a lot to offer. There’s still a lot of stuff in the tank. I think they’ve all had a great season. .

“It may not end well. But all three boys are still class players and I still feel this team has championship potential. We didn’t get there this year. But this is not. must be the end of the rope.”

Green has a $27.5 million player option for the 2023-24 season to stay with the Warriors. If he refuses, he will become an unrestricted free agent.

When asked about his future plans, Green made no secret of his words.

“I want to be a Warrior for the rest of my life,” said Green, who had nine points, nine rebounds and three assists on Friday. “I want to hang out with the guys I’ve been with.”

Green, however, tell Andscape that he has yet to make a decision and will weigh his options with his agent, Rich Paul.

If Green chooses to leave, it will mark the end of an era. Since the Warriors picked him as the 35th overall pick in the 2012 draft, he has been the heart and soul of the team who led the Warriors to the championship with word of mouth, intrepid play. and unstoppable determination.

What makes Green is his fire.

But he has put himself in an incredibly difficult position to navigate at the start of this season. He punched Poole at a practice session. The video has been leaked to the world. Since then, he has had to stand on the extremely narrow line of being fiery, but not too fiery.

“I think a lot of our shortcomings this year were my fault,” Green said on his podcast in January. “Why my fault? Because I’m not the leader I am and I need to be on this team. And the reason I’m not the leader is my fault too.”

But Green, of course, turned the tide. Facing elimination in Game 5, he scored 20 points and 10 bounces.

And after Game 6, Green said he has matured a lot this season. He’s learned patience, how to pick his points, and how to operate when things don’t go his way.

“This year has helped me as a human being, as well as as a basketball player,” Green said.

Aside from the very public breakdown between Green and Poole, the Warriors have had a lot of trouble this season. It was really impressive that they made it to the second round of the knockout round after considering everything was not going well. There are wounds. Andrew Wiggins absent for more than two months due to family matters. They were 11-30 on the way.

But they have advanced to the knockout round. And then in the first round, they became the first defending champions to come back from a 2-0 defeat, beating Sacramento.

For the second half, the Lakers were the better team. And in the end there are too many problems for them to overcome.

Poole has averaged just 10.6 points this season with 34.4% shooting from the field and 26.7% from outside the arc, a significant drop from 20.4 points when shooting 43% and 33.6% from the field. depth he averaged this season.

Not to mention, Wiggins also broke his rib cartilage in Game 5 after the collision with LeBron James while going for a recovery. According to Kerr, he played with “a lot” of pain in Game 6 – not a good recipe for success for a two-way player who was tasked with protecting James in this series.

Then there’s the fact that both Thompson and Curry struggled with their shooting in Game 6, with Klay taking 3 to 19 from the field and 2 to 12 from outside the arc. And Curry finished with 32 points, double that of any of his teammates, but needed 28 shots to get them.

They are already tired. They don’t have enough depth. There were no heroes at the last second to get them out of the 3-1 losing streak they fell to. People who always seem to find a way to persevere when it counts the most end up empty-handed.

For a team so used to winning, it’s amazing to lose so early in the post-season. The Big Three were all shocked. Obviously there will be some changes.

But this is for sure: Curry, Thompson and Green all say they still deeply believe they can still be champions together.

Curry pointed out that they share a deep belief in each other that they will “compete until the wheel falls off.” And when asked if they can afford to go all the way, Thompson said: “I have complete confidence in that.”

But in the end the choice is now in Green’s hands.

Together, those people created the NBA’s most recent reign. Together, they have become the perfect ingredients in a great recipe. Together, they were unstoppable.

And although their run eventually came to a halt, they firmly believed that together, they could do it again.

“They said we couldn’t do it again last year, we did,” Green said. “They said we were going to miss the play-offs this year, we did. But guess what? We didn’t win for morals. So we lost. This is not a group. champion as we are. But we have champions. We’re made of champions.”

Melissa Rohlin is an NBA writer for FOX Sports. She has previously covered the tournament for Sports Illustrated, the Los Angeles Times, Bay Area News Group and the San Antonio Express-News. Follow her on Twitter @melissarohlin.

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