It was a cruel twist of fate, this twisting of Steph Curry’s ankle.
Because for a moment, between the start of Wednesday’s game against the Milwaukee Bucks and the first 44 minutes of Thursday’s game against the Bulls, the Warriors looked like the team maximizing its potential.
The team was in good health. The rotations were good. The Warriors looked like they knew what they were doing on the court. You would have been forgiven for letting your imagination run wild with the possibilities.
But you have to take it down now that Curry is on the shelves.
The Warriors superstar twisting his ankle, once again, puts back into the blender a Warriors season that was starting to come into focus.
And now, not only is the Warriors’ season on the line, so is the future of the franchise.
As of Friday morning, we don’t know how long Curry will be out. Considering we’ve seen him twist his ankle countless times before, it’s fair to guess he’ll miss some time. A week, two, more? We will see.
But time is the one thing the Warriors don’t have.
Not if they want to find that elusive “other level” they think they have.
Not if they want to avoid the play-in tournament.
The truth has always been so obvious as to be self-evident, but let’s say it anyway:
These Warriors are nothing without Curry.
This sum-of-all-parts mentality advocated by Steve Kerr? Well, there’s a critical part in this machine, and it’s number 30.
The Warriors’ offense revolves around him. An entire style of basketball evolved from him.
This team cannot progress without him. At best, they can tread water.
You can’t prepare for injuries, but that threat has always loomed over the Warriors.
With an ever-changing roster, they built a team that couldn’t sustain itself through the first four months of the season.
They finally found something in late January: Draymond Green at center and, shortly after, rookie Brandin Podziemski as Curry’s running mate in the backcourt.
Of course, the programming could not be constant. It’s the NBA. Andrew Wiggins was away from the team for four games and returned for Wednesday’s game. But the results of this change were indisputable. The Warriors, after Thursday night’s loss, are 14-6 since Jan. 27, Green’s first day back in the starting lineup following his midseason suspension. Their ideal starting lineup is 6-2.
The Warriors have 20 games left this season, with only eight at home. However you define it, it’s the final stretch, and it includes three games with the Mavericks (just above the Warriors in the standings) and two with the Lakers (just below).
The best-case scenario for the Warriors is that Curry is on the board for a few games, and the Warriors are doing fine without him (the Dubs’ play amid Curry’s knee injury last season would be a good example.) team that has been injury-free, and there is plenty of time between now and the end of the regular season (April 14) to return this team to its best form.
This best-case scenario always features the play-in tournament. In all likelihood, the Warriors will have to win two more games to reach the “real” playoffs.
This is the same as the worst case scenario.
But the second option has bigger implications.
If we’ve seen the last of Curry in a while; if we’ve already seen the best basketball the Warriors have played this season, there are serious implications for the team’s future.
Warriors owners have made no secret of their goal of not paying the league’s luxury tax next season.
And that makes sense. According to Salary Swish, the Warriors paid $185.2 million in luxury tax this season – for a play-in tournament team. I’m not a financial advisor, but I don’t think Joe Lacob and company are getting a good return on investment there.
With the players they have under contract next season — a list that doesn’t include Klay Thompson, Chris Paul or Gary Payton II — they’re already $2.6 million over the tax threshold. If Payton accepts his $9.1 million player option – and he should – you can add him to the tally.
Even if the Warriors let Paul go and re-sign Thompson to a contract that pays him 50 percent of his current contract, you would have a team that would once again be well above the second luxury tax apron.
Which brings us to the big question – one that needed answering over the last 20 games but could become a perennial mystery: Is this a team worth the cost of a running back?
The Warriors needed these final weeks of the season to make a statement – to tell owners and the league that this team may have struggled early, but is now ready to contend in a Conference West loaded.
This can’t happen without Curry. And even a minimal absence disrupts the short and long term trajectory of this team.
This is what happens when the gravitational force that holds this whole operation together – the star of stars in a league defined by them – disappears.
At some point, Curry will return. In the meantime, the Warriors are going to make a mess. It’s inevitable.
And, as he’s been asked countless times throughout his career, Curry will eventually be asked to clean house.
We’ll see if he has enough time to do it.
