{"id":653068,"date":"2026-03-11T17:51:18","date_gmt":"2026-03-11T17:51:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/653068\/"},"modified":"2026-03-11T17:51:18","modified_gmt":"2026-03-11T17:51:18","slug":"this-warriors-season-looks-irredeemable-why-not-embrace-it","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/653068\/","title":{"rendered":"This Warriors season looks irredeemable. Why not embrace it?"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Golden State Warriors<\/a> just dropped back-to-back games to the Utah Jazz and the Chicago Bulls.<\/p>\n

Friends, there\u2019s no coming back from that.<\/p>\n

Because there\u2019s being down bad, then there\u2019s subterranean levels of angst. That\u2019s where the Dubs currently reside.<\/p>\n

In the modern NBA, losing to franchises that currently possess zero incentive to actually win basketball games blaring siren. It\u2019s the undeniable proof that, at this exact moment, things cannot possibly get any worse.<\/p>\n

More than that, it\u2019s a sharp reminder of the abyss that awaits.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s no soft landing when this glorious Stephen Curry era ends. Whenever No. 30 decides to officially hang it up, the crash is poised to be bigger than the AI bubble\u2019s. He isn\u2019t just the engine of this franchise; he is the load-bearing wall keeping the entire multibillion-dollar operation from collapsing into the foundation. Without him, the picture gets exceedingly dark, exceptionally fast.<\/p>\n

Which leads to a question that might feel like heresy to a fan base used to parades and league ruining, but makes perfect sense everywhere else: Wouldn\u2019t it be in the Warriors\u2019 best interest to take the next month off?<\/p>\n

Yes, I am advocating for tanking.<\/p>\n

Because if you\u2019re going to stink \u2014 losing to teams that are trying to lose while you are, in fact, not \u2014 at least make it in service of something.<\/p>\n

The Warriors won\u2019t even have to partake in the song-and-dance that modern tanking entails \u2014 the legalized match-fixing of fourth quarters and crunch-time situations.<\/p>\n

The Dubs are already doing that without direction.<\/p>\n

The Warriors are going to make the play-in tournament regardless of what they do from this point onwards. But why not try to maximize a draft pick by gracefully dropping down to the 10-seed and resigning yourself to a one-and-done? They are only a game and a half ahead of the Portland Trail Blazers\u2019 pace. Being worse than them, unlike winning a playoff series with this crew (Curry included), can be done.<\/p>\n

(Memphis is sitting in 11th, but the Grizzlies have lost five straight and have eight more losses than Golden State. That level of dedicated futility is well out of reach.)<\/p>\n

The blueprint for the final month of the season is simple.<\/p>\n

Step One: Rest the Franchise<\/p>\n

Let Curry sit. Let his knee heal. There is absolutely no reason to burn tread off the greatest shooter alive just to secure a meaningless moral victory on a Tuesday night in late-March in the service of some quixotic goal to lose later in the playoffs.<\/p>\n

Step Two: Empty the Bench<\/p>\n

Let LJ Cryer, Malevy Leons, Pat Spencer, and Nate Williams \u2014 whoever that actually is \u2014 get a ton of run. Give Steve Kerr the green light to put all the Gui Santos the world can possibly handle out on the floor. See what happens.<\/p>\n

Step Three: Enjoy the Oddities<\/p>\n

You can still enjoy a random, vintage Draymond Green defensive masterclass or a gritty Brandin Podziemski game on occasion. They\u2019re infrequent enough to ensure they won\u2019t undercut the efforts. Use this time to see if Kristaps Porzingis can actually play and hold up in this system. Minutes restrictions for everyone!<\/p>\n

Again, the Dubs are already doing all these things. In this plan, they\u2019re just pretending they have agency over the situation.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s plenty to glean from this final month of basketball. But without Curry in the lineup, absolutely nothing is truly applicable to this season. It\u2019s a sunk cost. The organization\u2019s entire focus should be squarely on setting the table for the next one.<\/p>\n

And wouldn\u2019t a nice, shiny, early draft pick help soothe the sting?<\/p>\n

I\u2019m being told this upcoming draft is arguably the most loaded in years. I\u2019ll take those folks\u2019 word for it. But adding premium, young talent (and in that 8-to-12 range, there will be some exceptional prospects) is the only way to insulate against that grim, post-Curry future we\u2019ve been getting an early, unwanted glimpse of lately.<\/p>\n

And the idea of pride being in the way is absurd. What pride could possibly be left to save after Tuesday?<\/p>\n

Pull the plug. Lean into the skid. It\u2019s the only play left that makes any sense.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Golden State Warriors just dropped back-to-back games to the Utah Jazz and the Chicago Bulls. Friends, there\u2019s…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":653069,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3786],"tags":[7,160,479,164,4025,4024,6,162,66,255],"class_list":{"0":"post-653068","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-golden-state-warriors","8":"tag-basketball","9":"tag-california","10":"tag-golden-state","11":"tag-golden-state-warriors","12":"tag-goldenstate","13":"tag-goldenstatewarriors","14":"tag-nba","15":"tag-san-francisco","16":"tag-sports","17":"tag-warriors"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/116211816854309002","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/653068","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=653068"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/653068\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/653069"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=653068"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=653068"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=653068"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}