<\/p>\n
Stephen Curry walks off the court after the Warriors\u2019\u00a0play-in tournament loss to the Suns at Mortgage Matchup Center in Phoenix on\u00a0April 17.<\/p>\n
Stephen Lam\/S.F. Chronicle<\/p>\n
For years, the Golden State Warriors<\/a> were the NBA\u2019s golden child, the team that could do no wrong.<\/p>\n This summer, they\u2019ve morphed into the league\u2019s punching bag.<\/p>\n This image transformation has been brought about by the team\u2019s failed pursuit of LeBron James, the Warriors\u2019 inability to do absolutely anything of interest in this critical offseason, and the near universal belief that they are wasting the final act of one the greatest players in NBA history.<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n There\u2019s also the perception that the organization may be taking that player, Stephen Curry<\/a>, for granted. That may be the reason the noise is getting so loud: Curry is one of sport\u2019s all-time nice guys, never one to publicly bitch or play the prima donna, so the Warriors\u2019 critics feel they need to fight on his behalf.<\/p>\n And everyone wants to see Curry play meaningful basketball.<\/p>\n In the week since James spurned several interested suitors\u00a0\u2014 including the Warriors\u00a0\u2014 to choose the Philadelphia 76ers, run by former Warriors general manager Bob Myers, there has been a firehose of criticism aimed specifically at once-golden Golden State.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n Terms like \u201cmeek,\u201d \u201cstagnant,\u201d \u201cdisastrous,\u201d \u201cnon-contenders\u201d and \u201cnon-creative\u201d have been fired at the Warriors. They\u2019ve received an \u201cF\u201d grade for their\u00a0offseason activity, or lack thereof.\u00a0 Curry\u2019s situation has been called sad, pathetic and a travesty.<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n And all of this is unfolding in the midst of Curry\u2019s contract extension negotiations. Curry is eligible for an extension at the end of August and told the Chronicle earlier this month<\/a> that he is \u201cfor sure\u201d interested in pursuing that path.<\/p>\n At the best of times, NBA social media is an angry cesspool, full of complaints and conspiracy theories. But this tsunami of Warriors criticism is being leveled by many of the legitimate national voices who have covered the league for years. And it is pointed directly at owner Joe Lacob and general manager Mike Dunleavy<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n The complete absence of action on the part of the Warriors, who went 37-45 last year, is shocking, especially considering how last season petered out so sadly. NBA teams have collectively added 80 new players through trade or free agency this month. The Warriors? Zero.\u00a0<\/p>\n They put all their efforts into the slim possibility that James would choose West Coast comfort and a buddy movie script over the chance of actually contending for a title. Now, with James off the table, the Warriors are simply running it back, with Curry, Draymond Green<\/a> (who re-signed this week<\/a>), as well as Kristaps Porzingis<\/a> and Al Horford<\/a>. Those four players combined to miss 146 games last season. The only significant addition has been rookie Yaxel Lendeborg<\/a>, drafted with the 11th overall pick.<\/p>\n Though we all know that hope is not a strategy, that seems to be the master plan for Lacob and Dunleavy. Hope that Jimmy Butler<\/a> can quickly return to form in midseason once he\u2019s finished rehabbing his\u00a0ACL injury. Hope that Moses Moody<\/a> will be able to return at all this season from his patellar tendon injury. Hope that\u00a0Porzingis, Horford and Green can stay on the floor.\u00a0<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n And, most of all, hope that Curry \u2014 who will turn 39 this season \u2014 defies time, defies his \u201crunner\u2019s knee\u201d injury, defies anything else that comes up … and hope desperately that he can continue to carry this team on his shoulders.<\/p>\n In recent days, the Warriors\u2019 lack of interest in trading for Jaylen Brown, whose trade to Philadelphia immediately made the 76ers a formidable contender, has been reported. Their lack of interest in making any kind of upgrade that would appeal to James has been examined. Their unwillingness to part with future draft picks, their dogged commitment to financial flexibility and their desire to prepare for a post-Curry future has been put under the microscope.<\/p>\n All of these points can be debated and even defended. Some may believe that the Warriors are being totally savvy by keeping their future options open. Others may point out that the Warriors can\u2019t be trusted with future drafts, having done a horrible job with past draft capital while getting no significant return from their lottery picks in 2020 and 2021.<\/p>\n But there is near universal agreement that the Curry situation is historically frustrating. And that whatever future lies ahead for the Warriors will likely never match the brilliance that Curry has brought\u00a0\u2014 and still brings, when healthy\u00a0\u2014 to the franchise.\u00a0<\/p>\n All of this is just current perception, but perception shapes reality. Images and legacies are at stake.\u00a0Lacob has won four championships as primary owner, privately built a state-of-the-art venue in San Francisco and overseen a 2,344% increase in the value of the franchise, from the $450 million he and Peter Guber paid\u00a0for it in 2010 to the 2025 Forbes valuation of $11 billion.<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n But history tells us his legacy is at risk. Chicago Bulls general manager Jerry Krause took over a team with a transcendent star in Michael Jordan and won six championships. But all he\u2019s remembered for now is the way it ended, with the team being torn apart while Jordan clearly was still a force.<\/p>\n Lacob bought a team with a transcendent star, and that team won four championships and made six NBA Finals. But will his legacy be that he wasted the end of Stephen Curry\u2019s career?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Stephen Curry walks off the court after the Warriors\u2019\u00a0play-in tournament loss to the Suns at Mortgage Matchup Center…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":799927,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[7,4706,1208,6,66,573,255],"class_list":["post-799926","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nba","tag-basketball","tag-joe-lacob","tag-mike-dunleavy","tag-nba","tag-sports","tag-stephen-curry","tag-warriors"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/117011569963915961","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/799926","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=799926"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/799926\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/799927"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=799926"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=799926"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=799926"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}<\/a>
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