Was the dynasty of Stephen Curry and the Warriors in the NBA?
Did we see the last title of Golden State with Kerr, Green and Curry? The elimination against the Timberwolves made the deficiencies of the team quite clear.
The Golden State Warriors They said goodbye to the POSTEMPORADA of the NBA after five injured games with the Minnesota Timberwolves – And an injury that suffered Stephen Curryits top star, after the first game in the series and ironically, the only one they could win.
Nor the exchange that the team made to acquire Jimmy Butler III of the Miami Heat A few months ago it was enough to revolutionize a team that wanted to move on without one of the original pillars of the dynasty in Klay Thompson. Thompson, present for the four championships obtained by the team between 2015 and 2022, went to the Dallas Mavericks last year.
Now, given this new failure to extend the dynasty, which has won four titles since 2015, there are even more latent doubts about the possibility of competing again for what would be a fifth title in 11 years for those of the bay. The rapid development of young talent clubs at the West Conference that have perfected the offensive game of Golden State, such as the Oklahoma City Thunder, Denver Nuggets and Timberwolves themselves, are no longer on the prowl of the Warriors, but seem to have overcome them.
Is this the last time we saw Golden State from Curry, Kerr and Green compete with everything – even with Butler? Or are we still waiting for a last dance by one of the most important teams in the modern history of the NBA?
Age (and health) do not forgive
Stephen Curry will be 38 years old for the next NBA Playoffs. In the last eight seasons, he has played in more than 70 matches only once. After this regular season where his health was carefully handled with several ailments in his knee and his pelvis, the muscle injury to his hamstrings in the second round again exposed the harsh reality that it will be increasingly difficult to keep a player with such a long journey.
“Eventually, you reach a point where you wake up and your body and your mind are telling you that it has already ended, but I’m not close to that point,” Curry said about his eventual retreat in 2024.
That said, the idea of extending his window for a fifth championship was seriously benefited by Butler’s change at the beginning of the year. But Butler himself has suffered injuries in the postseason that have limited him – before the Houston Rockets in the first round suffered pelvis pains that are maintained so far.
Butler, 35, also begins to approach the last phase of his career. Before the Timberwolves, the third member of the trident, Draymond Green35 years old, has also been tired and ineffective against younger and younger players like Rudy Gobert and Naz Reid. In the past, the Warriors have been greatly benefited by the secondary players that contribute from the bank.
This year, jOnathan Kuminga and Buddy Hield They have been key in points to keep the team competitive in the absence of Curry, but it was clearly not enough to keep them in the fight. We are far from the times in which players like Andre Iguodala, Shaun Livingston, Jordan Poole and Juan Anderson-Toscano carried the team in lapses to help the big stars.
The Warriors seem increasingly dependent on Curry, of a player whose status while approaching the 40 seems increasingly fragile, and a veteran group that will have more and more problems to endure the youth gale of other teams in the league.
Butler, the correct choice?
The 17.5 points per game that Butler scored between Miami and Golden State Chicago Bulls. Obviously, when the team acquired Butler, it was expected to be a complement to Curry, not its replacement.
But Butler’s game style, one that historically seeks to attack the basket and make most of his offensive game inside the line of three and not outside of it, contrasts with the notable companions that Curry has had throughout his career. Yes ok Kevin Durant In his prime he was the only one who came to overshadow Steph at times, the perfect couple for Golden State 30 was always Klay Thompson.
Thompson and Curry, the “Splash Brothers”, executed the Steve Kerr offensive perfectly, opening the hurt and creating space for other players to score baskets in the painting since both are one of the best triple pitchers in history. Butler, meanwhile, does not create that same space, and in the series against Minnesota, without curry on the stall, allowed the Wolves to defend more aggressively.
It is difficult to consider that this problem is fixed in the future, or that Butler magically becomes a more effective weapon from three (only once in his career he has noted more than 40% of his triples), so it will be seen if Golden State states reformulates his offensive or goes for another player who complements Curry from the perimeter.
The next dynasties stalk
It was previously mentioned, but it is impossible to ignore. The Houston Rockets almost brought to the limit to Golden State in the first round, and they did it with young batteries such as Ames Thompson and Alperen Sengun – both 22 years old. Jalen Green, the third member of his trident, turned 23 this.
The Oklahoma City Thunder, with the best record of the League and fighting to reach the conference finals with the Denver Nuggets, are the youngest team in the League, with an average age of 24.1 – and the team that eliminated them, the minnesota Timberwolves, have a Anthony Edwards of just 23.
In the East, the Indiana Pacers, with average age of 25.2, and the New York Knicks, with 25.3, are now with great possibilities of representing the conference in the NBA Finals this year, making it clear that the League appears to be going through a generational replacement that will leave out to increasingly veteran teams and figures.
It is really amazing to think that Golden State has continued as a candidate for the title this season prior to Curry’s injury. The change for Butler granted a short -term window, one that must now be analyzed again in the future after the team has been eliminated in the second round.
Of course, another recent change of the NBA showed that even when a team is seen against the strings in the future, a movement can change everything. Luka Doncic The Lakers transformed Los Angeles into a candidate again in the medium term, although they were eliminated by Timberwolves themselves in the first round.
There is much talk about this summer, Giannis Antetokounmpo of the Milwaukee Bucks is analyzing its future. Can the Warriors compete to acquire one of the most explosive and dominant players in the League to extend the competitiveness of the current dynasty?
After the 2018 championship, four years passed in which Golden State seemed to give the baton to other teams in the League. Then, they won again – and surprisingly – in 2022. It will be interesting to see if the bay team has some other magic trick at their disposal.
