Meanwhile in the Association the Golden State Warriors have been absolutely putrid. They quite literally have the worst record in the NBA as of today. I won’t do too much patting myself on the back, and it still is only November but… I called this. To be fair, the manner in which they have faltered doesn’t match what I said. I didn’t expect Steph Curry to break his hand and need surgery. His recovery time at the turn of the month when he as put under the knife was 3 months. By the time February comes around the season will really be in the tank and he might as well not come back at all. Why play meaningless games on a hopeless team at that point?
At the same time, both defensive stalwart Draymond Green and new leading scorer D’Angelo Russell have missed time as well. On Friday night Russell suffered yet another injury as he will miss at least 2 weeks with a sprained thumb. At the time of my last entry about this, I mentioned that center Kevon Looney should be back in the lineup soon. That still hasn’t happened. This team is accumulating injuries like the Bill Sweski Superfans would accumulate heart attacks. The only player on this squad to start in every game this season is Glenn Robinson III. They’re still dead last in Defensive Rating and Alec Burks of all people leads the team in Win Shares, while coming off the bench!
I thought they would struggle, but I never envisioned this. And much like the Astros, it seems like opponents are relishing this opportunity to thrash a team that dominated most of the NBA for the last 5 seasons. Green has said as much. So did LeBron James when asked if he felt bad about the 26-point shellacking his Lakers put on the Warriors. That game would have been must-see TV for NBA fans last year, now its a laugh-er.
What is crazy in all of this though is that the Astros will most definitely suffer for their current state. The Warriors will likely benefit from it. I’m obviously comparing apples and oranges here. The Astros cheated; the Warriors were merely annoying with how they manipulated player contracts into creating a nearly perfect monster of a roster. Regardless, the Warriors will likely continue on a similarly abysmal pace for the rest of this season, which should lead them right to some of the best odds for the first pick in the NBA Draft. I haven’t done a lot of research on this year’s crop of college players, but if this Warriors team can get everyone back healthy for 2020-2021, plus add the best college player in the nation then contention really isn’t very far off.
This wouldn’t be the first time the Warriors injuries actually worked out in their long-term favor. Curry signed an extension for 4 years and $44 million in 2012, a contract he signed because he had spent most of the previous season off the court with an ankle injury. In the following years he turned into the 2-time MVP we now know and the relatively smaller contract led the Warriors to the cap flexibility needed in order to sign Kevin Durant to a max deal. Now, another Curry injury could lead the Warriors to be able to stash the NBA’s next superstar on their roster.
Even in their misfortune, some front offices seem to have all the luck. Others are so hyper-focused on not leaving things to chance that they go too far and cause their demise.
Pick-Up Sports Talk: Cleveland 