In another context, on another Warriors timeline, in the middle of a very different kind of season, Steve Kerr wouldn’t have had to worry about a big ceremonial post-game splashing in the Chase Center locker room after Wednesday’s roaring victory over the Thunder.
The win inched the Warriors back over .500, now to 24-23. They’re still in 11th place in the Western Conference. They’re only 12-20 since their blistering 12-3 start to this season. Ho hum, if you’re measuring last night’s W against this era’s four championship seasons.
But also: Hey, it’s been an anxious journey so far. The upcoming trade deadline has much of the roster on alert. Why not have some fun by soaking Kerr with water and ice chips after beating the West’s best team with a powerful second-half rally and some classic, clutch Stephen Curry 30-something-footers?
“We need some feel-good energy around here,” Curry said of the dousing. “We can’t forget to celebrate the small wins no matter what the standards have been around here. Gotta infuse some joy, for sure.”
They earned some stress relief — winning this game without Draymond Green and Jonathan Kuminga, figuring out some new rotations, and surviving potential MVP-to-be Shai Gilgeous-Alexander’s 52-point masterpiece.
But, as Curry alluded to, that’s all relatively small potatoes for a franchise and a superstar used to a lot more than this. The Warriors want to get back to contending for a title. They, at this moment, look far from it. They’re running out of time — this season and, of course, in Curry’s window of greatness.
And in some ways, Wednesday’s victory added a little pressure; if they’re good enough to beat the Thunder for a second time this season, there’s no strong reason for the Warriors to happily remain idle over the next week. There’s too much at stake to blow off the deadline.
The Warriors will wade into trade discussions. They could move a popular player or two, or three. They will have some tough decisions to make.
And if the Thunder victory initiates a decent winning streak heading into the Feb. 6 trade deadline, Warriors management almost certainly will feel extra pressure to make a move at the deadline to give Curry more help for a stretch run possibly into the playoffs.
It was just one game, but it’s one more example of why you always want to give Curry a chance at pulling off something special. Always.
Settling into some lineup decisions
General manager Mike Dunleavy Jr. is a realist, and he’s not going to change all his strategies and judgments due to one excellent game. But he also has to react to the moment — and to the responsibility of tending to the final elite years of Curry’s career.
One significant recent development: Dunleavy’s most recent trade acquisition, Dennis Schroder, has started to look comfortable on the floor after many bumpy weeks looking wholly disconnected from everything that his teammates were doing. And now that Brandin Podziemski is back from an abdominal injury and looking far sharper than he did to start this season, the Warriors have a backcourt rotation that is beginning to make a lot more sense.
“That’s probably me and Dennis’ best game together, working off of each other, being organized on the offensive end, and getting to the sets that could help us close a game like that,” Curry said.
The Warriors have Draymond due back soon. They should get Kuminga back later in February, and my sense is that, though he’s a valuable trade asset, Kuminga is not likely to be moved at the deadline. Also, Kerr has winnowed the rotation down — Trayce Jackson-Davis went from starting in Tuesday’s victory over Utah to a DNP on Wednesday and might be mostly out of the rotation while Kerr gives rookie Quentin Post a look at center. Lindy Waters got some starts earlier in the season, but he’s been out of the rotation since Podziemski came back. When Draymond and Kuminga get back into the lineup, there will be more squeezing to do.
It’s not the most settled midseason situation the Warriors have ever had, but it’s not as bleak as things were looking not very long ago.
So what can the Warriors do next week?
It’s still probably not worth risking major parts of their future to move up marginally in the West standings. But would they have a much better shot at clambering up the standings if they trade a protected pick and expiring contracts to Chicago for Nikola Vucevic? Maybe. I don’t think Dunleavy wants to get into a bidding war for anybody right now, but Vucevic is more interesting because the Warriors have shown some life — and because he’s signed for next season at an affordable $21.5 million, so this wouldn’t just be a rental.
The Warriors certainly will also check to see if the Jimmy Butler market has wholly bottomed out. They weren’t so interested a few weeks ago at full price, but can they pick up Butler with zero promises about giving him a new deal, and only give up Andrew Wiggins plus salary filler? There’d be risks involved even with such a modest framework, but it’s worth examining.
Meanwhile, I think the last few victories have all but crossed out the chances of a strict salary dumping of either Kevon Looney or Gary Payton II’s expiring contract to duck under the luxury tax. Looney and GP2 are too important in the locker room, and I don’t think the Warriors want to start tearing apart the fabric of their culture just to save some dollars.
“I think this group, we know they’re capable,” Kerr said. “What we saw early in the year was not a mirage. You don’t just fall into that.”
In another Warriors season, in another kind of context, these words wouldn’t mean a whole lot. You are what your record says you are. And the Warriors are an 11th-place team at the moment. But the season is not lost. The last few games are proof of that. And that’s exactly what Dunleavy and the rest of the front office needed to see going into next week.