No NBA team has been better over the past decade than the Golden State Warriors. We all remember the Splash Brothers raining 3s on the rest of the league, and Kevin Durant coming to the Bay to create a superteam the likes of which we’ve never seen before. The Dubs have won four titles and been to the Finals two other times, and they even got one of those rings after they’d been given up for dead in 2022.
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As they proved then, it’s a dangerous game to ever count the Warriors out. Steph is not the kind of person you ever want to bet against, as he showed the world when he helped lead Team USA to a hard-fought Olympic gold medal about 16 months ago.
If there’s one NBA media personality that isn’t afraid to share his honest opinions, it’s Charles Barkley. Chuck joined The Tom Tolbert Show recently, and when asked what he thought of Golden State, he didn’t mince words.
“Old. Old. Over the hill, that’s where they are. You know where the hell they are, Tom,” he said. “They had one of the greatest runs in NBA history but it’s over, man.”
I hesitate to throw dirt on a team that’s been so good for so long, but Sir Charles may have a point, at least as the Warriors are currently constructed. They’re 13-14 and in eighth place in the West, and they’ve lost their last two games despite Steph going off for 87 combined points.
The Warriors were one of the best teams in basketball after they acquired Jimmy Butler at last season’s trade deadline, but late-season injuries kept them from making a real run in the playoffs. Therein lies the problem, because this team is just another year older, and another year slower. What chance do they have to be in one piece in April?
Barkley said, “Steph is on the Mt. Rushmore, but he’s gonna keep breaking down because of age and wear and tear. I don’t think Jimmy’s the same player, and Draymond’s definitely not the same player.”
As the rest of the league has gotten more and more athletic, the Warriors have seemed slow by comparison. They also don’t seem interested in solving that problem, as Jonathan Kuminga, the best athlete on the team, has continued to inexplicably ride the bench.
Barkley put it best when he said, “Everybody gets old. There’s nothing you can do about it.” To prove him wrong, Warriors general manager Mike Dunleavy Jr. will have to really shake this roster up. Maybe trading Kuminga will kickstart another Warriors renaissance. Maybe they’ll shock the world and find a way to land Giannis Antetokounmpo. But right now, it looks like the end of an era, for real this time.
