The Western Conference is going to be a knock-down, drag-out fight this season. Fans got a preview of that last night as the OKC Thunder and Houston Rockets waged an epic double-overtime war. But there’s also a host of strong contenders right alongside them that will have a lot to say about who reaches the NBA Finals.
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On the latest episode of KG Certified, Paul Pierce and Kevin Garnett spoke about the teams they expect to challenge OKC for conference supremacy. They mentioned the Rockets, the Wolves, the Nuggets and the Clippers. One team that was conspicuously absent from their picks was the Golden State Warriors.
Steph Curry and company were one of the best teams in the league last year after trading for Jimmy Butler at the deadline, and this year they’ve added Al Horford to the mix. Still, Pierce doesn’t think they’ll have what it takes to keep up with those other teams.
“I liked ’em when they first made the [Butler trade], but I feel like the honeymoon is over,” Pierce said. “You know how you get into a fresh relationship and everything’s all sparks and roses and the dating and the flowers and all this little stuff? And then the relationship matured.”
“I think it’s matured because they’re a year older. They got one of the older teams in the league. I just feel like the window closed on them,” added Pierce, with a hint of condescension in his tone.
Pierce wasn’t completely throwing dirt on the Dubs, and he praised their tenacity and veteran leadership while saying that he expects them to be contenders. But this isn’t the Warriors of old, in his estimation. “I just feel like they can’t keep up with these young teams,” he explained.
Nobody is scared of the Warriors like they used to be, Pierce argued. “When you used to play against Golden State, it was a fear factor,” he said. “I think that fear factor’s gone.”
The words had a profound impact on Garnett, who could only say, “Danggg, wow. That says a lot, P.”
Both Garnett and Pierce spent their careers chasing a championship, and they finally got one together in 2008. They know that it doesn’t mean a thing if you don’t have that ring, so Garnett asked the natural follow-up once Pierce revealed that Golden State’s glory days were behind them. “At what point do you break it up then?”
There’s not an easy answer to that question. The age of this Warriors team dictates that they’re in win-now mode, but if they can’t compete with the very best teams, Pierce doesn’t see an out for them, at least not for a while. He believes they’ll have to ride out their current situation until the day Steph retires, which may not be for another four years or so, if not more.
The Warriors did famously try to extend their championship window with their “Two timelines” approach, but their misfire in drafting James Wiseman when they could have had someone like LaMelo Ball cost them.
Garnett also thinks their small-ball approach is outdated. He took it back to their early championship teams when they had a center like Andrew Bogut who could grab offensive rebounds and give them a serviceable post presence. Now it seems that the entire team is built on the perimeter.
Golden State does have some good young pieces such as the recently-extended Jonathan Kuminga, Brandin Podziemski and Moses Moody, but none of those guys are ready to be leaders on a championship team. This is still the Steph-Draymond-Jimmy show, and Steve Kerr needs to hope that his veteran core can stay healthy long enough to give his team a chance.
