There's no denying the Golden State Warriors' current level of play leaves them well short of earning the status as a top-tier title contender.
As his 4-6 team continues searching for answers with the holidays fast approaching, though, Golden State president of basketball operations Bob Myers is hardly pushing the panic button. In fact, he's already getting in front of local calls for the Warriors to push their chips in for a win-now trade that would break up the organization's parallel roster timelines.
In a sprawling interview with Tim Kawakami of The Athletic following Monday's much-needed win over the Sacramento Kings, Myers admitted that Golden State is always looking for ways to improve. But considering 2022-23 tipped off exactly three weeks ago, the defending champions won't be making any rash decisions regarding trades that could help them more quickly overcome early-season labors.
“I know it’s been written and maybe too succinctly: We’re always open to anything. Nothing is concrete in this business and it’s never been more so in the NBA,” Myers said. “Doesn’t mean we’re doing anything now. We haven’t made any decisions. But I would say that we think we’re a contender and we’ll evaluate if we’re still a contender, what we look like, many games from now and decide the best course to move forward.
“But it is 11 games,” he continued. “I’ll get back on the phone with you after 40 games or half the season and if we’re talking about the same stuff, maybe it’ll be different answers. But at this point, it is early. Not so early that we don’t care what we’re looking like. But it is too early to kind of make any drastic decisions.”
You know the silver lining behind Golden State's dispiriting play by now. The starters are as dominant as ever, boasting a +27.1 net rating that ranks fourth among all high-minute lineups in the league, per Cleaning The Glass.
It's the bench that has been by far the Warriors' biggest problem, eliciting early calls from the loudest members of Dub Nation for the franchise to give up its dreams of a contending core once Stephen Curry and Draymond Green age out of their extended primes.
James Wiseman was benched on Monday, Jonathan Kuminga didn't appear in the second half after being reinserted into the rotation and Moses Moody played behind two G-Leaguers. Why wouldn't Golden State work the phones on potential trades for those recent lottery picks if they're not up to the task of helping the team repeat as champions in 2022-23?
Myers believes November is too early to make that conclusion with any confidence, and he's right. This Warriors team is still taking shape. Its best basketball lies ahead regardless of how Wiseman, Kuminga and Moody progress as the 82-game grand wears on.
But if Wiseman, especially, fails to break back into Golden State's rotation after struggling immensely as his team's backup five, don't be shocked if his name pops up in rumors as the February trade deadline approaches. Unfortunately for the Warriors, though, trading Wiseman from that position of weakness likely wouldn't bring back the type of impact player they need to bolster their chances of going back-to-back.
In that vein, the roster status quo might be Golden State's best hope. For the front office's sake, here's hoping the Warriors' young players take enough strides over the season's remainder to ensure that's the case.
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