The Golden State Warriors soon must choose their adventure.
Maybe they should look to the Boston Celtics for some direction.
The Warriors have gone to the NBA Finals in five straight seasons, winning three titles, but currently own the league’s worst record (15-50) with play paused amid the COVID-19 pandemic. The sudden fall from grace, of course, can be attributed to Kevin Durant’s departure and injuries to Stephen Curry and Klay Thompson.
This begs the question: Should the Warriors be aggressive and attempt to make one more Finals run next season with Curry, Thompson and Draymond Green, perhaps even trading away their first-round draft pick (which could be the No. 1 overall selection) and/or Andrew Wiggins to supplement the longstanding core? Or should they consider a rebuild?
One Western Conference executive recently told Bleacher Report’s Ric Bucher that Golden State needs to be careful in picking its path, or else the Warriors could wind up being the second coming of the Celtics, whose championship hopes slowly faded as the “Big Three” of Paul Pierce, Kevin Garnett and Ray Allen got older.
“There is no guy you’d give up the No. 1 pick and Andrew Wiggins for,” the executive said. “I don’t know that that guy is available. Besides, if you do go all in and trade Wiggins and the pick for some 30-year-old star, now you’re looking at your core all aging out at the same time. You don’t want to wake up and find yourself like the Celtics.”
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This isn’t a great comparison.
The Celtics landed a monster package from the Brooklyn Nets in a trade involving Garnett and Pierce before the 2013-14 season. That deal since has played an instrumental role in Boston’s subsequent success under Brad Stevens, with the C’s using the picks obtained to land Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown.
To suggest the Celtics missed the boat on trading Garnett and Pierce — Allen left in free agency one year prior — is unfair to president of basketball operations Danny Ainge, who did an excellent job of rebuilding on the fly.
That said, it’s easy to see the point the executive is trying to make. And yeah, sure, the Celtics did stumble to a 41-40 regular-season record and a first-round playoff exit during the 2012-13 campaign, officially closing the “Big Three” era with a whimper.
