The mental reset happened at the end of the first round of the playoffs, and the Warriors are still reacting to it and still realigning themselves to the words Stephen Curry spoke and the Game 7 performance he delivered.
That all was about Curry shocking the Warriors’ out of their on-court malaise and bad body language at times in that loud series victory over the Kings. That was about giving themselves their best chance to beat the Lakers in the second round, which the Warriors took to six games. And it was about the future, too.
Really, Curry’s spirited speech to the team the day before Game 7 and the resulting victory in Golden 1 Center was simultaneously the high point of last season and the beginning of the next one. You want to understand why the Warriors traded Jordan Poole and both of their 2022 draft picks for one year of Chris Paul? Or why they gave a new four-year deal to Draymond Green? And whatever else might happen in the next few days or weeks? Go back to the end of the Kings series. That’s when the offseason started happening.
And everything we’ve seen from new general manager Mike Dunleavy Jr. and his staff is the result. Which all goes back to the speech and to Game 7.
It was very important that Curry could do that — the greatest player in franchise history still is the defining figure for everything successful here. As long as he’s good, the Warriors will be good. As long as he’s in that locker room, it’s his locker room.
It was also very significant that Curry had to do that — there were issues that needed to be addressed, that had been pent up all season, that were temporarily fixed for Game 7 … and that needed a more permanent alteration this offseason.
“It was unique, very unique,” Steve Kerr said of Curry’s speech on my podcast after the season. “As I said, this season has been unique because of everything that occurred early in the season, because we never really found our groove until the very end of the season. Things were definitely disjointed at times, and so Steph knew he had to say something. He’s never had to before, frankly, maybe one other time in my memory, but not really an issue in the past.”
This isn’t about starting a rebuild, of course, because that’s not going to happen as long as No. 30 lives and shoots. And it’s not a restructuring into something brand new, either. This whole set of moves is a reaffirmation of the old ways based on all the old themes and all the most important players. And moving on from others, which officially started back in February, when the Warriors gave up on their multiyear experiment with 2020 No. 2 pick James Wiseman and traded him for stalwart veteran Gary Payton II.
The Warriors stopped waiting for Wiseman. They understood that Poole’s season was upended when he was punched by Draymond in training camp and gave Poole a $123 million deal very soon after it, but after watching Poole fade out in the playoffs, the Warriors decided to move off of his contract.
They doubled down on experience by adding the 38-year-old Paul. They quadrupled down on Draymond by skipping right over a three-year offer and giving him four years and $100 million. (Important note: By shaving down this year’s salary to $22.3 million from his original $27.5 million after he opted out, the Warriors saved more money in this payroll cycle, counting luxury-tax penalties, than the $27.7 million they’ll owe to him in 2026-27 if he exercises his option for that season. That takes their projected total payroll commitment for 2023-24 to about $400 million.)
You think there’s a theme here?
“You could make an argument last year we were too young in some ways,” Dunleavy said at his intro presser last month.
Curry is signed through 2025-26. Draymond’s signed for one more year than that. Andrew Wiggins is signed for four more seasons (his fourth year is also a player option). Kevon Looney is signed through 2024-25. If Paul plays well this season, the Warriors could guarantee his $30 million contract for 2024-25 or they could flip him for a younger player on a big, long-term contract.
Klay Thompson and Kerr both have only this year left on their respective deals, but the Warriors have a lot more long-term money available for Klay now that Poole has been traded. I assume both sides will wait and see how Klay plays next season, especially in the playoffs, but I don’t imagine either Klay or the Warriors are pained by the thought of an eventual multiyear deal at a negotiable discount from his $43.2 million salary for this coming season.
And at some point this summer, I’d expect Joe Lacob to approach Kerr and for the two to sign an extension through 2025-26, which would be the same length as Curry’s contract.
Another theme of this offseason so far: Kerr and Dunleavy definitely seem locked in. There’s no evidence that Kerr and Bob Myers disagreed on too much, but it does seem like Dunleavy’s personnel philosophies are laser-focused on finding guys that Kerr will like and play. For instance, Paul, at this stage in his career, is a perfect Kerr backup point guard and occasional lead guard when Curry moves off the ball.
Also, first-round pick Brandin Podziemski’s off-ball movement and passing, combined with his obvious deep shooting talent, all seems like a much better immediate fit for Kerr’s system than Poole, Patrick Baldwin Jr. or even Jonathan Kuminga ever could be. And maybe, as Draymond suggested recently, Paul can get Kuminga unleashed as a cutter and dunker in a souped-up second unit.
Meanwhile, the Warriors are apparently waiting for veteran big man Dario Šarić to sort through his offers. If he signs with the Warriors on a minimum deal, that’s another perfect, experienced, versatile Kerr-style role player. This offseason is a commitment to Kerr. But more so, it’s naturally a full commitment to the Curry era, to his coach, his favorite teammate, his backcourt mate and players who can fit into everything that means.
What happens to the Warriors when Curry is no longer one of the best five players in the league and Draymond and Klay move way out of their primes? Well, we know what’ll happen. We’ve seen it happen in Chicago after Michael Jordan’s exit, for one very appropriate comparison.
The Warriors thought they had a way out when they landed the No. 2 pick in 2020 and Nos. 7 (Kuminga) and 14 (Moses Moody) in 2021 and went with three high-talent teenagers with those selections. Then they took two more teenagers, Baldwin and Ryan Rollins, in the first and second rounds last year. Of that group, only Kuminga and Moody remain on the Warriors’ roster and only Moody played significant minutes in the Lakers series.
A larger point that all of us missed back in 2020 and 2021: It was always going to be difficult to fit young, inexperienced players in with Curry and Draymond in Kerr’s system, and Curry and Draymond are in no hurry to get pushed aside. There were a few who could’ve done fine alongside Curry and Draymond, no doubt. Orlando picked Franz Wagner after the Warriors took Kuminga, and Wagner is headed to stardom. Charlotte took LaMelo Ball after the Wiseman pick, and it’s very possible that Ball would’ve been an electric presence alongside Curry. But also: maybe not.
The secondary players who do best in this system are smart, efficient role players who understand how to get out of Curry’s way, get the ball to him and rotate on defense when and where Draymond tells them to. Who understand that this is not their show. (As always, Kevin Durant is his own exception. There are no other KDs.) That would be GP2, Shaun Livingston, Otto Porter Jr., David West and many others. That was never going to be Wiseman. It was Poole only for bits and pieces. It looks like Moody can be one of these guys. Kuminga might be, too, but it’s a coin flip on that one.
Interestingly, some of those high draft picks were made with the thinking that Draymond, in particular, might need a replacement by now. Wiseman and Kuminga both could’ve been earmarked for that, generally. But while Draymond has tested the Warriors front office in many ways over the years, through last October and beyond, he also continues to play at a very high level.
So it wasn’t a shock when Kerr said two important things at his season-wrap-up presser. First, that Draymond’s punch messed up the Warriors’ emotional equilibrium all season; and second, that the Warriors would not be championship contenders in 2023-24 if they lost him. That was a symbolic bridge from last season to this season, all in two statements, and I believe Draymond knew exactly what Kerr was communicating.
Because Kerr is obviously tied to Curry and will be the coach here for as long as Curry wants him to be. But Kerr is also tied to Draymond in a very practical way. Because this team needs Draymond. Because Curry plays best with Draymond. And because, despite the punch and everything else that Draymond has gotten himself into, once there is basketball to play, he’s always an essential part of this.
That leads us to Kerr’s comments on Draymond’s podcast not long ago during the Denver-Miami finals, which caused a bit of a stir, and I don’t think Kerr and Draymond minded the stir.
The cue, from Draymond to introduce the conversation: “Steve’s got gems, OK? … Nine-time champion. It’s not an accident. … Winners win, never forget it.”
When Draymond asked him about the Heat’s surprising success in the postseason, Kerr gushed about Miami role players like Caleb Martin, Max Strus and Gabe Vincent in a way that intentionally or not was in sharp contrast to some of the Warriors’ role players, who, after all, needed a Curry speech to stop hanging their heads when they didn’t play 25 minutes a game. And, of course, there was Draymond nodding along through Kerr’s entire commentary.
“None of those guys on Miami are sitting there saying, ‘Well, I didn’t play,’ or ‘Man, they put in so-and-so,’” Kerr said. “They’re just all about winning. And you know this from our groups that we’ve had, when you have that championship mentality, every guy is bought in, every guy is just trying to win, nobody — nobody cares about any of that stuff. You don’t go in the locker room saying, ‘Well, I should have played more.’ You just want to win. And that’s the beauty of finding that magic when you have a championship team, is that everybody is bought in, and it makes the decisions for the coach really simple. You just go with your gut, go with whoever’s playing well.”
Kerr and Draymond have gone through their rocky moments together and certainly could go through many more. But last season really could’ve been the end of this relationship, and instead, they seem closer now than ever.
The Warriors seem clearer and calmer now. They are older and they are less deep than they’ve been in title runs of the past. But they were pulling in some different directions last season. They’ve straightened that out. And they’ve listened to Curry, who started this and will keep this going for as long as it is possible to go.
