Do Stephen Curry, Draymond Green, Klay Thompson, Steve Kerr, Andrew Wiggins, Jordan Poole, Bob Myers and everybody else involved with this groggy and giddy franchise seem like they’re ready to wrap this all up and move aside after winning their fourth championship of this era?
That answer is: Noooooo way.
If anything, powering through the Western Conference, knocking off the Celtics in six finals games and partying (and partying and partying) on and around the parquet floor in Boston a few days ago only seems to have given a second wind to the Warriors’ dynasty after their three-season title-less drought. If anything, the relatively unexpected nature of this championship sprint only sharpened Curry & Co.’s desire for extra rings and their sense that much more is possible.
Yes, if anything, the Warriors on paper are actually better set up to win next season than they were to start this season. Or even in the middle of this season.
As Thompson said Thursday night, as only he could: “Holy cannoli!”
Or as only Draymond could say: “Welcome back to the Warriors Invitational.”
Of course, the Warriors’ hopes for another championship next season and more after that might slide away due to ill-timed absences or all-time opponents, as they did in 2016 (injuries and suspension plus LeBron James), 2019 (injuries plus Kawhi Leonard) and the lost seasons of 2020 and 2021.
But this is a team that has three recent lottery picks — James Wiseman, Jonathan Kuminga and Moses Moody — who didn’t play a significant minute in the finals and yet remain huge pieces of the Warriors’ future. And the Warriors have now proven they can win with an almost entirely homegrown roster (as they did in 2015), they can add a superstar like Kevin Durant and win two more (2017 and 2018) and they can take on disfavored player like Wiggins and turn him into one of the postseason’s best players … and win another title.
Which isn’t even counting everything that Curry, Draymond and Klay proved about themselves again this season, despite the NBA actuarial tables. So yeah, these probably aren’t the sunset days of this thing.
“As good as we were this year, I feel like next year we’re going to be even better,” Wiggins said Saturday as the Warriors conducted their season-ending exit interviews. “You know, we still have the older guys, the young guys are only going to get better. JK, I’m expecting him to (take) a huge jump this summer. Moses, Wiseman’s going to be back. So our young guys, they’re going to make us a lot better.”
That’s a pretty perfect summation by Wiggins, who got more relaxed and chattier every day of this postseason, which is another very positive sign about next season for the Warriors. The looser Wiggins got under the harsh spotlight, the better he played, and when he played great, the Warriors were just about unbeatable. Also, he’s still only 27.
There’s a larger reason the Warriors are undefeated in Western Conference playoff series since Kerr’s arrival in 2014. There’s a reason they seem to get stronger the deeper they go in a series, while their opponents often seem to get weaker. There’s a reason they climbed back up after putting up the worst record in the league two seasons ago. There’s a reason they won this year’s championship even while they were storing away massive talents for the future.
Simply, the Warriors are a winning franchise. They will keep fighting until the wheels come off, as Draymond put it, and then they will keep fighting even harder. Here are a few specific reasons they could and probably should be a superior team, at least in the regular season, than they were this season:
Anybody want to tell No. 30 that his reign is over? No, didn’t think so
Remember the last time Curry finished a season with this kind of energy, when he was clearly the best player on the floor in every game and seemed to feed off the doubts and predictions of imminent Warriors…
Read More: Here’s why the Warriors might be even better next season