Why Warriors' choice to tank without achy stars vs. Thunder was logical decision originally appeared on NBC Sports Bay Area
SAN FRANCISCO – With Draymond Green and De’Anthony Melton given one-game recesses, Jimmy Butler III calling in sick and Stephen Curry showing up but not suiting up, the Warriors were doomed against the defending champion Oklahoma City Thunder.
Golden State’s 134-94 loss to Oklahoma City on Friday night was preordained, as any NBA team’s B squad would feel the shoe soles of the best team in the league.
The Warriors tanked this game. Not for draft positioning but for a better future.
And even though the sellout crowd at Chase Center (18,064) began streaming toward the exits early in the fourth quarter, with the Warriors trailing by 37, it was a logical decision.
Scanning their achy roster and their upcoming schedule, coach Steve Kerr and the team’s medical and training staffs opted for prudency. This was not an NBA playoff game and would not have any impact on one. So, rather than dance with risk, they chose to sacrifice a slim chance of beating OKC in hopes it would benefit the 47 games still on the schedule.
Curry was sitting because tweaked his left ankle, and any aggravation could jeopardize several weeks. Butler was on the afternoon injury report with an undisclosed illness. Green (rest) and Melton (surgery management) were scheduled to sit.
“With Draymond, that was easy,” coach Steve Kerr said two hours before tipoff. “We’re in the midst of this five [games] in seven days. At his age, coming off a trip, with three [game] in four [nights], starting tonight, it’s an easy one for us to rest Draymond tonight.
“Jimmy, we didn’t plan to. He got sick this morning, and he won’t even be coming to the game tonight. So, hopefully he gets better quickly.”
Coming off back-to-back road games on Tuesday (Brooklyn) and Wednesday (Charlotte), the Warriors on Saturday night face the Utah Jazz at Chase Center, then travel to Los Angeles on Sunday to face the Clippers on Monday night.
“The schedule is what it is,” Kerr said. “When you have an older team, you have to navigate it as best you can. We’re trying to do that.”
That, folks, is the essence of the issue. The front office assembled a roster with a core that is NBA old. Green is 35, Butler 36 and Curry 37. Al Horford, who has missed 18 of Golden State’s 35 games but played 16 minutes on Friday, is 39.
This season is, and always has been, about navigating the schedule, managing bodies, therapeutic massages – and hoping that the rest of the team showed well when the vets were unavailable.
That was the case last Dec. 6, when Golden State’s B squad beat the Cavaliers in Cleveland, but it was demolished by the Thunder.
Asked if there was anything of value, Kerr was quick with a reply.
“Not a whole lot to take from it,” he said.
“You got to forget about it,” Will Richard said.
“That was disgusting,” Trayce Jackson-Davis said. “It’s in the toilet and already flushed.”
This night was about opportunities. Would Brandin Podziemski continue his stellar recent play? He did not, scoring 12 points on 4-of-13 shooting from the field, including 1 of 4 from distance.
This was a chance for starting center Quinten Post, the team’s designated stretch-5, to move past his 27-percent shooting over the previous seven games. Nope. He was he was 1 of 6 against OKC.
This was an opportunity for Buddy Hield, whose 32-percent shooting from deep kicked him out of the rotation, to perhaps rediscover the shot that determines his value. He took nine shots beyond the arc, making three.
Podziemski and Post are in the rotation. And Hield at some point might be needed, if only because he addresses Kerr’s spacing fetish. All three are part of the supporting cast that will be needed for the Warriors to exploit a schedule that now swings in their favor.
Nine of their next 10 games, and 15 of their next 22, are at Chase. The Warriors don’t leave California until Jan. 22 and don’t fly east of the Mississippi River until after the Feb. 14-19 NBA All-Star break.
“It is a big opportunity,” Kerr said. “The schedule kind of swings back our way this next month, after a difficult first 20 games or so. It feels like we’re playing better. We’re playing more consistently, and with this next month’s schedule time at home, we’d love to keep our momentum going and build on this a little bit.”
Golden State still has a long-range goal, which enters 2026 invisible to the naked eye. It will stay that way unless the navigation, management and therapy works wonders.
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