The Warriors entered the 2020-21 NBA season in a bit of a pickle.
After having the worst record in the NBA last season, they had their eyes set on getting back to the top of the mountain. Then, Klay Thompson tore his Achilles right before the 2020 NBA Draft. The Warriors made a long-term move by selecting 19-year-old center James Wiseman No. 2 overall, but also went the win-now route by acquiring Kelly Oubre Jr. after Thompson was ruled out for the second straight season.
The Warriors can’t let their title window slip away with Steph Curry, Draymond Green and Thompson on the wrong side of 30 but know they also have to have their eyes on the future with players like Wiseman. So, going into the March 25 NBA trade deadline, what’s general manager Bob Myers’ mindset right now?
“I don’t think we want to think too short-term and give up something in the future just to make a little bit of a push now,” Myers said Wednesday to NBC Sports Bay Area’s Grant Liffmann and Dorell Wright. “As hard as that is to stay discipline, I think we would hope that anything that we would decide to do had legs beyond this year or had advantages beyond the rest of this season.
“But that’s a hard thing to do. When things are presented to you and you think this will help our roster … again, the discipline comes into play when you factor in yes it will help our roster, but will it help us win a playoff series? Will it help us win a playoff game?”
Golden State enters Wednesday night’s contest against the Portland Trail Blazers with a 19-16 record, which currently has them as the No. 8 seed in the Western Conference. Their biggest issue has been consistency, constantly looking like a different team game by game.
Myers also knows some players are built for the regular season and some can step their game up in the playoffs. He also knows just how important this year’s NBA draft can be, including the top-three protected pick they have from the Minnesota Timberwolves.
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“There’s regular-season players and there’s playoff players,” Myers said. “We do need to be better in the regular season. We want to get the highest seed we can. But not to sacrifice a future asset or to be worse in the future. It’s a challenge. We want to win, we want to win every game. We want to be good right now and those are the hardest things to do.
“If something comes up that helps us now but not later, you just have to say no, that’s not the right thing for us.”
The Warriors very well could make a move at the deadline. Just don’t expect it to be a blockbuster, win-now move that could hurt them in the future. Myers at least made that clear.
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