Last night time’s loss will reverberate for the relaxation of the season, just from a statistical standpoint. Oh sure, it’s confirming all of our fears, but fandom and emotionalism are one in the same. Most of us already figured that the Golden State Warriors were in their post dynasty period. Their managed decline. Their hospice years. But, that was their most doubtless win out of their first 6 video games, so the state of affairs really feels worse than lose labels. History would not offer us any hope, except in one bizarre case.
With (at minimal) Steph Curry and Brandin Podziemski sitting tonight for the back-to-back in Phoenix, it’s extremely possible the Warriors will lose, in which case they’ll begin a season 0-3 for just the tenth time in franchise historical past. The other instances:
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1964-65
1984-85
1985-86
1987-88
1997-98
1999 (lockout)
1999-2000
2004-05
2007-08
Now, that post-We Believe staff is the significant exception on the listing. It’s the complete level of this article. No other time has a Warriors staff began 0-3 and gone on to have a profitable document. Outside of 2007-08’s 48-34 document, only the 2004-2005 version won over 30 video games (34-48).
But these 26-27 Warriors look setup to begin fairly a bit worse than 0-3, do not you think? After bricking the home opener and taking part in short against Phoenix, they’ll go to Denver, then Minnesota, and come back home to host the Lakers. So, yeah. If the state of affairs feels grim, it’s because it is. And 0-6 feels very like. But it’s not inevitable. Just 63 groups have began a season 0-6 in the historical past of the league.
Sure, only 5 of those groups went on to have a profitable document (and because the Eastern Conference has always been a bit of a joke, eight have gone on to make the playoffs), but one of those groups — and I can’t stress this enough — was the 2007-2008 Warriors. That staff completed 48-34… and missed the playoffs, sure, but I digress!
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Stephen Jackson missed the begin of that season after being suspended for pleading out over an altercation outside of a night time membership and his return was enough to spark the Dubs to an 11-3 run that saved their season.
Of course, Moses Moody and Jimmy Butler are months (and months!) away. In the meantime, the Warriors will be depth-less and because of their best gamers being older, usually short-handed. Thanks to all the roster strikes Mike Dunleavy Jr. did not (or could not) make this previous offseason and what the staff hasn’t been ready to do the previous couple of years will merely level the franchise towards a useless finish.
I’d like to think the randomness of sports activities and life could be a motive to retain a shred of hope, but then I look at the 2007-2008 roster next to this season’s and I can’t help but word that Don Nelson’s staff had just two gamers 30 or older on it: Chris Webber (34, 9 video games) and Troy Hudson (31, 9 video games). Steve Kerr’s has 5. I look back at the listing of 63 groups in NBA historical past to begin 0-6 and word that the Warriors seem on it twice more: 1997-98 and the aforementioned 2004-05. It seems inconceivable they’d get off to such a unhealthy begin, but it feels like a certainty.
So, historical past is against the Warriors.
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It would not really feel like one of those conditions where “it’s only two games into the season” is a significant remark. What frustrates me the most about the NBA (besides the officiating) is how set in stone it all is. Sure, some sort souls might’ve projected 43 wins for Golden State this season, but the weighted nature of these slimmer rosters imply that it would not take much for issues to go very improper and there’s not much that can be performed to change course in-season. And from there, it’s simple to project how issues will go if certain drastic actions aren’t taken.
This Warriors season has began more or less as feared and as plainly predictable given the totality of their circumstances. They can’t be accused of stasis, but their acquisition strategy has turned their difficult state of affairs into a near-impossible one. Steph Curry is unlikely to play like he’s 34 again, and if the staff can’t complement their veteran gamers with high quality youth and depth, then the last few years of Curry’s illustrious profession will be as painful as the begin to this season. Obviously.
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