The Golden State Warriors have had one of the most dominant eras in NBA history. Led by the All-Time great Stephen Curry, the Warriors have won 4 championships in 8 years. This team has done it all, from being the most dominant force the league has ever seen from 2017-2019 with Kevin Durant to proving everyone wrong without Durant when they won the championship last year. But now, I think it’s safe to say that the Golden Age for the Warriors is over. This year they lost in the 2nd round in 6 games to the Los Angeles Lakers. And in an ironic way, Lebron James was the one to end the dynasty. The Warriors all season long have been a weird team. They were one of the best home teams in the league but also one of the worst road teams. This struggle caused the Warriors to only be the 6th seed, narrowly making it out of the Play-In.

What caused this drop-off is the inconsistency of the Warriors’ players. This was especially present in the playoffs. Klay Thompson, Curry’s right-hand man for over a decade and one of the greatest shooters ever, absolutely fell apart. He could not make a shot against the Lakers. It even got to the point where the Lakers would actually let him shoot. If you told someone a few years ago that you could leave Klay Thompson open in the playoffs they would laugh out loud. But after his ACL and Achilles injury, Thompson never fully recovered. He’s had amazing flashes of his old self being one of the hottest shooters in the league. But he just doesn’t have consistency anymore. The days of “Game 6 Klay” are long gone. His defense is also nowhere near what it used to be. In his prime he would guard the opposing teams’ best perimeter player, now he can be considered a defensive liability.

Speaking of defensive liabilities, we need to talk about Jordan Poole. Poole was a huge part of the Warriors championship run last year. This year he fell apart. He could not hit a shot and was an absolute liability in every way. He regressed heavily in the playoffs and that had a huge part in the Warriors’ failure. Poole was supposed to be the bridge from the great, old dynasty to the future of the Warriors. But after this postseason, it is clear he is not that guy. That brings up a problem: the core from the old dynasty is aging and regressing. Curry is the only one that has a good number of years left in him. Klay Thompson as we said before is regressing, Draymond Green, while still a great defender, is not worth a lot of money. And Green wants that money. If the Warriors don’t give him the money, some other dumb franchise will. So this offseason is a huge one for the Warriors. Do they go for one more shot with this core surrounding them with players that will help them win now? Do they prioritize the future and developing young talent? Knowing this franchise, they’ll probably choose the former. I doubt they’d win another championship. But something this league has learned in a very hard way is do not count the Warriors out. And it’d be foolish to count them out now