Steph, Draymond see Warriors reality draining the highest of hopes

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The Warriors do not have a championship roster this season, and those who have breathed the thin air of such heights know it.

They also realize they do not have a roster that qualifies for “elite” status in today’s NBA.

The best of these Warriors, those with multiple championships on their records, have seen enough to accept they do not have what it takes to fight their way to the top of the wicked Western Conference.

Moreover, there is no point and trying to trick themselves into believing otherwise – or that general manager Mike Dunleavy can find a trade that provides the magical panacea.

The past seven weeks have smacked the Warriors with a reality that is cold and continuous and is draining the highest of hopes. And nobody sees it clearer than the head coach Steve Kerr and decorated veterans Stephen Curry and Draymond Green.

A trade, the right trade, might make them better for this season. But at what cost?

“I know Mike is always on the phone,” Curry told reporters Monday in Toronto, after Golden State’s latest rock-bottom experience, a 104-101 loss that gave the Raptors their second win in 41 days. “He’s trying to figure it out. That’s what a good GM does. It doesn’t mean there’s a deal on the table. Doesn’t that you’re desperate. Doesn’t mean that you’re just flinging assets all around and being reckless with it.

“If there was a situation that made sense for our team, I'm pretty sure we’d know about it. That’s how we've always operated. And that's the expectation now until February 6.”

In short, there is no anticipating a knight riding to the rescue of the Warriors over the next 23 days, before the Feb. 6 NBA trade deadline. There might be a trade, but how much better would they be? How much would it cost?

“The beautiful part about being in the space that we're in is Steve Kerr, Steph Curry and myself all disagree with mortgaging off the future of this organization, saying that we're going for it right now,” Green told Yahoo Sports' Vince Goodwill last week in Detroit.

“Bad teams do that. Bad organizations do that. We're not neither one.”

Curry and Green have skin in the game. They’ve spent their entire NBA careers, a combined 27 seasons and counting, representing the Warriors. They believe in the franchise. Like a marriage, for better or worse. Each has one eye on this season of anguish, with the other peeking toward seasons to come.

Neither wants to see today’s futility to invite tomorrow’s failures.

“You want to continue to get better,” Curry said in the visiting team locker room at Scotiabank Arena. “Nobody wants to be stale or be in a situation where you're passing up opportunities. But it doesn't mean that you're desperate, just flinging assets all around the place just because you want to do something.

“Mike understands we want to win. That we want to be in that position where we've always said that you ‘want to be relevant’ in the championship type of chase. We understand we're getting older and deeper into our careers and allowing some of the young guys to kind of blossom.

“But it doesn't mean you're getting desperate. It's better to be patient and understand what that looks like.”

There is no single transaction that can lift the Warriors past the 10 teams ahead of them in the West. The Milwaukee Bucks, amid a maddening season, are not sending Giannis Antetokounmpo to Golden State. The Los Angeles Lakers are not sending LeBron James or Anthony Davis. The Warriors are not getting Denver’s Nikola Jokić or Boston’s Jayson Tatum. Kevin Durant is not coming back to the Bay.

Curry, Green, Kerr and Dunleavy all know that. Golden State CEO Joe Lacob, an accomplished man whose ambition never rests, knows it too.

We’re one day removed from Kerr blaming himself for the debacle in Toronto, where the reeling Raptors erased a nine-point deficit inside the final 10 minutes. We’re one week removed from Kerr citing a “crisis of confidence” affecting his team.

We’re nine days removed from Curry acknowledging the Warriors are built to overcome massive deficits while also admitting he was embarrassed by a 30-point spanking – at Chase Center – administered by the Sacramento Kings.

While panic rolls through the streets of Dub Nation, there is nothing to indicate the front office is willing to make a risky trade that could alter the future – or that Curry, Green and Kerr are furious enough to make passionate pleas for action.

“So, for us, if something is going to happen, it needs to be the right thing,” Green told Yahoo Sports. “We're not going to jump and make the wrong decision because we panicked. That's how you set your organization back five to seven years.”

Distilled, Draymond is saying chasing a championship in a season 2025 – when it’s evident that such a goal is unrealistic – is not worth jeopardizing a chance in years to come.

Draymond believes there is enough in the locker room to build another contender in the not-too-distant future. Does it feel unrealistic? Yes. But he is allowed such optimism.

Curry and Green have the right to express their opinions. And be heard. If they can see today’s team is not it, and probably can’t be it, maybe they’ll know before the rest of us if tomorrow’s teams can bring parades back to the Bay.

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