SI:AM | This Might Be the End for the Warriors

Good morning, I’m Dan Gartland. I really hope Zion Williamson is able to play in the Pelicans’ do-or-die game against the Kings on Friday.

In today’s SI:AM: 

🗑️ The Warriors crash out
🎙️ Looking back at John Sterling’s career
🔮 Predicting which QBs will be stars

Is this it? 

The Golden State Warriors have ruled the NBA for most of the past decade, but now, after their season ended Tuesday night with a loss in the play-in tournament, this era of Warriors excellence could be coming to a close.

It was a tough season for Golden State, which spent most of the year hovering around .500 before winning 10 of its last 13 to finish 46–36. That was good for 10th in the conference, which meant traveling on the road for a do-or-die game against the Sacramento Kings on Tuesday night in the play-in.

The Kings won the game easily, 118–94. Stephen Curry had 22 points on 8-of-16 shooting. Draymond Green chipped in 12 points, with six assists and three rebounds. Klay Thompson was held scoreless, missing all 10 shots he took. It was the first time he was held without a point since his rookie season (excluding the game in November when he was ejected less than two minutes after tipoff).

“For the most part, they just took it to us the whole game,” Curry said. “There’s really no way around it.”

So now the Warriors have some difficult decisions to make this offseason. The biggest one is on Thompson, who will be an unrestricted free agent on July 1. It’s difficult to imagine the Warriors without Thompson, who has been as critical to the team’s success over the past decade as anyone else. It isn’t a coincidence that the Warriors’ two worst recent seasons came in 2019–20 and ’20–21, the two years Thompson missed with knee and Achilles injuries.

But it might be time for the franchise to move on from Thompson. He is 34 years old and clearly declining. Tuesday night’s scoreless outing was unusual, but not unforeseeable. He had a few other stinkers this season (a 1-for-10 game in November, a 1-for-11 game in December and a 1-for-9 in February, to name a few). In the final three games of Golden State’s Western Conference semifinal loss to the Los Angeles Lakers last year, he went a combined 9-for-42 from the field (21.4%). His three-point shooting percentage this season was .387, the second lowest of his career. Only the 2021–22 season, when he returned to the floor in January after two-and-a-half years recovering from two devastating injuries, was worse (.385).

For what it’s worth, coach Steve Kerr said after the loss that the Warriors “desperately want [Thompson] back” and that he believes Thompson has “still got good years left.” Still, moving on from Thompson would be easy—or at least as easy as saying goodbye to an all-time great can be. He’ll be a free agent, and so the team can simply thank him for his contributions to one of the sport’s greatest dynasties and let him sign elsewhere.

Golden State has a much more difficult decision to make with Draymond Green, though. Green remains under contract for the next three seasons and is owed $77 million over that span. While he remains an elite defender, you wouldn’t fault the Warriors if they wanted to move on from him after his poor temper led to a 19-game suspension earlier this season.

“I can never see myself not with those two guys,” Curry said after the loss, referring to Thompson and Green. But when asked if the Warriors needed to make significant changes to win next season, Curry said, “I just want to win.”

This Warriors era will have to come to an end in the near future. Their big three are all approaching the end of their careers. Thompson and Green are both 34, while Curry is 36. Sooner or later that core will be dissolved. After Tuesday night’s loss to the Kings, it’s fair to wonder whether that breakup will be coming this summer.

The best of Sports Illustrated

• Tom Verducci has a great retrospective on the career of outgoing Yankees announcer John Sterling.
• Matt Verderame tried to predict which of the six likely first-round quarterbacks are going to be stars and which will end up being busts.
• Verderame also has a list of five potential draft sleepers.
• Speaking of quarterbacks, Conor Orr makes the case for why the Vikings must take a passer in the first round.
• Here is Team USA’s men’s basketball roster for this summer’s Olympics in Paris.
• Cody Bellinger is the latest MLB player to tear his pants while running the bases.
• Blake Griffin announced his retirement after a 14-year career.

The top five…

… things I saw last night: 

5. Marshawn Lynch supporting the Kraken on the road in Winnipeg. I hope Kenny Mayne was there to follow Lynch around town for a sequel to their classic 2007 piece about Buffalo.
4. Florida star Jac Caglianone’s 516-foot home run.
3. This angle of Zion Williamson’s block on LeBron James.
2. David Perron’s goal with 3.3 seconds left to keep the Red Wings’ playoff hopes alive.
1. T.J. Oshie’s goal for the Capitals against the Flyers that ended the Red Wings’ season. The Flyers needed to win the game in regulation to have any chance at making the playoffs, so they pulled their goalie with the score tied late in the third period. What the Flyers didn’t know is that they had already been eliminated from playoff contention because the Red Wings forced overtime. Oshie’s empty-netter gave Washington the final spot in the postseason.