The Golden State Warriors might need simply talked themselves right into a transfer that followers are going to replay for years. Final summer time, there have been sturdy rumblings that Jonathan Kuminga might have been flipped to the Sacramento Kings for a first-round choose. Clear. Easy. Versatile.
The sort of transfer that retains choices open round Stephen Curry whereas the clock is ticking. As an alternative, the Warriors waited. Then, on the deadline (they tried arduous to get Giannis), they moved Kuminga for Kristaps Porziņģis. That’s not persistence. That’s playing.
The Warriors had been fallacious to gamble on Kristaps Porzingis
Followers perceive danger when the upside is simple. However Porziņģis has by no means been about certainty. He has all the time been about potential and well being disclaimers. When he performs, he stretches on the ground. He blocks pictures.
He appears like the right trendy large subsequent to Curry (he received a chip with the Celtics). However that’s the key phrase: “When he performs.”
The Warriors didn’t want a “when wholesome” piece. They wanted one thing dependable. Curry just isn’t getting youthful. This window just isn’t increasing. Each transfer now needs to be sharp, not hopeful.
Turning down a first-round choose final summer time to wager on Porziņģis’ medical chart is the sort of choice that may spiral quick.
Kuminga by no means absolutely match Golden State’s system. He was uncooked, explosive, and typically chaotic in an offense constructed on precision. However that doesn’t imply he lacked worth. In the suitable surroundings, he might simply common 20 an evening.
If that occurs whereas Porziņģis misses one other chunk of video games, this commerce will age like milk. Even when Kuminga by no means turns into a star, that first-round choose might have been flipped for one thing safer. One thing sturdier. One thing that doesn’t require crossed fingers each evening.
The Warriors failed to maximise Stephen Curry’s ultimate run
All the things now revolves round Curry’s timeline. He’s nonetheless unbelievable. He can nonetheless take over video games. However the Warriors should not have years to experiment. They’d a clear asset on the desk final summer time. They selected danger as an alternative.
If Porziņģis stays wholesome and dominates within the playoffs, nobody will care. But when he misses time or fades when it issues, Warriors followers are going to look again at that handed first-round choose and marvel what precisely the entrance workplace was pondering.
Dynasties don’t collapse in a single day. They erode by playing choices. And this gamble might sting for a very long time.
