Golden State Warriors head coach Steve Kerr said there is a lot of value in keeping the team’s big 3 – Steph Curry, Draymond Green, and Klay Thompson together. The Dubs won the NBA Championship in 2022 but they suffered a second-round exit in the previous season.
The Warriors were knocked out of the ongoing season by the Sacramento Kings in the play-in tournament. They suffered an ignominious loss of 118-94 on Thursday night and one wonders how long can they retain their core.
Draymond Green and Klay Thompson have headed towards the free-agency route and it will be interesting to note what the off-season will behold.
“It’s rarely a storybook,” Warriors coach Steve Kerr said at his exit interview Thursday. “Even the ’96 or ’98 Bulls, you know, the team was broken up and we won the championship in our last year but there was a documentary about what a disaster the whole thing was. It’s impossible for this stuff to end perfectly.”
“I do think there is a lot of value to having our three guys being Warriors for life. I think there’s a lot of value in ending with dignity … so, for those three I really want to see all of them finish their careers here but also finish out their careers with a sense of pride and dignity in what they’re doing.”
Meanwhile, Klay Thompson failed to get going against the Kings shooting 0-for-10. However, Kerr, Curry, and Green want the Warriors to back Thompson.
The team’s general manager Mike Dunleavy Jr. also concurred with the same.
“Certainly, we want Klay back,” Dunleavy said. “I expressed that to him yesterday.”
Meanwhile, Draymond Green still has three years left in his contract with the Warriors but his aggressive avatar has landed him and the team in a soup.
“He’s one of the most competitive, he’s one of the smartest players I’ve ever been around,” Kerr said. “And yet he makes these decisions that hurt the team, that aren’t smart. So how do you reconcile all that? It’s really difficult. The number one thing I would say is, if we decided he wasn’t worth it then we would have moved off of him years ago. But he’s worth it and he’s worth it not only because of the banners that are hanging out there but because he really is a wonderful human being.”
