“We Believe” Warrior Matt Barnes believes the Warriors dynasty is over
This Golden State fan favorite sees the writing on the wall.
The Golden State Warriors won 46 games this season, but that was not enough to make the playoffs. If they were in the Eastern Conference they’d have been the 8th seed, instead they were 10th out West before being unceremoniously bounced out of the play-in tournament.
That reminds me a lot of the 2007 Warriors, the edition that came after the We Believe season who tied a record for most regular season wins without making the postseason.
How fitting that Dan Le Batard interviewed two card carrying members of that squad, Stephen Jackson and Matt Barnes. “Captain Jack” averaged a hair under 25 points per game over 73 contests. Barnes also played 73 games for the Dubs that season,
Barnes had a nice quote on the matter:
We feel that the dynasty is over. Will they keep the core together out of respect and tradition and for what they did for the game and each other and the organization? Or do they make moves to see how they can better this team in Steph’s last handful of years.
From that standpoint, it’s kinda sad to kind of the end of the run.
I know Steph loves Dray and Klay like brothers. No one on the planet appreciates those two more than probably Steph. But I don’t know it’s up in the air, I can see both sides. I can see “hey let’s ride off into the sunset together, we’ve had a great run”, or “do I wanna try to compete in my last few years?”.
His running mate Stack Jack added another point in light of Draymond Green’s suspensions and Thompson’s inconsistencies:
I think at this point, he might not say it, but (Steph’s) fed up too. He’s been doing everything right for so long, carrying the team for so long, and now you’re at the point where Klay is not the player he needs to be. Draymond is still being the defensive player and the help guy but when you don’t have a guy like Klay or another guy like KD on the team to help them, it’s a lot of frustration for Steph.
So I can see him being frustrated right now and not having answers. He doesn’t wanna say I wanna win and move on because he’s loyal to these guys. But then again, he’s a winner and he wants to end his career on a good note.
It’s a tough situation, but at the end, somebody has to make some tough decision.
Well said by two former Warriors who know what it’s like to put on the Bay’s basketball team’s colors and fight to the very end, even if that means missing the playoffs.