Not many teams tank successfully, but the Golden State Warriors are in a rare circumstance where all of their struggles will quickly turn into fortunes.
The Golden State Warriors didn’t enter the 2019-20 NBA season with the intention of tanking. It wasn’t until Stephen Curry fractured his hand four games into the year that the franchise decided a place in the NBA Draft Lottery might be better than being a middle of the pack playoff team.
As the season progressed, the Warriors had no issue with allowed Curry to sit out multiple months of play to nurture his injury. Meanwhile, Draymond Green was frequently allowed to rest throughout the year. As a result, the Dubs often outed lineups of G-League callups and fringe NBA players.
To no surprise, the Warriors finished with the worst record in the league and the top odds to win the No. 1 overall pick. However, history has not been kind to teams that plummet down the standings so rapidly. More often than not, it takes years for a lottery team to climb out of the abyss and become competitive again.
For the Dubs, it should take less than a year for them to return to dominance. Perhaps it is due to good karma of not tanking entirely on purpose that they lucked out with the No. 2 overall draft pick. With this comes the potential to draft a promising prospect – or trade the asset for a more game-changing player like Kelly Oubre Jr. or Victor Oladipo.
If the Warriors keep the pick, they have options. It’s possible that their main target, Anthony Edwards, could fall into their lap. If not, they still have other prospects like the towering defensive big-man, James Wiseman. Or, the electric playmaker, LaMelo Ball.
Regardless, the return of Stephen Curry and Klay Thompson will put the Dubs back into title contention. It helps that the franchise swiftly recovered from losing Kevin Durant by flipping his loss into Andrew Wiggins. Although, it can be argued they moved away from D’Angelo Russell prematurely.
Still, the Warriors potentially stand alone as one of the few franchises to fall in the standings only to soar back up the next season.