The Golden State Warriors enter the The All-Star Break Shouldn't Be Happening Break stuck with the same philosophical question — do they worry about now now and let next year take care of itself, or do they worry about next year now and let this year take care of itself?
They are currently ninth in the Western Conference, a play-in team but not quite a playoff team. They defend better than usual and score worse than usual. They are average as hell, and don't really have a meaningful trade or acquisition to make to change that central truth, unless of course they catch a general manager whose owner got blind drunk and told him to put all the players on the lawn for the neighbors to take.
So, is 2021 worth salvaging in hopes of a late run that could make them a fifth contender in the West, or do they start force-feeding the kids (James Wiseman, Eric Paschall, Jordan Poole, et. al.) a steady diet of humbling lessons that might do them some long-term good, and let the wins and losses go hang themselves?
The answer might be found in this central truth: They don't have that many Stephen Curry years left to waste, so every discarded playoff run goes on the odometer just like it was a championship. His career will end when it ends, nobody knows when that is, but it could come sooner just as much as later. So will Green's, so will Steve Kerr's and so will Bob Myers'.
This isn't just about Thursday night, when they were pounded in Phoenix in part by sitting Curry and Green for maintenance and Kelly Oubre The Younger due to injury. This wasn't a sea change in philosophy, just a mandated day off. Every team does that, and not just this year. The Lakers did it with LeBron James Wednesday, New Orleans with Zion Wiliamson Thursday, et. al.
More to the point, though, they're not 13th, seven games behind the sixth-place cutoff point like another Northern California team we choose not to mention for these purposes. They're involved, and should stay involved. Besides, growth and winning are not mutually exclusive no matter what Sam Hinkie preached.
Mostly though, it is the job of the young to figure out where and how they fit the bigger picture rather than the other way around. Wiseman, who has hit a bit of a lull in his rookie year given that he's already played 23 more games than he ever did in college, needs to earn the minutes he craves by delivering more of the things Kerr has asked of him in the minutes he gets. He isn't the future if he can't figure out the past, and while he is nowhere close to being anything but a foundational piece for the post-Renaissance Warriors, his development must run hand in hand with his improvement. Same with Paschall, and to a somewhat lesser extent Poole. They play for people with a track record of success, so they need to meet their demands rather than someone else's mythical expectations.
In short, the future is San Francisco is the future, and as long as they are a viable team in the West, the future has to be a secondary consideration. Not very secondary, mind you, but secondary enough that 2022 doesn't come before 2021.
Besides, Klay Thompson will give them all the 2022 they can handle in 2022. I mean, that's the real plan for the future.