The Warriors' two-timeline experiment has come to its final crossroad and it's time to make a choice
Welcome to Layup Lines, For the Win’s basketball newsletter. Subscribe here to get it delivered to your inbox every Monday, Wednesday and Friday. Have feedback for the Layup Lines Crew? Leave your questions, comments and concerns through this brief reader survey. Now, here’s Mike Sykes
Howdy, folks! Welcome back to Layup Lines! Thanks so much for reading the newsletter today. We appreciate you!
The Warriors are back in the news on the NBA side of things and, well, let’s just say it’s not for reasons that will make anyone in Golden State happy.
As my colleague Bryan Kalbrosky wrote, Jonathan Kuminga has reportedly lost his faith in Steve Kerr. He doesn’t believe the Warriors’ long-time head coach will allow him to actualize his full potential.
It’s hard not to see it that way after the Warriors went out in the most feckless way possible to the Denver Nuggets. Kuminga had an excellent first half and essentially rode the bench for the majority of the second half while Golden State squandered yet another win away.
That situation is the trees, though. Let’s talk about the forest.
Remember that whole two-timeline approach the Warriors told us all they were taking a few years ago? That’s dead. It’s done. It’s cooked. It’s over. Call it whatever you want to call it. It’s time for the Warriors to move on.
If you recall, the Warriors planned to continue to have the team’s future Hall of Fame core of Steph Curry, Klay Thompson and Draymond Green carry Golden State to continued success. Meanwhile, the team would draft and develop young talent that would slowly, but surely, ease the franchise into the future.
Here’s Bob Meyers explaining the rationale behind the plan two seasons ago.
“So we thought, let’s just draft the best players who were on the board. A lot of people wanted us to trade them for a star. This is not said in the vein of ‘I told you so,’ but we did think Andrew Wiggins could fill that role. We did. Not a lot of people did. But we wanted to see him in that role of the fourth guy.”
For a while, that worked! In fact, it won the team a championship! Clearly, it worked at some point. The Warriors succeeded with a mixture of veterans and up-and-coming prospects that we don’t typically see success from in the NBA.
Two years later, it’s all fallen apart. Bob Meyers is gone — he abandoned ship. Draymond Green can’t stop punching people. Jordan Poole is a Wizard because Draymond Green can’t stop punching people. Klay Thompson is admittedly not the player he once was. Jonathan Kuminga seems to want out because Steve Kerr won’t play him and Moses Moody reportedly feels the same way.
And now, folks, we see the secret of the two-timeline path. It sounds great. It even might work in practice for a while. If you’ve got someone as special as Steph Curry it can work in a big way. But, eventually, chickens come home to roost. You’ve got to choose a path.
The Warriors have to make a choice: Either commit to the team’s younger talent or go down with the ship steered by the core that got Golden State where it is in the first place.
It’s easy for us here to say it’s time to move on. But moving on in practice is tough considering everything everyone on that team has been through.
I don’t envy anyone in that building. But I’m certainly eager to see where this all ends up. The rest of the NBA is, too. Surely, Jonathan Kuminga and a few others on that roster would have more than a few suitors out there.
Pack your bags, Pascal
Mandatory Credit: Nick Turchiaro-USA TODAY Sports
Speaking of trades, the Toronto Raptors are reportedly expected to move Pascal Siakam by the time the NBA trade deadline rolls around, according to ESPN’s Tim Bontemps.
In an all-encompassing NBA trade piece, Bontemps says that both the Knicks and Raptors will remain active in looking for ways to improve their teams after the OG Anunoby trade.
“While the Knicks continue to search the market, the Raptors will too. League sources expect Toronto to move on from two-time All-Star forward Pascal Siakam before the trade deadline. “
Siakam is an interesting piece. He’s been the Raptors’ best player for the better part of the last four seasons but seems better suited in a role as a secondary scoring option while focusing in on being impactful defensively.
He’s one of those players that — quite literally — every single team in the NBA could use. But he’s also looking for a $50 million payday, which would be a hard pill to swallow for all of those teams, too.
Siakam will still certainly be the darling of the trade deadline if he hasn’t been moved before then. We’ll just have to wait and see how things play out.
Giannis is a Wemby truther
Mandatory Credit: Scott Wachter-USA TODAY Sports
And, folks, let me tell you right now. I stand with him. Because there’s no way that you’re telling me that Victor Wembanyama is just 7-foot-3.
Look, I know that 7-foot-3 is already extremely tall. But Kristaps Porzingis is 7-foot-3. I feel like Wemby is taller than that. Giannis Antetokounmpo does, too, apparently. Here’s more on what he had to say after facing off against him on Thursday from our Bryan Kalbrosky.
“Antetokounmpo, who is listed at 6-foot-11, believes Wembanyama is “way taller” than 7-foot-3 and that whoever reported that the big man was 7-foot-3 was lying to us all. (His height is complicated but he can make other famous people look comically small.)
According to Antetokounmpo, the Spurs rookie is probably 7-foot-4 or 7-foot-5. He also added that the “sky is the limit” (literally and metaphorically) for Wembanyama.”
Believe Giannis, folks. That man is 7-foot-5.
Shootaround
— Our Meghan Hall makes a case for the Women’s NCAA Tournament to be packaged on its own and I think it’s a pretty compelling one.
— The Inside the NBA crew trolled Charles Barkley’s New Year’s resolution. Bryan has more here.
— Three international players might go in the top three of the NBA draft this year. Charles Curtis has more.
— Is…Is Robin Lopez OK with mascots now?
That’s a wrap, folks! Thanks so much for reading! Have a fantastic weekend. Peace. Be safe out there. Let’s chat again next week.
-Sykes