As the Warriors execute a fairly democratic operation, with each player having a voice and top veterans operating as advisers to head coach Steve Kerr, an invitation to be part of a proposed but not approved second NBA “bubble” presents a dilemma.
If the NBA orders it, they’ll go, whether it’s Chicago or Las Vegas or elsewhere. That veterinarians Steph Curry, Draymond Green and Klay Thompson are not expected to play makes the team’s participation superficial, if not meaningless.
However, general manager Bob Myers recently said the Warriors would be “team players” and ultimately do what is best for the league.
“You have to step back and say, ‘We will be good partners,'” he said in a phone conversation. “We are going to do our best for the league in a difficult environment.”
Understand, the Warriors don’t want to be there, and why should they? His 2019-20 season has ended and there is no definitive start date for 2020-2021. They would be criticizing, with a potentially increased risk of coronavirus (COVID-19), with the crew that absorbed most of the minutes last season.
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Which brings us to your true desire. They want to meet as a group before the next training camp, currently closed in November. Kerr told me a few weeks ago that she “wouldn’t mind” getting her team together for what amounts to a mini-camp in the midst of a pandemic-extended low season.
Coaches want it, and players want it too. Everyone would like the experience of playing with each other, which did not exist last season. Thompson missed the entire season, and Curry played four games, only one with Andrew Wiggins, who came on a February trade.
Ideally, that would happen at the Chase Center, which has been opened for individual activities with attendance limitations, but remains suspended for full team activities.
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If the day comes when the current restrictions are relaxed, expect the Warriors to identify a week for everyone to enter. Put Thompson on the floor with Wiggins and others, fighting together for the first time. Evaluate how Curry and Green have responded to the long layoff.
That would be productive, as well as his first explosive activity since early March.
Entering a second bubble, with a stripped squad, confined to a hotel for a week or two, is something the Warriors are willing to do. Willing, but barely eager and barely engaged.
