A year after winning 73 games, the Warriors came into this regular season with two goals: Obtain the No. 1 seed in the Western Conference and make it healthy to the end of April.
The latter of those goals is in clear and present danger.
Sources: Warriors, Kevin Durant's inner-circle bracing for tough news on KD's knee, awaiting MRI result. Fear is he's out months, not weeks.
— Adrian Wojnarowski (@WojVerticalNBA) March 1, 2017
My quick take from Indianapolis before the NFL Combine gets started: This is a disheartening blow to the Warriors — but not total devastation. While you can argue Durant has been the most consistent and effective player on the team this season, the other three All-Stars have been through this song and dance before without him.
If Durant is indeed out for the remainder of the season and the playoffs, Steph Curry, Klay Thompson and Draymond Green will see the task in front of them as enticing, not daunting. Taking down the Spurs will become significantly more challenging and LeBron’s Cleveland Cavaliers will be heavy favorites in the NBA Finals. But the Warriors played some of their basketball two seasons ago as the under dog. This team thrived on the doubt placed on their shoulders. Golden State was dubbed as a super villain last July and now all of a sudden is going to be counted out by many. This is a team who feeds well off of outside noise and I’d expect them to use Durant’s injury as a springboard.
Easier said than done. There’s still a ton to figure out until June.
What was supposed to be a calm final six weeks of the season now becomes a major adjustment period for Steve Kerr and his team. Newly signed Matt Barnes will likely take Durant’s spot in the starting lineup, in order to keep Andre Iguodala fresh. New rotations will almost certainly experimented with. Draymond will likely be called on to score more. JaVale McGee and David West will both have minutes and roles to fill, too. Without Durant spacing the floor so elegantly, set plays on offense could revert to last year — we’re all praying for more Curry pick-and-rolls.
But it’s Iguodala who now arguably becomes the most important piece to the Warriors’ season. Should both teams make it to June, it was likely that Durant would mark LeBron in the Finals. That task can be shifted to Draymond from time-to-time, but it’s likely the Cavs will play multiple big men together in order to expose matchup advantages.
Last time around, Iguodala’s back flared up late in the series, and he was unable to limit LeBron like he had superbly done in the first championship battle in 2015. If Iguodala isn’t effective against Cleveland in June, toppling the Cavaliers is going to close to impossible. Who knows, maybe Durant can return in some form for the postseason — even if it’s playing sparingly off the bench to give the second unit a scoring lift.
Still, that’s way down the road to think about.
Right now the Warriors need a lift in their confidence. Multiple reporters in Washington D.C. last night said the locker room felt sobering, as if Golden State had just lost a playoff game. Barnes’ unique energy will obviously be a pick me up for morale, but Kerr and Draymond are going to have to find ways to keep this team’s spirits up during the longest east coast road trip of the season.
The Warriors have really only had two other noteworthy injuries since Kerr took over in 2014: Curry slipping on a wet spot in Houston in the first round of the playoffs last season and Andrew Bogut’s knee being taken out underneath the basket by J.R. Smith in Game 5. That Bogut injury had way more of an impact than most understand, but the Warriors have been relatively lucky with the injury bug.
Until now.
MRI results are expected to come in on Wednesday. The Warriors hope Durant will return for the playoffs — hopefully at 100 percent.
The bottom line is that the Warriors still have the back-to-back MVP, a shooter who can score 60 points in three quarters without barely touching the basketball and what is looking like the NBA’s Defensive Player of the Year. The firepower is all still there.
Be careful if you’re going to count out Curry, Thompson and Green. The chip on their shoulder from the 3-1 collapse will grow even bigger if they have to pull off a championship task without Kevin Durant.