Golden State Warriors: 3 best-case scenarios from a chaotic season

The Golden State Warriors have had a chaotic season, the third in a turbulent trilogy for the team. After catastrophic injuries derailed them in the 2019 NBA Finals and a lost season in 2019-20, this year was supposed to be a recovery year, a bounceback to the top. Instead, Klay Thompson tore his Achilles on the day of the NBA Draft, and things have been shaky ever since.

Stephen Curry has been magnificent, one of the league’s top scorers despite immense defensive attention. Draymond Green has been a force on defense and a frequent distributor, but has also seemingly forgotten how to score. Kelly Oubre Jr. was an expensive offseason addition who has run hot and cold. James Wiseman, the second overall pick in the draft, showed potential and weaknesses before a meniscus injury likely ended his season.

As it stands the Warriors are two games below .500 at 26-28, clinging to the 10th spot in the Western Conference (and thus a berth in the play-in tournament). A recent 1-7 stretch stymied their push up the standings, leaving them in no man’s land with 18 games to go.

The path forward for the Golden State Warriors could head in a myriad of directions

The Warriors could absolutely see a tough season turn into a disaster down the stretch. It could also remain mediocre, a below-average team having a below-average end to the year. We could spend time describing those, but that would be painful for Warriors fans and boring for anyone else.

What is exciting to look at are the possibilities that this season ends well for the Warriors. That’s a difficult endpoint to define for a team trying to balance present success with long-term longevity and growth. Yet none of these outcomes are unrealistic, and each would salvage positives from a season teetering on the edge. We’ll start from the most wins to the least wins and highlight why each would be a great path forward from here.