SAN FRANCISCO — The Warriors’ Western Conference semifinal loss forced them to look in the mirror and reflect on what went wrong.
The tangible reasons were obvious and had been discussed ad nauseam.
But this reflection period also forced the Warriors to acknowledge some uncomfortable truths to this season. Their championship culture that got them to six of the last eight NBA Finals had been cracked, and their fiery leader, Draymond Green, was a driving force in that.
“There’s no hiding from it, the incident with Draymond and Jordan [Poole] at the beginning of the year played a role in that,” coach Steve Kerr said Tuesday. “It’s hard for that not to impact a team.”
Leaked video back in October showed Green punching Poole in the face, presenting Kerr with the biggest crisis of his Warriors’ tenure.
Green momentarily stepped away from the team but the damage was already done. He lost trust amongst his peers, and he’s still working on getting it back.
The Warriors might’ve had championship pieces this season, but they fell short in putting the puzzle together to go for a long run. That broken trust, Kerr said, as well as trying to bridge the gap between the old guard and new, made it difficult for the Warriors to lean in on their championship DNA like they had done in the past.
“The only way to try to correct the course is to continue to communicate with players and coaches, and those relationships have to be built,” Kerr said. “The bonds have to be built. I think that’s a focus for us this offseason is we have to get back to what has made us really successful, which is a really trusting environment and a group that relies on one another and makes each other better.”
The Warriors are heading into a pivotal offseason littered with uncertainty. Green’s future with the team that took a chance on him in 2012 is among the questions that will need to be answered in the coming months.
Green has a player option for next season, which he could choose to exercise — or not — and come back to the Warriors — or not.
Kerr said Green’s return is necessary for the Warriors’ to remain in the running for another title.
“Look, if Draymond is not back, we’re not a championship contender. We know that,” Kerr said. “He’s that important to winning and to who we are. I absolutely want him back.”
Green echoed a similar sentiment both in the immediate aftermath of the Warriors’ Game 6 loss to the Los Angeles Lakers last week as well as on his podcast.
“We’ll see what happens,” Green said about his contract situation on Friday. “I’ve told you guys, I want to be a Warriors for the rest of my life. I want to ride out with the same dudes I rode in with.”
Green is facing an intersection of his career. He has until June 29 to make a decision on whether he wants to exercise his player option worth $27.6 million for next season. He can either opt in and sign an extension or opt-out and renegotiate a new deal with Golden State. The other option is that he could opt-out, test the free agency waters and potentially sign elsewhere to a team with more cap space than his current team.
Green has long been considered the heartbeat of the Warriors’ dynasty. His fiery emotion that he wears on his sleeve has fueled himself and his teammates for more than a decade. He’s been praised for walking on a razor’s edge throughout his career. He fell and got cut last October, which made it hard for him, at times, to be the loud and unfiltered leader the Warriors needed him to be.
But Kerr maintains faith in Green, who proved this season and throughout the playoffs that he can still be an impactful playmaker and defensive stalwart at 33.
“He’s a competitor,” Kerr said. “He and I have built a really special relationship that has run the gamut over the years. We’ve had our share of run-ins, but we’ve been through so much, we really care about each other and work together well.
“He knows that he had a great season this year, from a basketball perspective, but he knows that he also compromised things by what happened back in October. So part of him coming back next year has to be about rebuilding some of that trust and respect that he’s earned here for a long period of time. One thing I love about Draymond is he’s always brutally honest, and he can take that sort of critique because he knows it’s the truth.
“I want him back. I think we all want him back. Hopefully that’s exactly what happens and we get ready to make another run next year.”
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