Where it all went wrong for Warriors – Starting with the 2022 title

Curry and Draymond are older now and need to be treated with more care. Draymond was suspended for unsports -like actions through large parts of last season. Poole was beaten by Daymond a few months after the ’22 title, suffered through a miserable season and was then traded in July 2023. They have never fully replaced what Klay meant to them. Wiggins have had family and health problems and has never returned to its fall season after the season. Looney has struggled and moved in and out of the rotation at times.

Warriors can’t play as they did three years ago – though they really, really, really tried. And they have not added enough of the talent that can succeed in playing in other kinds of styles.

The final of 2022 probably doesn’t feel so long ago to Celtics, who won the championship last season and still have many of their top players from ’22 final journey. But for Warriors who have undergone suspensions, trades, injuries, play-in crashes and now sitting on 21-21, the last championship feuding was basically from another era.

“Seems like an eternity since,” Looney said after Monday’s loss. “Had many different iterations of the team since then. Each season brings on a new challenge. That year seems further and further away. But hopefully we can return to that feeling and have a championship. We still have to remember those times so we can know what to shoot for. “

It was not entirely wrong for Warriors’ leaders to assume back in ’22 that they were well situated in several more long playoffs. They had Curry, Klay and Daymond. It had a championship culture. They had young players. It wasn’t a silly plan. It could have worked. But the result is over the past few years proof of a more concrete conclusion: it is difficult to win a championship using any model at any time. And unless you have curry and Kevin Durant in their Primes, the way Warriors loaded from 2016-’17 to 2018-’19, it is essentially impossible to duplicate the exact way you won the last title with slightly different players and slightly older stars.

There is also wear: Bob Myers back, and others Iguodala retired after 20123 -Playoff loss to Lakers; Klay left as a free agent last low season after he felt he was being pushed aside. Warriors missed the playoffs last season after getting blitzed in Sacramento in a play-in game. They look like they’re on their way to another Play-in-Kajplads this season. And Daymond and Kuminga are currently injured. It’s not the same. Nothing stays the same.

It was worth trying. But everyone inside Warriors HQ now understands that the 2022 title was not a formula, it was a lightning strike.

“Yes, we have a completely different list pretty much, especially without Daymond out there,” Curry said on Monday. “But you look over (in Boston), in addition to (Kristaps) Porzingis, they still have their entire rotation. And they are the defense masters, so they come in with a level of confidence and turns about them. And that’s the opposite of what we have right now. Of course, feel good memories, but definitely feels like a long time ago. “