Cutting Paul and letting go of Thompson, the Warriors dynasty tearing down and rebuilding, how much glory does Curry's career have left?

Beiqing Sports

2024-07-01 10:38Beiqing Sports News official account

In the early morning of July 1, Beijing time, the Warriors announced that they would not execute the contract of 39-year-old veteran Chris Paul for next season. At the same time, they parted ways with Klay Thompson, who played for the team for 13 years and helped build the Warriors dynasty. These two important decisions allowed the Warriors to unload a significant amount of salary and luxury tax burdens, but they also meant the collapse of the Warriors' dynasty. The Warriors' long-awaited "Kuchai Tang" iron triangle is no longer there, and the team will be completely rebuilt.

The Warriors have won four NBA championships before and have established a Warriors dynasty at one point. This has a direct relationship with Curry, Thompson, and Green. Among them, Curry and Thompson are both good projection players, and their combination is also known as the "Splash Brothers" by the outside world. But with two major injuries, Thompson's career trajectory is not the same as Curry's. Curry is two years older than Thompson, but he still retains his ability to play, and he is still a player who can dominate the game. But Thompson is no longer as brave as he used to be, his outside shooting level has dropped significantly, and he even fell out of the starting lineup at one point last season.

The Warriors have been hoping to maintain the core of the Iron Triangle for as long as possible for years, as evidenced by the Warriors' generous four-year contract offer to Green and the trade for Poole.

Of course, the Warriors also want to keep Thompson, and they actually started contract extension talks with Thompson last year. It's just that the Warriors recognize the fact that Thompson is not worth the maximum salary extension, and they have made an offer with an annual salary of about $20 million, which is far from Thompson's psychological expectations. There were also a few talks between the two sides last season, but no real progress was made. Thompson's performance last season wiped out his value, and it was only a matter of time before the two sides "broke up".

The Warriors are not renewing Thompson's contract while waiving Paul's final year of contract, which means they no longer have illusions about their current roster. Indeed, last season's performance is enough to prove that the Warriors' current roster is not very competitive in the highly competitive West. If it continues, the Warriors' performance ceiling may be the first round of the playoffs. But to maintain such a core lineup, the Warriors have to pay a huge salary and luxury tax. The input is not proportional to the output, which is obviously not a good deal.

Thompson's departure is bound to make Curry, Green and coach Kerr feel "chilled". The heroes of these Warriors have publicly stated on more than one occasion before that they want to keep Thompson. But in the end, it didn't happen, and they felt more truly that "the NBA is a business", and they should also understand that the dynasty they built back then had completely collapsed.

The rebuilding of the Warriors is the trend of the times. Curry, Green and other veterans, in the later stages of their careers, may be difficult to touch the championship again, unless the Warriors can bring in top players like George, their task is nothing more than to continue to maintain the popularity of the Warriors, after all, this team is the top existence.

Text/Beiqing Sports Song Xiang

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