David Robinson apparently doesn’t have much faith in the Warriors to go any any prolonged stretch of dominance in their current incarnation.
Robinson made some interesting comments to Complex Sports about what the expectations for this Warriors team should be.
While he acknowledges that they have a chance to be a special team, he cautions that based on past precedent, the Warriors probably will have a short window to succeed.
He evoked memories of the Miami Heat with LeBron James, Dwyane Wade, and Chris Bosh. That trio was only together for four years.
“So if you’re able to put together a team like this, you’re generally only going to have a short window because you won’t be able to pay those guys to keep them together,” said Robinson. “There’s the short window that’s going to end relatively quickly and it’s not as easy as going out to play.
In terms of the payroll situation for the Warriors, it’s going to be interesting to see how they economically maneuver through this.
Klay Thompson is signed through the 2019-2019 season. Draymond Green is signed through the 2019-2020 season.
Kevin Durant has a player option for the 2017-2018 season, and assumptions that he’ll opt out seem hasty to make at this point, especially if the Warriors do win the championship this season.
Stephen Curry is set to be a free agent next offseason, and if Durant opts in, the Warriors will have about $94 million in committed payroll before attending to Curry’s contract.
The estimated cap next season is $102 million, so it’s definitely going to be challenging to re-sign Curry and keep certain complimentary pieces like Andre Iguodala, Shaun Livingston, and Zaza Pachulia.
Robinson is right when he says that the economics of the NBA make maintaining a great team difficult, but winning multiple championships makes all the transactions worth it in the end.
People act as though the Miami Heat were some underwhelming failure, but I think any fan would be very pleased if their favorite team made 4 straight NBA Finals and won back-to-back championships during that same stretch.
It’s very hard to imagine that the Warriors don’t end up succeeding during the relatively short window this team can stay together.
Even one championship would be fantastic, and it sounds extremely unlikely that the collection of talent on this roster won’t win at least one title together.