It’s been a few weeks since our NBA Tuesday eyes looked at the Golden State Warriors, our local team that has fallen on “tough times” after a nice run of dominance from 2015–2022 … Oh wait, that’s how we started our February 17 column on the Dubs! But we have to repeat it, because—well, yeah. When the song remains the same ($1 to Led Zeppelin), the chorus can be repeated, right? The team is now 32-32 on the season, mediocre enough for ninth place in the Western Conference, and it looks dire now.

The Warriors lost on the road last night to the 14th-place Utah Jazz, and even without the stars in their lineup, the team should have been able to win that game. The fact they could not says a lot about the players on the floor these days: sabermetrically, Golden State has been the sixth-best team in the West this season, yet that includes 39 games played with superstar Stephen Curry and 38 games played with super “second-fiddle” Jimmy Butler. Without those two guys, this is not the sixth-best team.

In fact, the active roster is full of scrubs, yet it shouldn’t shock anyone to know how bad the current “starting five” is, in terms of sabermetric output and production this year: the five guys who played the most minutes against Utah were Brandin Podziemski (13th on the team with 0.099 WS/48), Gui Santos (10th, 0.108), Draymond Green (18th, 0.041), Gary Payton II (8th, 0.111), and Quinten Post (14th, 0.082). The sixth man was De’Anthony Melton (17th, 0.050). The sabermetrics tell the story here.

If Payton is the best player you have getting major minutes, no wonder you’re losing to the Jazz. Consider the fact the best regulars this season for the Warriors have been Butler (2nd, 0.240), Curry (3rd, 0.156), and the now-traded Trayce Jackson-Davis (4th, 0.142), and it’s easy to see why the franchise is hurting so. We’ve said this many times before: at age 37, Curry is not what was even two years ago, when he lit up the Olympics. His legs are closer to 40 with all the injuries and playoff games over the years.

The gap between Butler and Curry is telling enough, in that way. Butler is only one year younger, but he has less mileage on his body. Either way, neither guy is on the floor right now, and Butler is out for the year. The stupidity is giving so many minutes to Green instead of TJD, and then trading the youngster away on top of that (see below), is stunning. Forget Green’s head problems: in pure statistical reality, his output this year has been bottom of the barrel—and he’s played in 53 games for 27 minutes per game.

That’s a major reason why this team is so bad: loyalty to a veteran who doesn’t deserve it. The Warriors should have dumped him, his dysfunctional head, and his bloated salary on some sucker at the trade deadline. Instead, the front office—and with the input of Head Coach Steve Kerr, we imagine—traded away a productive, age-25 guy who is also much cheaper. In return, the Golden State organization received a 2026 second-round pick, so they better nail that one. But the damage has been done to this team now.

Interestingly, even age-39 Al Horford (7th, 0.118) has been better than Payton this year, too. So the Dubs could have had two production big men in TJD and Horford instead of giving steady minutes to Green, Santos, and Post. Getting Kristaps Porziņģis back in a different trade hasn’t helped the team, either, as even though he has played in just two games for the team, he is dead last in sabermetric value so far (20th, -0.001). Trading two players for Porziņģis was interesting, too, even if for salary-cap reasons.

Buddy Hield (16th, 0.066) and Jonathan Kuminga (19th, 0.028) were not playing well this season, although both have talent aplenty. Meanwhile, even at age 30, Porziņģis has been an injury risk his entire NBA career, never playing in more than 66 games for a season, missing the entire 2018-2019 with injury, and averaging just 52 games per year since entering the league in 2015. Again, we don’t pretend to know what the Warriors have been thinking, although the results speak volumes. This team is dead now.

Maybe Curry comes back for the final season of his current contract next year, refreshed and ready to play like he’s 30 again. Maybe Butler returns sooner than later from his bad injury and performs right away at the level he was playing before the injury this year. Maybe current rookie Will Richard (9th, 0.109) grows and matures a lot in his second campaign. Maybe Green is just having a singularly horrible year and gets motivated in the offseason for the final year of his contract next year, too. Maybe …

The Warriors need to nail the draft picks this summer, too, getting a few more impact players like Richard, and hope all these maybes become realities, even though the chances are slim. They have one more season with one of the best generational talents in NBA history, and then it’s going to be rough living after Curry steps away from the game. If the team wants to make a serious run? They need to dump Green’s salary, draft brilliantly, rehab Butler better than anyone has ever, and still sign another superstar, too.

Can all that happen? Sure. Will it happen? If the mismanagement of the roster is any indication this year, then we’re guessing no.