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Shaquille O’Neal thinks it may be time for the Golden State Warriors to face the reality of a lost season and try a drastically different approach.
The NBA legend spoke out on the state of the team amid Thursday’s blowout loss to the Los Angeles Clippers, saying he believes it’s time for the Warriors to stop worrying about the present and start planning for the future.
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Shaq Says It’s Time to Tank
The loss on Thursday was the fourth straight for the Warriors, dropping the club even further from playoff contention. With the drop to tenth place in the conference, Golden State is now three games out of the No. 6 spot that would allow them to avoid the play-in tournament.
Instead of scrapping to sneak into the back end of the playoffs, O’Neal suggested that the Warriors worry more about evaluating the roster and looking for additions that will help next year. He also said the team should lighten Steph Curry’s load.
“I would tank,” O’Neal said at halftime, via SFGate. “I’d say Steph, we’re not going to make the playoffs and if we do, we’re going to lose in the first round. Get some rest. Let me audition these young guys and see who we can add.”
O’Neal added that with Klay Thompson set to return next year from the injury that ended his 2020-21 campaign before it began, the Warriors should start thinking about ways to jump back into contention and what could be a final run at a title for Curry and Thompson.
“I want to get at least one more run,” he said. “One more run at a title.”
Warriors Committed to Long-Term Approach
While it’s not clear if Golden State would embrace a tank, the team has already made it clear that they are not going to sell out for a chance to sneak into the playoffs. In an interview with Dalton Johnson of NBC Sports Bay Area, Warriors general manager Bob Myers said that any trade deadline moves the team could make would not just be for this season.
“I don’t think we want to think too short-term and give up something in the future just to make a little bit of a push now,” he said. “As hard as that is to stay discipline, I think we would hope that anything that we would decide to do had legs beyond this year or had advantages beyond the rest of this season.”
The team does appear to be adopting at least part of O’Neal’s advice. Head coach Steve Kerr said that rookie center James Wiseman would be seeing more playing time after the All-Star break. Wiseman’s development was slowed a bit after he lost the preseason due to a positive COVID-19 test, and eventually fell out of the starting lineup in favor of Kevon Looney.
“Whether he starts coming out of the [All-Star] break or not, we definitely need to get him more time,” Kerr said, via NBC Sports Bay Area.
Wiseman was stuck to the bench for most of the team’s first game back, repercussions of a missed COVID-19 test that forced him to miss practice the day before, but Kerr remained committed to getting him more playing time in the back half of the season and confident he will still develop into a foundational player.
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