The Lengthy Island Expressway ends at a fork within the highway in Riverhead, leaving you two choices.
Head south and dwell the excessive life with the outdated cash in The Hamptons.
Or veer north and settle in with the up-and-comers in Greenport.
Each are dreamy locations.
There’s a third chance, nevertheless it makes little sense. You’ll be able to preserve going straight… proper into the Atlantic.
Mike Dunleavy Jr. inherited a troublesome process when he took over as Warriors common supervisor in June of 2023. Some referred to as it a no-win state of affairs, and Dunleavy actually has lived as much as the billing.
When final seen, the Dunleavy-steered Golden State workforce bus was swimming with the Titanic.
One season after beating the Celtics for the 2022 championship, the Warriors tried to drink champagne and eat their cake, too. They believed the core of Stephen Curry, Klay Thompson, Draymond Inexperienced, Andrew Wiggins and Andre Iguodala had one other title or two in them, even whereas having to babysit the likes of Jordan Poole, Jonathan Kuminga, Moses Moody and James Wiseman.
Three years later, the bubbly stays on melted ice, and the cake… nicely, Inexperienced smushed it into Poole’s face.
One yr faraway from the title, having completed sixth within the West and been eradicated within the convention semifinals, GM Bob Myers was so fed up with the two-direction method, he left to spend halftimes sitting subsequent to Stephen A. Smith.
Enter Dunleavy, with flip sign in hand:
Go proper at Riverhead, commerce off the younger weapons for ready-to-win expertise and pressure proprietor Joe Lacob to promote his Hamptons getaway in an effort to finance a shot at NBA immortality.
Or go left, drop off all of the old-timers besides Curry on the first truck cease and hope the blokes Myers had drafted to be the longer term might develop rapidly sufficient to maintain the celebrity level guard .
Dunleavy selected east. Bub, bub, bub.
Is it too late to repair? In all probability so. However that doesn’t imply you simply bleed out.
The highway to the Hamptons stays open, albeit congested.
With the Nuggets nonetheless highly effective and new blood (the Thunder, Grizzlies and Rockets) having stepped over the West’s different has-beens (the Suns, Lakers and Clippers), there’s no assurance buying LeBron James for Wiggins, Kuminga and a first-round decide would pave even a path to the convention finals.
And if that’s the perfect a LeBron/Curry pairing can do, it’s simple to think about what a Nikola Vucevic or Jimmy Butler addition would accomplish.
The apparent path is north, and in some methods Dunleavy has proven an curiosity in heading that course with the jettisoning of Thompson and Chris Paul final low season.
Sadly, he introduced on a Thompson wannabe (Buddy Hield), a Paul never-has-been (De’Anthony Melton) and Father Expired Time (Kyle Anderson).
Throw within the head-scratching in-season addition of Dennis Schroder and—as laborious to consider because it might sound—the Warriors have truly gotten older. And definitely no higher.
Actually, fairly a bit worse.
Getting youthful at this level is perhaps even tougher than buying LeBron. And, certainly, it might be a lot riskier.
It will require placing “For Sale” sandwich boards on Inexperienced, Wiggins, Schroder, Hield, Anderson, Schroder, Kevon Looney and Gary Payton II and hope both the brand new contenders consider they’re one veteran away from a championship run, or the has-beens panic and stubbornly insist their second life begins now.
Check out these eight names. Is it any marvel there are telephone traces open at Golden State HQ?
Presuming neither plan goes to pan out—and there’s no motive to consider the overmatched Dunleavy even has a snorkel lengthy sufficient to breathe life into both—maybe there’s a extra life like third choice that would work:
Get critical about profitable the Cooper Flagg sweepstakes.
Because it stands, the Warriors have the Twelfth-worst file within the NBA, which implies they’d have near the best odds towards them to win the jackpot among the many lottery groups.
However given their present kind (10-19 since a 12-3 begin), some great benefits of giving Curry’s sore knees and aching thumb the spring off after an extended summer time, and the always-important want to see what Quinten Submit, Pat Spencer and Jackson Rowe can do, an extra drop within the standings is imminently attainable.
Then there’s Kuminga, a extremely regarded prospect. If he had been within the draft subsequent yr, he may go second.
So supply him round to groups just like the Path Blazers, Raptors and Hornets, hoping one sees him as a greater prospect than they’re more likely to get within the draft. Get one to chew on a first-round decide, and now you’ll be able to at the least dream of lucking into Flagg.
And lastly, the Warriors even have their 2026 first-rounder, once they might be REALLY unhealthy. Groups would line as much as purchase that asset.
However there’s no Flagg in 2026, so dealing it to the best bidder for his or her 2025 seat on the Flagg sweepstakes could be helpful. Heck, throw in 2024 all-rookie Brandin Podziemski to get their consideration.
The Bulls, who might head severely south after a sell-off on the commerce deadline, simply may go for it.
Think about that: Three pictures at a generational expertise like Flagg. And a really life like plan to stockpile ping-pong balls.
It may not be the lure of The Hamptons or Greenport, however Sag Harbor is fairly good.
It positive beats cozying as much as the Titanic.