Low Blows at Warriors Will Come Back to Haunt Pundits Next Season

The Golden State Warriors were far and away the most dominant team of the past decade in basketball, winning three championships and five Western Conference titles, and boasting arguably the single most talented starting lineup in NBA history. But this season, with Stephen Curry and Klay Thompson missing the majority of the season, Kevin Durant leaving, Andre Iguodala being traded and Shaun Livingston retiring, the team has quickly sunk to the bottom of the Western Conference.

With the Dubs incredibly quick descent from NBA royalty to cellar-dwellers, there have been plenty of analysts and fans who are taking shots at them, content to celebrate their misfortune. However, all of those pundits' words will come back to haunt them next season.

Charles Barkley has been especially rough on the Warriors, taking shots at lone returning, healthy star Draymond Green on what seems to be a nightly basis on TNT. But when Curry and Thompson return, Green can play the game that he is tailor made for once again: screening and passing for the team's shooters and playing the role of all-around disruptor on the defensive end.

Furthermore, with multiple stars injured, the team has had some time to develop some of their younger players, namely Eric Paschall and Ky Bowman. With Andrew Wiggins and a top pick in next year's draft thrown in, you have a team that will be right back in the playoffs in 2020-21 with a chance to shock the world all over again.

Be careful, NBA. You do not want to be on the Warriors' bad side. It will not be pretty next year when they have all their pieces together and start tearing apart teams like the Warriors of the past.