Tanking is the Warriors' Best and Only Option This Season

It's going to take some getting used to the fact that the Golden State Warriors, for at least this season, aren't the giants of the basketball world.

Though they lost Kevin Durant in free agency over the summer, and Klay Thompson was presumed to miss most, if not all, of 2019-2020 as he recovers from ACL surgery, it was largely thought within the NBA landscape that the Warriors would still be able to compete.

Well, that's been anything but the case thus far, and Stephen Curry's broken hand confirms that Steve Kerr's lone option lies with tanking and rebooting the squad for next year.

At this point, tanking is simply the most logical avenue to travel down. Seriously, how many games do we think that a Draymond Green and D'Angelo Russell led team can win? The Western Conference is as deep as ever and if the Dubs managed to squeak into the playoffs, they would be easily disposed of in the first round.

Why not tank and potentially pair a lottery pick with a fully-healthy Curry, Thompson, Green, and Russell?

If trailing the Phoenix Suns by 29 points less than three minutes into the second quarter doesn't tell you about Golden State's bereft upside this year, then nothing does.

As expected, owner Joe Lacob came out on Thursday to profess that his team will NOT accept losing this season, despite virtually every narrative working against them.

"It is against every single thing I and we stand for,” said Lacob. “We will fight like hell. Develop our young guys. Learn to win. You don’t get better by trying to lose. Our entire organization is about winning. And we will win. Some bumps in the road, perhaps. But we will never accept losing."

We truly don't think that Lacob is that stupid, as he is likely saving face by appealing to the all-important optics dynamic, but this quote is alarmingly pro-winning.

The Warriors must tank this year, plain and simple. Finishing close to or above .500 will do nothing for the future of the franchise.