The Golden State Warriors’ season will likely be officially finished Thursday.
According to The Athletic’s Shams Charania, the NBA is planning on proposing a plan at Thursday’s Board of Governors meeting where 22 teams go to Orlando to resume the season. Since the Warriors have the league’s worst record, they would not be part of that group if the plan is approved.
The vote will require a three-fourths approval from the board of governors, and the proposal is expected to be approved, per ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski.
When the season was paused March 11 due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the Warriors were at 15-50 and already out of playoff contention.
Other than building some sort of chemistry in a handful of regular season games, it doesn’t make much sense for Golden State and other bottom-tier teams to return.
Sources: NBA commissioner Adam Silver is planning to propose a 22-team format to resume the 2019-20 season
Story on @TheAthleticNBA with full details of the play-in tournament for 8th seed: https://t.co/d7X3X6uCNI
— Shams Charania (@ShamsCharania) June 3, 2020
The health risk will be present for each of the 22 teams in Orlando, and the injury risk is always present as well. But for the Warriors, a team that isn’t truly rebuilding, but rather had a down year in part because of injuries to Steph Curry and Klay Thompson, playing meaningless regular season games isn’t necessary.
During April, coach Steve Kerr said that “it feels like the end of our season,” per Logan Murdock of NBC Sports Bay Area. By then the league’s season had been suspended for over a month.
“We’re staying in touch with our guys, but it definitely feels like the season is done for us,” Kerr said then.
The Warriors, along with the Cleveland Cavaliers and Minnesota Timberwolves, currently have a 14.0% chance at earning the top pick in the 2020 NBA draft. Per Tankathon, the Warriors can draft no lower than fifth overall.
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