Golden State Warriors: Breaking Down the Results of a Losing Culture in the Bay

There is a culture of losing attached to the Golden State Warriors.

Over the years, this culture has been solidified, affecting the way the Warriors are run, lowering other teams' and players perception of the team, and depressing the fanbase. The Warriors have seen the playoffs only once in what will soon be 18 years. There is a single banner hanging in the Oracle Arena rafters, despite 50 seasons of playing in the Bay Area. That's a lot of losing since 1975.

As a Warrior fan who watches and attends games like it's my job, I have been paying close attention to everything the ownership, coach and players have been saying and doing this season from well before our opening-day loss to the Clippers. So far, it has been a failure.

Failure, to me, is falling short of living up to the expectations that you set for yourself. As a fan, I have multiple sets of expectations for the Warriors: the realistic and fantastical. The expectations the team has set for itself have fallen somewhere between the two, but the results have been much of the same.

I want to begin by saying that I, like a healthy amount of the Warriors faithful, was initially disappointed when Joe Lacob's ownership group outbid Larry Ellison (the mighty billionaire whose company's name conspicuously graces our home arena). It was such a blow that I'm pretty sure I experienced the five stages of grief.

Gone were Ellison's gravitas, his influence and, most importantly, his $30 billion. Gone was the Warriors' chance at relevance, or so I felt.

In their place, we had Joe Lacob, a venture capitalist with a comparatively small fortune of his own and a clear passion for the Warriors organization. He came with fanfare, promises and, not coincidentally, a rebranding that gave a 21st century twist to our iconic "The City" throwbacks. The fairly gaudy lightning bolt duds that defined the failed Chris Cohan era were a thing of the past.

The return of the blue and gold was thought to also be the return of a winning culture for the one sports franchise that unites the entire Bay Area (sorry, Sharks fans).

However, 2010-11 was much of the same in Oakland. Keith Smart's Dubs increased their wins by 10 over the previous season after adding David Lee and surprise contributor Dorell Wright. But we were still playing a weird bastardization of Nellie-ball. We still weren't playing passable defense. And we still missed the playoffs.

The Warriors were not good enough to make noise in the Western Conference race, but they also weren't bad enough to grab the draft pick that may have changed our future for the better. We remained in purgatory.

Joe Lacob explained that season away by stating that he didn't have complete control of the team until well after its beginning. He milked his ownership honeymoon period as Dubs fans (myself included) continued to spend money on merchandise in extremely high numbers for a team that floundered well below .500 for most of the year. We were in the top 10 teams in terms of attendance as a percentage of arena capacity that year, like many before it.

But that means nothing without wins. We can blame Stephen Curry's glass ankle. We can blame David Lee's bizarre elbow infection. But losses are losses, and we piled them up in 2010-11.

The end of the season brought a respite from the losing, and the expectation that sweeping changes would be made in the front office and on the roster. With key exceptions, Lacob cleaned house, installing rookie Mark Jackson as head coach, and sweeping away Cohan holdovers left and right. However, he kept Larry Riley—the man responsible for Stephen Curry and Ekpe Udoh—at the general manager position, much to my dismay.

I didn't want Riley gone because he's been a horrible GM; he's only been a moderately unsatisfactory one. I wanted Riley gone because of what he represented: Cohan/Nelson cronyism and a sad era of basketball in the Bay. For a person charged with making big changes within the organization, it seemed like Lacob would start with GM, the most influential position there is.

But I accepted it, and hoped Lacob really knew what he was doing. Mark Jackson entered with the muted eloquence we've come to expect from him as a commentator, as well as lofty defense and playoff guarantees. Things were looking positive.

And then the lockout came.

In my opinion, the NBA lockout hurt Golden State's development more than most other teams. Our star point guard was not able to work out with team trainers after having offseason surgery on his ankle. Our new coach was unable to become acquainted with and comfortable around his squad. Our GM was prevented from spreading the Warriors' brand around the league in an effort to lure a 2012 free agent or shore up our front line. Our young players could not get used to the grind of an NBA offseason workout regimen. And we had no time to truly master the offensive and defensive schemes that Jackson and his assistants were bringing to the table.

The lockout did nothing to quell the reality that "big-market" (see: popular) teams are at a competitive advantage when trying to attract marquee free agents. Despite the fact that the San Francisco Bay Area is the fifth-largest media market in the country, with one of the most fervent basketball fanbases around, no one wants to make his home at Oracle. That is what a culture of losing will do for you.

On top of that, two other Western Conference bottom-feeders seemed to have finally found the answers they were looking for.

The Warriors aggressively pursued Chris Paul, but he ended up controversially heading to L.A. to play for the Clippers and Donald Sterling (aka the Devil). Fair-weather fans came out of the woodwork, filling Staples to capacity and donning "Lob City" t-shirts as the Warriors faithful watched on with longing, muted by depressed indifference. In Minnesota, the Rubio-Love duo took off as well, and they are in prime position to make a playoff push.

The Warriors tried, but they could not make a move that would be a difference maker. Riley crashed and burned on Tyson Chandler and DeAndre Jordan, and ended up settling for Kwame Brown's zombie corpse. The problem with zombie corpses is they break down inexplicably. We paid Kwame $7 million for a handful of games and a torn pectoral. 

Flash forward to the middle of the season and Golden State is well below .500 with one of the worst defenses in the league and a hit-or-miss offense. Curry's injuries continue to be a concern, and Andris Biedrins might possibly be the worst starting center in the entire league.

Klay Thompson and Ekpe Udoh are coming into their own as contributors off the bench. Thompson is shooting historically well from deep for a rookie, and Udoh leads all players on losing teams in plus/minus. But they were both left off the All-Star Rising Stars roster.

The one move Riley made of any meaning was sending Lou Amundson to Indiana for Brandon Rush. Rush leads a bench unit that has been a bright spot for Golden State. He defends multiple positions, rebounds at a high rate for an SF and shoots lights out from deep (52 percent). But neither him nor any of the Warriors' numerous other 40-plus percent three-point shooters were invited to compete in the All-Star contest.

Perhaps the two biggest omissions from All-Star weekend were the loudly underrated Monta Ellis and quietly underrated David Lee. Ellis has been seen as an All-Star snub in the past, with promoters touting his ability to score from all areas of the court, his increased assist numbers and his clutch mentality. Detractors often cite him as a volume shooter who makes bad decisions and doesn't do much else besides score and turn the ball over. To those people I say, take a look at his stats and compare them to Russell Westbrook's or Kobe Bryant's. You may be surprised.

David Lee is having another stellar season, averaging 19 and 10. He does work every single night, guarding bigger players and sparking the fast break with his pinpoint outlet passes. He has an array of offensive moves and he can keep defenses honest with a money 19-foot jumper. But he's not even in the conversation for All-Star snub status among the talking heads on ESPN and TNT.

The argument that neither Lee nor Ellis made the team because the Warriors are losers is moot. While it's true the Warriors continually lose more games than they win, that didn't stop Western coaches from voting Blake Griffin into the All-Star game in 2011 (for reference, the Warriors were ahead of the Clippers in the standings that entire year). 

But Griffin dunks, frequently and thunderously. And there you have it.

The Warriors won't soon have a player like Griffin to galvanize support through the unconscious but false linkage between exciting highlights and good basketball. They have to win games for analysts to see them as anything more than that NBA team with the weird, college-sounding name. 

To accomplish that, here's what has to happen:

First, the Dubs' brass needs to address the elephant in the room. Monta Ellis is in his prime now, but he's never tasted winning as the Warriors' starting shooting guard. He puts up excellent numbers, but he isn't seen as on par with other great players because he's undersized and has had a tendency to stunt Golden State's assist-based offensive schemes.

He has declared himself the Warriors' No. 1 leader and closer, relegating Curry and Lee to secondary roles. The team will never be able to win with a 6'3", 180-pound scoring machine as our floor leader. On a great team, Monta can be a difference maker as a No. 2 option on offense, but he cannot expect to be the big man on campus and win, at least not without a much better team around him (see: Lakers). He's basically hit his ceiling.

Curry, on the other hand, hasn't even come close to his, and Ellis is a big reason why.

Curry has a tendency to defer to Ellis, letting Monta take over in the fourth quarter and be the offense rather than being assertive himself. Despite being able to break down defenses with his ball-handling skills, court vision and classically smooth jumper, Curry is often non-existent in crunch time. This is unfortunate, especially because his defense does the opposite of making up for his lack of offensive production.

With Steph running the show, everybody gets involved and there's less standing and watching. As a person who plays basketball on a regular basis, I can say based on experience that standing and watching on offense often results in standing and watching on defense. The Warriors must become a better defensive team, and offense is part of the key.

That is why we must trade Monta Ellis. The Warriors want a star in return; they're not going to get one. Larry Riley should take the best offer he gets—Rudy Gay would have been nice, but that ship has sailed—and rebuild around Curry, Lee and whoever we get in return (preferably a big man).

Curry is injury prone, but we have yet to see what a full offseason with the Warriors' trainers will do for that. The risk is worth the reward. Klay Thompson is getting good enough to be a starter, and his size would work wonders for our backcourt while making up for Dorell Wright's inexplicable drop-off in production. 

The second task the Warriors must complete is a move to San Francisco. As a childhood resident of Oakland, I feel that The Town is a truly misunderstood place. It is a wonderful city to live in, full of culture and all sorts of people.

But it's not San Francisco. It's not The City. People know SF; they respect it. If the Dubs are to build a brand that is powerful enough to attract marquee talent, they need to go through with Joe Lacob's vision for building an arena adjacent to AT&T park, on the shores of San Francisco Bay. The Coliseum complex just won't cut it anymore. The Warriors need to become more than just a team; they must be a destination.

So Joe Lacob should abandon any notion of keeping the team in Oakland and follow Mikhail Prokhorov's model with the Nets. Do you think they would have any chance of landing Dwight Howard if Prokhorov wasn't moving the team out of Jersey? I didn't think so.

Speaking of Dwight, the last thing the Warriors should address is the foolish notion that they should pursue him in a trade. We would have to gut our core to get him, and he has already stated that he has no interest in playing in the Bay Area. He would not sign a contract unless Lacob and Riley used some sort of voodoo. They need to let it go and build around the team we have now.

The model we should be following for now is that of the Philadelphia 76ers. Without a true superstar, they look poised to win the Atlantic Division and secure a top four spot in the East. They play incredible team defense, they rebound and they don't turn the ball over. Conversely, the Warriors play horrible team defense, are at the bottom of the league in rebounding and often shoot themselves in the foot with turnovers. 

Mark Jackson might be the coach to make the impact for us to turn that corner. His knowledge of the point guard position and leadership pedigree make him a good choice to help Stephen Curry reach his full potential. His skills as a preacher and orator give him the tools to be the Warriors inspirational leader. The great group of assistants he has selected will pick up the slack since he is new to coaching. I think he deserves another season before we pass summary judgement.

But, bottom line, what we're doing now just doesn't cut it. We have to make some grown-man moves.

A turnaround is possible. It will take a number of steps, big and small, as well as full commitment from the owners all the way down to the most obscure bench players. And it will take patience. But as fans of a franchise that hasn't made the playoffs but once in 17 years, the Warriors faithful have plenty of that.

The culture of losing doesn't have to last forever in the Bay. And maybe, just maybe, the turnaround can start now.

One can dream.