Former NBA star Kevin Garnett does not believe that the Golden State Warriors are a playoff or play-in tournament team in the Western Conference this season.
Garnett gave a harsh assessment of Golden State while speaking to his former teammate Paul Pierce during an episode of their podcast.
“This team is not a playoff team,” Garnett said of the Warriors.
Pierce then questioned that take, to which Garnett responded that the Warriors aren’t a playoff team “at all.”
He continued.
“No, not at all,” Garnett added when asked if the Warriors are even a play-in team. “… I’m just watching teams get better than them.”
Golden State is currently the No. 11 seed in the Western Conference after blowing a lead in a loss to the Los Angeles Clippers on Saturday. The Warriors are just 9-11 on the season, and they’ve won just three of their last 10 games.
To make matters worse, Golden State has blown multiple 20-point leads in a week, a bad sign for the team’s ability to play winning basketball for an entire four quarters.
That's the second blown 20+ point lead for the Warriors this week. Clippers come from 22 down, take only lead of the game with 8.9 seconds left. Warriors continue to sputter right when it seems like they might be gathering traction. Record: 9-11. Outscored 65-45 in 2nd half.
— Anthony Slater (@anthonyVslater) December 2, 2023
The Warriors won the NBA Finals in the 2021-22 season, but the team didn’t have as strong of a season in the 2022-23 campaign. Golden State ended up with the No. 6 seed in the Western Conference and was knocked out of the playoffs in the second round by the Los Angeles Lakers.
The Warriors made some changes to their roster in the offseason, adding veteran guard Chris Paul and trading away young guard Jordan Poole.
The move hasn’t exactly worked out as well as Golden State would have liked so far this season, especially since Paul has missed the team’s last two games with an injury.
The biggest issue for Golden State is the supporting cast’s play around star Stephen Curry.
So far this season, Curry is averaging 29.1 points per game, but players like Klay Thompson and Andrew Wiggins have not stepped up to give him enough help.
Thompson – a former All-NBA selection – is averaging just 15.7 points per game while shooting 40.6 percent from the field. That’s the worst field-goal percentage of his NBA career.
Meanwhile, Wiggins is shooting a ghastly 26.7 percent from beyond the arc and averaging just 12.8 points per game. Since coming to the Warriors, Wiggins hasn’t averaged less than 17.1 points per game in a full season.
There is still plenty of time for Golden State to turn things around, but Garnett doesn’t appear to think that things will get much better.
