The exciting thing is, this is actually a legitimate question now. If you had proposed this query to any basketball fan prior to last year's gutsy sprint to the postseason, you'd probably elicit a chuckle and some snarky remarks. It'd be like asking: "Hey, what if the sky is blue tomorrow?" Of course the Warriors are going to miss the playoffs, they've missed them for the past 12 seasons...you idiot, you buffoon, you sub-intelligent NBA enthusiast! Until the door closes on this season, the same can't be said of the 2007-08 Golden State Warriors. The bottom 3 spots in the West are as wide open as they've ever been, but a spot for the Dubs is still not guaranteed.
So what would happen if the Warriors failed to make the postseason this year?
- Aside from the possibility of rioting in Oakland, a suffocating veil of depression would nestle not so gently over the entire Bay Area. If you're a Bay Area dweller, or paid enough attention to ESPN and other media outlets during The Run, you would have seen the emotional high this city and its surroundings were on. Forget cloud nine, we were on the moon partying our asses off. Now take that energy and flip it to its polar opposite; mass suicides among Warrior faithful are not out of the question.
- Does Nellie come back? After adding another grueling 82-game trip onto his 67-year-old odometer AND failing to reap the rewards of a playoff run, I see the lure of Mai-Thai's and Hawaiian sands ultimately winning the war over X's and O's. (Realistically, if Nellie fails to get us back to the promised land, it's more likely that Cohan and crew will simply not exercise their team option after this year and effectively make the contract Nelson just signed a 1-year deal.)
- Does Baron Davis look for an extension elsewhere? It's hard to say what the cap situation will look like next off-season, but Baron wants big money and the Warriors will certainly be in position to give him a large sum. Does he take a pay cut to jump to a contender and vie for a ring? Or is he content to play out his years with a competitive team that considers consecutive trips to the Second Season a success?
- Does this team have the focus to fail and keep their head up? We're a young team and we're an emotional team. Those two bring feast or famine. The whole world watched our highs and lows last season in the playoffs. I was proud to be a Warriors fan during the Mavericks series; we showed no fear in dismantling a juggernaut. Against the Jazz? Not so much, they tested our mettle...found the chinks in our armor (Rebounding, shot selection, free-throws, interior post-defense, defense in general) and took the hammer (See: Boozer; Carlos) to them. This team was satisfied with the victory over the Mavericks, I'm still not convinced they were hungry enough to want to beat the Jazz too...that lack of focus that cost us the first two games (When Jackson missed a 3 at the buzzer for the win in game 1 and Baron/Pietrus blew free-throws down the stretch of game 2) could be attributed to a premature feeling of satisfaction.
'Hey we made it this far, we took out the #1 seed and our Coach's nemesis.' How do we bounce back from a big disappointment like missing the playoffs? Nellie will almost certainly not be back, will his apprentice - Keith Smart - have the moxie to get the troops' morale back where it belongs?
It's alright for bloggers, sportswriters and everyday casual fans to muse about the What If's and the How Comes, but these Warriors all should have one word and one word only in their mind each and every night: "Playoffs." Because...really any other result would be a huge step back, and for lack of a better word, disastrous.
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