The Warriors have known for some time they wouldn't return to the NBA Finals this year, considering they were officially eliminated from playoff contention before the league suspended the season due to the coronavirus pandemic.
Yet Golden State recently reached a milestone it hasn't hit since Steve Kerr was hired as head coach. Monday marked the two-year anniversary of the Warriors' last championship, and Golden State officially surpassed the longest title "drought" of Kerr's time on the sidelines late last week.
Previously, the Warriors had gone 729 days in between winning the Larry O'Brien trophy in 2015 and 2017. As of Tuesday, it has been 733 days since Golden State swept the Cleveland Cavaliers in the 2018 NBA Finals.
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That "drought" pales in comparison to the Warriors' 40-year gap between winning championships in 1975 and 2015, and is much, much, much shorter than some of the NBA's longest-suffering franchises. Still, a two-year stretch of not winning being the Warriors' longest under Kerr really puts their recent success into perspective.
Even though the Warriors ended this season 35 games under .500, Golden State still has won 18 more regular-season games (337) than the next closest team (Toronto Raptors) since Kerr's hiring. No team can catch their playoff win total during that time (77) this postseason or next. The next-closest the team, the Cleveland Cavaliers, have won 22 fewer playoff games over said span. They like the Warriors, will be watching from home if and/or when the NBA resumes its season next month.
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The Warriors don't want their title "drought" to stretch into a third year. General manager Bob Myers said this week Golden State needs "time" for pillars Steph Curry, Klay Thompson and Draymond Green to develop chemistry with the newer faces playing alongside them, but said pillars are confident in the Warriors' ability to return to the top of the NBA. Golden State will have tools at its disposal to try, with a $17.2 million trade exception in tow as well as what is likely to be a very high first-round draft pick.
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Even if the Warriors' "drought" lasts longer than two years, few are going to look back on such a stretch as a fallow period in franchise history, considering what came before.
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