This was supposed to be a dream year for Warriors owner Joe Lacob. He opened a brand new arena in San Francisco, and in a perfect world, Kevin Durant, Steph Curry, Klay Thompson and Draymond Green would all christen Chase Center with another championship run.
In reality, though, Durant left for the Nets, Klay is unlikely to play at all this season as he rehabs a torn ACL and the Warriors dropped their first two home games with an average margin of a 15-point loss. Oh, and Steph Curry broke his hand in an 11-point loss Wednesday night.
But Lacob refuses to leave his glass half empty.
"I'm just telling you that the bottom line is I'm not negative and I'm not going to get negative," Lacob said Wednesday night to The Athletic's Tim Kawakami and Ethan Strauss. "I'm an optimist and we're building something. You're always looking short term and you're looking intermediate term and you're looking long term.
"And I think we've got a lot of good young players in place. Potentially, there's a silver lining in all of this, who knows? And I'm very optimistic about our future. Very optimistic about our future. I think we're going to be there at some point. Can't say when. We've obviously got a lot of injuries now, but we're going to be there."
From the outside, this looks like the worst-case scenario for the inaugural season of an arena. Lacob, however, does have a point. An injury never is good news, especially to an all-time great like Curry. There could be plenty of positives from these unfortunate events when it comes to the long term, though.
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The Warriors now can see what exactly they have in young players like Jordan Poole, Eric Paschall, Omari Spellman and Jacob Evans, along with others as well. Will D'Angelo Russell play at an All-Star level? Is he a part of the future or now an even better trade asset? And don't forget about the NBA draft.
[RELATED: Steph's broken hand brings clarity to season of uncertainty]
Golden State's 2020-21 first-round draft pick they sent to Brooklyn in the Russell-Durant sign-and-trade is top-20 protected. If The Warriors are handed a draft pick before No. 21, it belongs to them and will not be sent to the Nets. With all their injuries and an inexperienced roster, that seems like a lock to happen.
This isn't what Lacob envisioned. If he wants to be "light years ahead" again in the near future, he has to see the silver linings, no matter how frustrating that might be.
