SAN FRANCISCO — The Warriors have an aging roster that just finished a middling season. They just paid a ludicrously large luxury tax bill with a team icon hitting free agency. They have a responsibility to compete for titles as long as Steph Curry remains great and a moral obligation to keep their dynastic core intact — possibly contradicting needs.

That sounds like a summer of migraines for Mike Dunleavy Jr. The Warriors’ general manager was disappointed to be sitting at a podium on April 18 rather than, say, June 18 for his end-of-season debrief.

After a quick opening statement, Dunleavy reiterated Steve Kerr, Curry and Draymond Green’s public desire to bring Klay Thompson back. He said he didn’t have any regrets from a quiet trade deadline. He said he believes the Warriors were closer to the top of the Western Conference than the bottom — even though they actually finished 10th.

The anticlimactic end to Golden State’s season is still fresh. But the real work for Dunleavy will begin soon. The twilight of a dynasty is in his hands.

“I think I probably operate off the saying: ‘There’s never a bad time to make a good decision,’ ” Dunleavy said. “So, doesn’t mean it’s not tough and you stir over it, but my job is to have the best interests of this franchise and the direction of this franchise and when I make a decision or we make a decision. So, that’s what I’m going to do.”

Golden State has an “unequivocal” need to improve, Dunleavy said. Especially if the Warriors keep their legendary trio intact, as they’re posturing, everything else must be on the table to get better. Trades, spending, strategy tweaks — the works. This season provided Dunleavy with clarity on what this roster is and where it’s heading, and his takeaway should be that simply running it all back isn’t a viable option.

Dunleavy is ready to navigate the offseason with that in mind.

“I think everything’s on the table in terms of how we play, how we want to do things,” Dunleavy said. “When you have a couple years, you know, we’ve missed the playoffs three of the last five years, so it’s fair to evaluate and make changes to things.”

The first order of business for the offseason will be Thompson. He wasn’t yet ready to dive into his pending free agency in his exit interview, but he’ll have suitors. He wants to win, to feel respected and to have a sense of happiness at this late stage of his career. The Warriors won’t be the only team to offer all three.

“Certainly we want Klay back, first and foremost,” Dunleavy said. “I expressed that to him yesterday. I think our players have expressed that, our coach, front office, ownership, look, everybody wants Klay back.”

...continued

©2024 MediaNews Group, Inc. Visit at mercurynews.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.