The decline of the Golden State Warriors has been dissected from every angle: the age of the core, the Jimmy Butler injury, the frayed relationship between Steve Kerr and Jonathan Kuminga.
But for former All Star Gilbert Arenas, the true turning point that slammed the door on the dynasty’s extension came much earlier on a quiet draft night in November 2020. The Warriors, holding the No. 2 overall pick, selected James Wiseman.
“For Gil, that sequence of events marked the moment everything unraveled,” one report states. “As LaMelo and Ant-Man blossomed into All-Star-level players… the Warriors were left watching from the sidelines.”
The failure to capitalize on that critical pick, Arenas argues, cost the Warriors the chance to “seamlessly transition from one era of dominance to another,” a misstep even the 2022 championship couldn’t mask.
The Missed Opportunity: “The Ant Man Draft”
In the 2020 draft, the Timberwolves selected Edwards first overall, leaving the Warriors with the second pick. The franchise, then in a delicate phase, was looking for a player to eventually take the reins from the aging Stephen Curry, Klay Thompson, and Draymond Green.
The decision was a catastrophic misjudgment. Wiseman showed flashes but was quickly derailed by injuries, missing an entire season and appearing in just 21 games in another before being traded to Detroit in 2023. Meanwhile, the players the Warriors passed on forged their paths to stardom.
LaMelo Ball became a dynamic, playmaking All-Star for the Charlotte Hornets. Anthony Edwards, “Ant-Man,” evolved into a dominant two-way force for the Minnesota Timberwolves, a franchise centerpiece who plays with a swagger reminiscent of Michael Jordan.
The Unavoidable Present: A “Fading Dynasty” in Crisis
Five years later, the consequences of that draft mistake are playing out in real-time. The Warriors are a middling team, currently clinging to the 8th seed in the Western Conference with a 26-21 record.
Head coach Steve Kerr himself has acknowledged the obvious, referring to the team as “a fading dynasty” and admitting it’s unrealistic to expect them to compete with younger powers like Oklahoma City and San Antonio in the years ahead.
Most glaring is the Jonathan Kuminga situation. Once a beacon of hope for the future, Kuminga has fallen out of the rotation, lost Kerr’s trust, and is widely expected to be traded before the February 5 deadline, his potential departure marking another failed attempt to develop a young star.
An Alternative Reality and a Path Forward
Arenas’s critique forces a painful hypothetical. A 2020 Warriors team that drafts Anthony Edwards would have added a 22-year-old, alpha-dog scorer to a core that still included a prime Curry and Green.
They could have contended for titles and secured the franchise’s future. Instead, they are now trapped in the twilight of their dynasty, facing the impossible choice of whether to trade their legends or ride out a slow, painful decline.
