SAN FRANCISCO — Anfernee Simons is not the difference between championship contention and the Play-In tournament. He is a 27-year-old backup guard who has played for three teams over eight seasons and averaged 14.3 points per game last year splitting time between the Boston Celtics and the Chicago Bulls. He agreed to a two-year deal with the Philadelphia 76ers on Thursday and should be a solid scoring option off the bench next season.Based on the way a portion of the Golden State Warriors’ fan base responded to this deal, you would have thought the organization just missed out on signing Steph Curry’s heir apparent. Simons is a secondary role player. He is also not LeBron James, one of the greatest basketball players of all time who has interest in potentially joining the Warriors next season at 41 years old.If the Warriors signed Simons for the money the Sixers paid him, they would have likely taken themselves out of contention for James. To the fans who have watched the Warriors swing and miss on free agents and various trade targets over the last few years, watching Simons sign with another team was painful. But what Simons’ signing, and the frustration that surrounded it, also showed is that portions of this rabid fanbase are in desperate need of some perspective after years of living at or near the top thanks to the unbelievable run Curry has led over the last decade and a half.Have Lakers built Luka a contending roster?Dan Woike and Jeshua KiddAs the Warriors reload a team that currently looks a lot like the group that finished 37-45 for the 10th seed in the Western Conference, the angst within the base has been apparent for days — both on social media and in the calls and texts pouring into Bay Area sports talk shows. Fans are passionate, and the pride they have in their team is admirable. But their expectations for next season are misplaced.The tenor of this summer, and much of next season, was already determined months ago. It came on Jan. 19 in a win over the Miami Heat when Jimmy Butler landed awkwardly on his knee. He knew right away that he had torn his ACL. An MRI a couple hours later confirmed it. Most of the hope for the Warriors to make some kind of franchise-altering move evaporated in that moment. Butler signed a two-year extension when he was acquired by the Warriors before the 2025 trade deadline, which paid him more than $54 million this past season and almost $57 million next season. He will be 37 years old at the start of the 2026-27 campaign, and it is unclear when he will return.When one of your two max players suffers a career-altering injury, everything changes instantly. The Warriors had championship hopes going into last season, but struggled to find a rhythm early on and then couldn’t stay healthy. The reality of Butler’s injury, along with the ongoing knee issue that caused Curry, now 38, to miss more than two months last season, is hitting home for the fan base more than ever. The frustration grows because other teams are making moves while Golden State deals with several failed chases for other superstars and last summer’s extended soap opera with former Warrior Jonathan Kuminga.The Warriors could find a way to get off the final year of Butler’s contract, but that would likely require parting with at least one future first-round pick. Those assets have never been more valuable in the modern game, given the new lottery system and tightening salary cap constraints. It would also send away a player in Butler who wants to finish his career in the Bay and has a solid relationship with the Warriors’ front office. Butler was the Warriors’ big swing — a last hope — to salvage the end of Curry’s prime. After playing well for the first year of his tenure, he suffered a terrible injury. That’s the business of pro sports.The last thing the Warriors should do right now is take a swing at landing Anthony Davis or mortgage their future (both in draft assets and future cap space) on any other player who is readily available at the moment.Of course, the fan base doesn’t want to hear that right now. They want action. They want a reason to believe next season won’t end up looking exactly like last season.It’s a common refrain that the Warriors have wasted the end of Curry’s prime and owe it to him to make one more big move. But if the start of last year taught the Warriors anything, it was another hard truth that the fan base has to accept now: The gap between where the Warriors are and where they want to be near the top of the Western Conference is vast even with a healthy Butler.There are many reasons for this but one of the biggest is the Warriors whiffing on James Wiseman with the No. 2 pick six years ago. He never really helped the team in two-and-a-half seasons with the Warriors and is no longer in the NBA. It was a gigantic miss for the organization that had long-lasting repercussions.That miss was exacerbated when the Warriors struck out again when selected Kuminga with the No. 7 pick in the 2021 draft. If fans really want to be upset at owner Joe Lacob, former GM Bob Myers, coach Steve Kerr and — to a lesser extent — current GM Mike Dunleavy, this is where they should direct that ire. If those two players had developed, they would have either helped the Warriors now or been used to acquire the man the Warriors had been yearning for years in Giannis Antetokounmpo, who was finally traded to the Miami Heat last month. The lack of development for both missed picks should be viewed as an organizational failure.As far as flashpoints in recent Warriors’ history, it’s those draft blunders, Draymond Green punching Jordan Poole at practice before the 2022-23 season began after the Warriors won the 2022 title and Butler’s knee injury that serve as turning points.This is where another tough reminder for a frustrated fan base is needed: All teams miss on picks. Fans have every right to be frustrated — the end of Curry’s prime would look dramatically different if Wiseman and Kuminga were better players, or if other players were drafted instead. Despite those misses, and all the other moves that have been made since, the Warriors have still won four NBA championships with Curry leading the way. Kerr got crushed by many within his own fan base — and even by some within his own organization — when he called the Warriors a ‘fading dynasty’ just before Christmas, but his larger point was correct: No team wins every year. Pro sports don’t work like that. There are hits, there are misses and time moves forward.The Warriors absolutely made missteps that led them to this point, but that doesn’t mean the moves they are (or are not) making right now are wrong given the options. To that point, if there’s a chance LeBron James wants to play for your team, you wait to see what he decides before making another move. Even at 41, James would improve the Warriors on the floor while generating even more interest and money for a team consistently near the top in both categories.Warriors fans have every right to be upset at how things have unfolded since their favorite team won its last title in 2022, but don’t let those mistakes cloud reality of the here and now. With or without James, the Warriors aren’t good enough to win a title again with this current core. Getting mad about missing out on signing Anfernee Simons won’t change that.