Just when you think the Warriors have finally turned things around, they tend to toil through a dud of a game.

That’s what happened Saturday night, when Golden State was blown out by 35 points at Oracle Arena by a Dallas team that had lost 15 of its previous 17 games. The Warriors, not surprisingly, didn’t seem too concerned postgame.

But should they be? With just three weeks until the playoffs, can the Warriors expect to flip the proverbial switch when it matters and win a third straight NBA title?

Answers to those questions won’t come for a while. In the meantime, here’s The Chronicle’s latest Warriors mailbag:

@wcgoldberg: What's the deal with Alen Smailagic? Can he make the leap from the G League to the NBA? Future Warriors center?

Smailagic is a fascinating story. Golden State’s G League affiliate, the Santa Cruz Warriors, surprised many other G League executives when it moved up six spots in October’s G League draft to select Smailagic — a Serbian national who had never played at any level higher than the Serbian third division or the under-19 junior league — with the No. 4 pick.

At 18 with an Aug. 18 birthday, Smailagic should be a high school senior and is the youngest player in G League history. He’ll be eligible for June’s NBA draft and is emerging as a second-round prospect. In 47 games with Santa Cruz, Smailagic is averaging 9.1 points and 4.0 rebounds in 17.4 minutes.

I was in Santa Cruz on Friday for the Warriors’ win over the Agua Caliente Clippers, when Smailagic posted 21 points, 11 rebounds and three assists, and it was easy to see why Golden State is so high on him. At 6-foot-10 and 215 pounds, he has impressive touch around the rim, unyielding confidence and range that extends beyond the arc.

The Warriors got criticized in December when they sat Smailagic in both of their two games at the G League Winter Showcase in Las Vegas. Although Santa Cruz contends that Smailagic was tired and that it wanted to give exposure to its call-up eligible players, many NBA scouts believe that the Warriors were trying to hide Smailagic because they didn’t want other teams to know how special he is.

Well, NBA franchises are catching on. It will be interesting to see if Golden State tries to buy a pick early in the second round to take Smailagic in hopes of keeping him in Santa Cruz for a year or two to develop. Regardless, the Alen Smailagic Project has already been a bold move that reinforces that the Warriors are one of the most innovative teams in the league.

@riceysu: Any thoughts on who will be cut from the roster for the playoffs?

I’m not convinced that the Warriors will cut anyone. The only reason they would is if they believe that two-way-contract player Damion Lee could help them more in the playoffs than Alfonzo McKinnie, Jonas Jerebko or Quinn Cook, all of whom aren’t under contract for next season.

After an underwhelming couple of months, McKinnie has made progress in recent weeks, returning to that instant-energy, rebound-happy wing that NBA fans fell in love with early in the season. Jerebko showed in last week’s 18-point, four-rebound gem in Minnesota that he is still a rotation-caliber NBA player.

Although Cook continues to struggle with his shot, he provides the Warriors much-needed insurance at point guard behind Stephen Curry and the oft-injured Shaun Livingston. Plus, Cook is Kevin Durant’s closest friend on the team. That doesn’t hurt.

@KharmaPharma: Any chance of Bogut re-upping next season? Having that vet presence seems to be doing wonders for locker-room morale.

I doubt it. Bogut intends to honor his two-year contract with the National Basketball League’s Sydney Kings and play in Australia next season. Like the DeMarcus Cousins situation, both player and coach know that Golden State is renting.

@evelintrejoo: Does the No. 1 seed in the Western Conference mean anything to the Warriors heading into the playoffs? Do the Warriors hope to keep the No. 1 seed for home-court advantage?

I think the Warriors would like to have it, but they don’t necessarily feel they need it. This team showed last year that it can win an NBA title as a No. 2 seed. Even if Denver beats out Golden State for the top seed, the Warriors will still enter the playoffs as the prohibitive championship favorite.

@pljohnson9: Who do the Warriors hope to play in the first round of the playoffs?

A couple of players, including Klay Thompson, have said that they’d like to face the Clippers just because they want to stay in state and open the playoffs in Los Angeles.

However, I don’t necessarily think the Clippers would be the Warriors’ most favorable first-round matchup. If I’m Golden State, I’d like to play San Antonio in the first round. Though the Spurs will be solid as long as they’re coached by Gregg Popovich, they simply don’t have the firepower to test the Warriors in a seven-game series.

@bazkenziee: Do you think KD stays with the Warriors?

If I had to put a percentage on it, I’d say there’s a 70 percent chance Durant leaves this summer. That’s based largely off the vibe I get from being around the team on a daily basis.

@ShirleyRagsdale: What the heck happened last night? Why can’t they play without Steph out there?

Curry is the face of the franchise for a reason. Though Durant, Thompson, Green and Cousins are all elite in their own right, Curry is the engine that powers this team.

Since the start of the 2014-15 season, the Warriors are 26-25 without Curry. They are outscoring opponents by a team-best 11.8 net rating this season with Curry on the floor. That number is minus-3.8 without him.

Still, the Warriors didn’t get blown out at home by the lottery-bound Mavericks on Saturday just because Curry was resting. They clearly just had little desire to be there.

Connor Letourneau is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: cletourneau@sfchronicle.com. Twitter: @Con_Chron