LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA – FEBRUARY 14: Stephen Curry #30 of the Golden State Warriors reacts to a play by teammate Andrew Wiggins #22 throughout the first quarter towards the Los Angeles Clippers at Crypto.com Area on February 14, 2022 in Los Angeles, California. NOTE TO USER: Consumer expressly acknowledges and agrees that, by downloading and/or utilizing this Photograph, person is consenting to the phrases and situations of the Getty Photos License Settlement. (Picture by Katelyn Mulcahy/Getty Photos)
The Warriors are taking part in dangerous basketball proper now.
However bounce off the bandwagon at your individual peril.
It is a disinterested workforce on protection, and that’s making small benefits look enormous.
It is a disjointed workforce on offense, and that’s making small slumps flip into droughts.
The Warriors have a bottom-third defensive score and a minus-2.6 web score over their final seven video games — going 4-3 in that point.
It is a workforce treading water.
This workforce misses Draymond Inexperienced for the dozen issues he supplies this workforce that nobody else can. This workforce may use James Wiseman — if for no different cause than he’s tall and is allotted six fouls per sport by the principles. This workforce wants Andrew Wiggins to seem like an All-Star as soon as once more.
All three of these issues ought to come about after the much-needed, much-anticipated All-Star break. I’ve by no means seen a gaggle of individuals pine like this for a February weekend in Cleveland, Ohio.
Sure, the No. 1 seed is out of attain for the Warriors now — they're 5 video games behind the Suns for the highest spot within the Western Convention — however that ought to by no means have been Golden State’s precedence.
No, the precedence is to play their finest basketball come playoff time, and there's nothing that’s taking place now that can preclude the Warriors from doing simply that.
A lot has been made from the Warriors’ lack of dimension, however with Inexperienced, maybe Wiseman, and a rested Kevon Looney, there may not be a lot of a cause for the small-ball Dubs to herald one other large physique in just a few weeks.
If the Warriors have been to signal an enormous man from the buyout market, it will require them to chop a participant — possible Nemanja Bjelica or Damion Lee. These gamers’ contracts can be paid in full regardless of in the event that they keep or go, and any participant the Warriors add could be topic to luxurious tax multiplications.
Whenever you’re paying six dollars in tax for each one delivered to the participant, it’s not a query of need, it’s a query of want.
At this juncture, they haven't crossed that threshold. Maybe that’s imminent. Maybe not.
Regardless, the Dubs go into Wednesday’s sport towards the Nuggets with a 42-16 report — the second-best report within the league.
Recency bias is powerful, little doubt, however these 42 wins weren't unintended.
And perspective is significant while you’re taking a look at this marketing campaign, as disastrous because it appears to so many now that it’s leveled out.
This time final 12 months, the Warriors have been a .500 workforce, combating for relevance. It took them till the ultimate weeks of the season to search out it, and solely then did they make the play-in event. They by no means made the actual NBA playoffs.
Two years in the past, the Warriors have been the worst workforce within the NBA in February. The top of the world as we knew it was an nearly welcome reprieve.
You need to additionally do not forget that this Warriors workforce has performed a grand complete of zero minutes of basketball with Steph Curry, Klay Thompson and Inexperienced on the ground.
It is a workforce that’s constructed on depth however has struggled with accidents to that depth, leaving high gamers to hold much more weight.
However Curry is trying like his outdated self, Thompson is, too, and Jonathan Kuminga has knowledge nicely past his 19 years.
Name me when the All-Star break is over. Name me when the workforce’s three remaining video games in February have been performed. Name me when Inexperienced is again within the lineup.
Till then, I've no cause to consider this workforce will not be nonetheless a high title contender — one among three, in my view — regardless of this lull. In any case, just a few dangerous video games earlier than the All-Star Break is hardly unforeseeable or inexcusable.
But when some poor play as of late is sufficient to persuade you that the Warriors aren’t well worth the hassle — that they’re a second-tier workforce — then I’d posit that you weren't paying consideration within the first place.