Is It Time To Worry About The Golden State Warriors?
The Golden State Warriors are a mess. From their porous defense to their road losses, their chances of a repeat appear to be shrinking.
I’ve waited a while to talk about the Warriors. I don’t think that overanalyzing everything a defending champion does is wise. Even for teams like Golden State, there are bound to be some rough patches here and there. It happens.
But this is more than a rough stretch. The Warriors look lost, uninterested, and stuck. Outside of some Steph Curry magic, nothing has gone right for this team. After their eighth straight road loss, maybe it’s time to check in on the dynasty.
I Am Not Panicking
Look. The things I will say about the Warriors in the rest of this blog won’t make them look good. I don’t know with 100% certainty that things will get better. Nobody does. Nothing is certain in sports.
But here’s what I do know. The Warriors aren’t the first defending champions to start a season slowly. The 2002-03 Lakers, coming off of back-to-back titles, started their season 5-10. It didn’t matter, though, as Kobe and Shaq got their third straight ring together.
The 2004-05 Pistons started their season 7-8. They went back to the finals and were one game away from repeating as champions. Golden State’s struggles aren’t new to us. We’ve seen this happen before.
And, if there were ever a team to turn things around quickly, it would be the Warriors. They know how to win. They’ve dominated the league for nearly a decade now. Come April, I’m willing to bet this team will be fine.
Think of this as merely an observation, not an intervention. I’m not going to plead with the Warriors to change things like I’m Skyler trying to convince Walt to get chemotherapy. That’s not what this is about.
Alright. With that out of the way, let’s talk about what’s going on.
Stick With Me For a Moment
The last thing anybody needs right now is some conspiracy theories. There’s too much of that stuff going around. But, if you’re willing to indulge me, let’s put on our tinfoil hats. I had an epiphany while watching the Warriors on Wednesday.
As you’ve probably heard, the Warriors are 0-8 on the road and 6-1 at home. Why? Golden State has always been very good on the road. Since the 2014-15 season and excluding the shortened 2020 season, Golden State has won 65% of its road contests. That’s incredible. That’s why their struggles are so jarring.
Here’s my theory. Draymond Green’s punch of Jordan Poole rocked the team before the season even started. Draymond has been their leader for years, and has always been revered by those around him. It’s likely that some of that shine came off after that punch. We always knew that Draymond was fiery, but to hit his own teammates? The guys he’s supposed to protect? I’m sure that didn’t sit well in the locker room.
Golden State has always been superb on the road because they liked playing with each other. When you’re on the road, you see the same people every day more often. You eat meals together. You’re in the same hotel. You fly everywhere together. The experience will be worse if you don’t like the people around you.
The Warriors have been struggling on the road in part because the chemistry isn’t there. The bench unit is entirely definitely different than last season. Draymond Green is no longer a leader. All the losing isn’t helping matters, either. Golden State showed us all how vital chemistry was to a team’s success. Right now, they’ve lost that element, and they’re falling apart because of it.
The Defense??
What’s going on with Golden State’s defense? Slumps from Klay Thompson and Jordan Poole are fixable. And to a certain extent, so is their second unit. But the defense? This is what everybody should be worried about.
Golden State’s backbone has always been on the defensive end. Heck, some regression on this end isn’t surprising. Klay Thompson isn’t the shutdown defender he once was. Gary Payton II left in free agency.
The amount of exasperated looks and finger-pointing you see this team display every game is weird. In the postseason, we saw them fly around and swarm opposing defenses. They were where they needed to be to make every play. There were no blown coverages or open shots conceded.
Now, that’s the new normal for the Dubs. Some of that may have to do with the chemistry. After the loss to the Suns, Donte DiVincenzo said something interesting. During his Milwaukee days, even when they would score on the Warriors, he knew they couldn’t celebrate because the Warriors were coming right back at them.
That’s some Michael Jordan shit. That energy and mindset – that domination is gone. In Iron Man 2, Whiplash/Ivan Venko says that when you make god [Iron Man] bleed, nobody believes in him anymore. The rest of the league isn’t scared of the Warriors anymore.
Right now, their defense is out of sorts and lacking that energy that they prided themselves on for years. And it’s making them bleed out on the floor…very slowly.
“Strength in Numbers”
What started as a 2014 training camp video shown by Steve Kerr (and narrated by Marv Albert) has turned into the rallying cry of a dynasty. While most teams have some stupid, corny slogan for the postseason, like “We Believe” or something close to that, the Warriors don’t have that. Strength in numbers is more than a slogan. It’s a culture. An ideology.
Miami’s culture has always been revered, but I think Warriors culture trumps it by a mile. Strength in numbers became the motto for one of the most successful teams in league history. Everybody involved in trying to win a title mattered. Everybody.
Right now, the Warriors are struggling to maintain this idea. Strength in numbers is about putting aside your personal agendas for the betterment of the team. Steph Curry did it when Kevin Durant came to town in 2016. Klay Thompson did it last year with the emergence of Jordan Poole.
This year, however, everybody has a different agenda. Here’s all of the obvious ones we’ve seen so far;
- Klay Thompson wants to prove everyone (and Devin Booker in particular) that he’s not washed
- Jordan Poole yearns to start and prove his extension was worth it
- The young guys want to prove themselves
- Draymond Green wants to rehabiliate his image and stay with the team
- Steph Curry just wants to win at all costs (the only one sticking to the plan right now)
Subplots
There are so many subplots going on for the Warriors. Against the Suns, the Warriors were playing 4 on 5 offensively. Klay Thompson wasn’t a part of the rhythm and flow of the offense. He was trying to find his own rhythm. He scored 19 points on 17 shots.
Thompson has been forcing his agenda all year long. He isn’t letting the game or its opportunities come to him. That has come at the expense of other guys. Andrew Wiggins always seems to get two to three shots less per game than he deserves.
Jordan Poole has been so passive, not looking to score on a team that needs his scoring. Right now, the Warriors aren’t a team. They’re a collection of players. They’re a collection of parts that isn’t a collective machine right now.
There’s a spark plug. A couple of gears here and there. A steering wheel in the corner.
If the Warriors really want to turn things around, they have to play like a team. A real one. And that’s going to be their challenge going forward.
What Does The Future Look?
Like I said before, I’m not overly worried about this team. I can admit that they have problems. But, we’re only 14 games into the season. Golden State still has 80%+ to turn the tide, something we all know they’re capable of doing.
Steve Kerr and co. need to take a step back and relax. Take a deep breath. Get a glass of water. The Warriors need to solve one problem at a time. Not everything can be fixed at once.
Clearly, the second unit can’t rely on only young guys. I think the Warriors realized that when they demoted James Wiseman to the G-League. The hope is that JaMychal Green learns how to shoot layups and Jordan Poole starts shooting the ball more. If that happens, I won’t be that worried about their second unit.
Something has to change defensively, perhaps more than an attitude. Maybe the Warriors throw more zone looks. Or they change their philosophy for a few minutes a game. Throw a few curveballs in there because right now, everybody and their mother is getting to the fastball.
We’ve seen plenty of teams recover from slow starts and do great things. My Pistons and Lakers examples from the bunch are just two of them. Golden State’s season is far from over. It’s just up to them how the rest of it goes.
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