TEAM SHEDS ITS IDENTITY CRISIS
Star faces no impediment to greatness for remainder of year
The Warriors’ last five months have been an identity crisis.
Are they playing to go deep into the postseason? Are they developing? Can they do either?
Thisconflicthas played out on the court in countless games. Some lineups look like the Warriors of old, others something entirely different, and success ebbs and flows between both.
But that crisis is over.
The Warriors have 18 games remaining this regular season, but they now know what should have been obvious all season:
Steph Curry is the system. The Warriors have 18 games remaining in this season. There should be zero impediments levied upon Curry during that period of time, and beyond.
The brilliance of Curry has been underutilized all season — taken for granted by an organization that focused more on the future than the superstar’s brilliant present.
But with rookie center James Wiseman sidelined for the rest
of the year and the rotation shortened because of other injuries, the Warriors looked like the Dubs of old against the Nuggets on Monday.
Yes, Curry scored 53 points — I don’t want to undersell how impressive it was — but it was the flow the team played with that stood out to me Monday. With Curry calling the shots, without new, inexperienced mouths to feed, the team’s much-maligned motion offense was unfettered and humming against the Nuggets.
Give Curry four role players who know how to do their jobs — guys with relatively high basketball IQs—andyoucangofar.
The ball was moving. Players were moving. All those back screens, which seemed so questionable only a few days ago, seemed to make sense on Monday. The Warriors had an identity against
the Nuggets — it was the beautiful game that Curry can’t help but create if given the latitude.
For years, Kerr rarely called plays on the sidelines. The offense and its principals were installed, so most of the time, he let the players figure out how to create the best shot on the fly. He trusted them. Of course, it helped that there was rarely a point where Curry or Andre Iguodala (“the parent of the team” who could calm things down when Curry was getting too turnover happy) was not on the floor.
Obviously, the Warriors don’t have Iguodala or a player like him anymore. The talent level on this year’s team is far closer to last year’s NBA-worst squad than any of the NBA Finals teams.
But last night, with no Wiseman, no Kelly Oubre, and a rotation that was subsequently forced to be short in both length and stature, Kerr sat back and enjoyed the show. He let Curry set the tone for the
game. And paired with Draymond Green and three players that were willing to do the work necessary to do the smart thing in the right spot on the floor, the duo created open look after open look against an admittedly tiredDenverteam.
They looked like the Warriors of old.
Now, I don’t blame
Kerr for having to call more plays this season — the personnel (and, by proxy, the front office) demanded it. Wiseman was a square peg in around hole and Oubre’s buccaneering style often had to be tamed through called plays.
And this isn’t to say that the glory days are back. The Warriors will no doubt find struggle in the coming days and weeks. Switching defenses will cause the Warriors’ problems, Curry can only do so much, and again, the talent level on this team, outside of Curry, is lacking. You can only have so many guys who can’t dribble and can’t shoot on
the floor at the same time.
But what the Warriors won’t struggle with moving forward is identity.
It seems ridiculous to say, but this is Steph Curry’s team, through and through once again. He calls the shots, and seeing as he’s the greatest shooter in the history of the sport, that’s a good thing for the Warriors.
Kerr frequently talked during the Warriors’ salad days about how the Dubs were not in the “real NBA” — that it was too easy for them because of their preponderance of talent.
There’ s no doubt that he was right about that.
But now that the Warriors are in the“real” league, they need to ride their superstar as far as he will take them. That’s how other teams in the NBA operate, after all.
And Curry at the peak of his powers — as he is, unquestionably, at the moment — this team, despite the dearth of talent compared to years past, might go further than you think.