Playoffs expose roster weaknesses
HOUSTON — In Steve Kerr’s four seasons with the Warriors, the second unit has gone from a glaring issue to a source of pride. Kerr’s “Strength in Numbers” catchphrase adorns billboards and T-shirts, car windows and rally towels.
However, the playoffs have a way of exposing weaknesses that the regular season camouflaged. As Golden State prepares for Game 5 of the Western Conference finals Thursday night in Houston with the series tied at 2-2, it faces a sobering reality: The Warriors’ imbalanced roster has left them vulnerable to the precise type of team they must defeat to reach a fourth straight NBA Finals.
“It is what it is,” Stephen Curry said. “There’s a certain flow to the game and certain lineups that have been out there more than others. The guys on the bench, they’re supportive. They know their number could be called at any time.”
Golden State has five centers — Zaza Pachulia, JaVale McGee, David West, Damian Jones and Jordan Bell — it would prefer not to use against the perimeter-oriented Rockets. Patrick McCaw, who bruised his spine in a scary March fall, will miss at least the rest of the conference finals.
All it took was one more injury for the Warriors’ lack of depth to be on full display in a postseason matchup. With Andre Iguodala sidelined for Game 4 with a left lateral leg contusion, Kerr used only nine players.
Nick Young, perhaps Golden State’s most inconsistent player, slogged through a forgettable 13-minute cameo. Because Kevon Looney was limited by foul trouble, Bell was forced to log 18 meaningful minutes.
The Warriors’ four All-Stars — Draymond Green (45 minutes), Kevin Durant (43), Klay Thompson (39) and Curry (39) — played the entire third quarter. By the time Houston began to mount a late comeback, Golden State looked exhausted. It mustered only 12 fourthquarter points on 3-for-18 from the field — 0-for-6 from threepoint range — to fumble away a double-digit lead.
After that 95-92 defeat, Kerr struggled to fall asleep as whatifs raced through his mind. The Warriors now stare down a best-of-three series against a 65-win Houston team that has home-court advantage, and Iguodala and Thompson (left knee strain) are questionable for Game 5.
A flawed roster construction leaves Kerr few options to scale back his best players’ workload. Perhaps he could sneak West and McGee, who have played a combined 12 minutes in this series, into Game 5 for a couple of timely appearances.
“It’s been a different season in that regard where we have an imbalance in our roster,” Kerr said. “It’s not anybody’s fault. It’s just the way things have come together. We’ve just got to make do with what we’ve got. And that sounds stupid, because we have a great roster.”
After signing Iguodala, Durant, Curry and Shaun Livingston to big contract extensions last summer, Golden State rounded out its roster with a slew of budget-conscious moves. It brought back McGee for $2.1 million, West for $2.3 million and Pachulia for $3.5 million.
The Warriors’ three offseason additions — Young, Bell and Omri Casspi — were seemingly upgrades from the players they were replacing. Kerr was so pleased with the front office’s haul that he told reporters in October that “this is probably the deepest team we’ve had.”
There was no way at that time for him to know just how rapidly the league’s small-ball revolution would evolve. In the
modern NBA these days, in which speed and versatility are prized over size, the traditional center — a lumbering, slowfooted brute who sets screens and blocks shots — is becoming more niche than necessity.
The pace of the 2004-05 Phoenix team credited with popularizing up-tempo offenses would have ranked toward the bottom of the 30-team NBA this season. It has rendered big men who can’t defend shooters along the perimeter essentially useless against a majority of teams.
Well before the conference finals, Pachulia, McGee, Jones and Bell were having a tough time cracking the rotation. After watching Houston’s guards repeatedly beat West off switches in Games 1 and 2, Kerr decided to anchor him to the bench.
Golden State could use Casspi, who was waived last month to free up a postseason roster spot for two-way player Quinn Cook, against the Rockets. A versatile defender capable of hitting the open three-pointer, Casspi would have helped make sure that Young wasn’t needed on this stage.
There is no sense, however, in Kerr bemoaning his imbalanced roster. To guard against another late collapse, he can only hope heightened stakes are enough for his team to overcome fatigue.
“It’s easy to say, ‘Yeah, we’re overloaded’ ” on centers, Kerr said. “But if we had one less center and we had another wing, would that wing be good enough to play in this series? Houston’s got a ton of wings who aren’t playing.
“When you get to this level of playoff basketball, it’s not just about having guys on your roster. It’s about having guys who can stand up to this level of play and who match up in this series.”