Meltdowns keep Warriors from cooking
What the Warriors need is a Nerf clipboard for Steve Kerr.
That’s just one of the tools this team could use as it gets down to the business of surviving the stretch to the playoffs in quest of historic greatness.
The Warriors got through the dreaded dog days of the season, thanks to an infusion of Boogie Fever: the fun and challenge of incorporating DeMarcus Cousins into the mix. Now the hard work begins. In a recent tweet, President Barack Obama indirectly defined the Warriors’ challenge. Obama said, “I’ve always loved basketball because it’s about building a team that’s equal to more than the sum of its parts.”
The Warriors are a stupendous collection of talent, but it’s in the blending of those talents and personalities that they have the potential to rise to the heavens. There’s more to great cooking
than just tossing all the ingredients into a pot.
What do the Warriors need to work on?
For starters, anger management. Actually, anger redirection.
The Warriors were in Portland for the last game before the All-Star break. It’s not that they were in a slump, or in turmoil. They had won 15 of their previous 16, a run that would make most teams (in any sport) weep with joy.
The Warriors melted down late in a close game. Four technical fouls. The one on Klay Thompson is no problem. He had a beef with Portland’s Zach Collins, and nobody is worried about Thompson’s emotional stability.
But Draymond Green drew a T, and Kerr got two. During his tantrum, Kerr spiked his clipboard, which is his go-to move, and it’s dangerous. A Nerf clipboard would alleviate the risk of injury to innocent bystanders or by-sitters.
But seriously, if the Warriors can’t handle the heat and questionable calls in a game in midFebruary, what will they do in the pressure cooker of the playoffs?
The Warriors lead the league in technical fouls, with 0.7 per game. Nine teams are tied for
best-behaved, each averaging 0.2 techs per game. If losing teams can avoid techs, why can’t the Warriors?
Their goal is to become the greatest team of all time, so why give the world reason to crown them Crybaby Kings?
Green leads the league with 13 techs. Kevin Durant is tied for fourth at 11. Cousins is highly tech-prone.
Nobody is suggesting that the Warriors cool down or mellow out. What they should do is redirect their anger. As a practical matter, technical fouls cost you points, and the winner of the game is the team with the most points.
Green was victim of a terrible call at Portland, a flagrant foul that wasn’t. But he earned that tech by abusing the refs so theatrically and relentlessly that they long ago stopped being amused.
What if Green, Durant and Cousins — let’s call them the Tech-nicians — channeled their rage into a higher intensity of play, rather than into self-destructive whining at three people who are trying to do their jobs?
Picking up technicals, crying about calls, might seem like a trivial matter, but it’s part of the big emotional picture, and for the Warriors, the rest of the season is about emotions — not about tamping them down, but about harnessing them. This is especially the case for Kerr, Green, Durant and Cousins.
Kerr’s occasional sideline meltdowns are fine. They remind the players that the head coach has their backs. Kerr should (occasionally) rage on. He is cool enough at his bigger task, which is managing the family emotional dynamic behind the scenes — being the tough dad the players respect, and the hip big brother they trust. I can’t imagine a better man for the job.
As important as Kerr’s leadership is, don’t underestimate Green’s role as a buddy to Cousins and Durant.
There’s no need to inspire more basketball passion from Durant, that could be coals-toNewcastle. But Green can help diminish destructive distractions, such as a fiery teammate calling Durant disloyal. Green can pull Durant closer to the team core, much like Green helped pull Durant to the Warriors in the first place.
Cousins has been on his best behavior, and the experts say he will stay there, but to assume that would be a mistake. Cousins is a passionate man. He can be moody, can feel unloved and unappreciated. No need to baby the big man, but everyone wants someone to understand them, and who better to understand Cousins than Green?
Green is crazy, in the positive and non-clinical sense of the word. And for Cousins and Durant and the other Warriors, as Billy Joel said, “It just may be a lunatic you’re looking for.”
The ingredients are all there, and the Warriors are trying to cook it up into a dish called Obama’s Dream Team. We’re about to see what kind of chefs they are.