5 lessons Warriors learned in first half that will help get them to playoffs.
5 biggest things we learned from season’s 1st half
Warriors head coach Steve Kerr spent much of the first half of the season talking about how much he liked his roster. In the wake of frustrating losses, he felt compelled to stay optimistic and stress that it wasn’t a personnel issue.
With the AllStar break here, Golden State knows that most of its big takeaways from the season’s first half are positive. That doesn’t matter much, however, when the Warriors have failed to exceed expectations. Widely considered a fringe playoff team entering the season, they’re ninth in the Western Conference at 1918.
Here are the most important things we’ve learned:
An MVPcaliber season from Stephen Curry might not be enough: As soon as news broke in midNovember that Klay Thompson had suffered a seasonending Achilles injury, the Warriors knew that they’d need Curry at an MVP level to make the playoffs.
Curry is posting his best numbers since his unanimous MVP season in 201516, but it hasn’t always meant success. Since opening the season 50 in games in which Curry scored at least 30 points, the Warriors are 56 in such outings. This is a testament to his supporting cast’s inconsistency. As Kelly Oubre Jr. finally started to knock down shots at an encouraging rate in recent weeks, Andrew Wiggins — who played well on offense and defense early in the season — began to struggle.
Kerr has tinkered with the lineup again and again. Center James Wiseman has navigated a steep learning curve as a 19yearold rookie, oscillating between impressive games and vexing ones. Role players such as Brad Wanamaker and Eric Paschall also have looked a bit lost at times.
The difference for Golden State between making the playoffs and heading to a second straight lottery will be whether the rest of the Warriors’ players can provide Curry with sufficient support.
The defense is better than most expected:
Throughout the preseason, Kerr stressed the importance of Golden State posting a top10 defense. This was a big ask. After finishing with the NBA’s fifthworst defense last season, the Warriors learned that they’d be without their best perimeter defender in Thompson for the second straight year.
But 37 games into a 72game regular season, Golden State is fulfilling its preseason goal — and then some. Its defensive rating of 108.8 ranks sixth; the biggest reason being Draymond Green, who has been masterful at organizing his teammates and ratcheting up the intensity.
In the first five games (four that Green missed with a foot injury and another in which his minutes were restricted), the Warriors posted the NBA’s fourthworst defensive rating. With Green back around his usual playing time since then, Golden State is second.
It also helps that Wiggins and Oubre, both of whom entered the season with reputations as middling defenders, have made life difficult on opponents’ top wings. Wiggins is emerging as a perimeter defender.
Wiseman was the right pick at No. 2: Wiseman, like almost all NBA players who aren’t old enough to buy a beer, has looked overwhelmed at times. But even as LaMelo Ball — the player drafted one spot behind him — has blossomed into a Rookie of the Year frontrunner with Charlotte, the Warriors hardly regret taking Wiseman at No. 2.
His per36minute averages of 20.4 points on 51% shooting (37% from 3point range), 10.2 rebounds and 1.9 blocks suggest that he has the tools to become one of the league’s most dominant centers.
As impressive as Ball might be, he plays the same position as Curry. Meanwhile, Wiseman — a meticulous learner who arrives to practice early and listens to his teammates — appears poised to become the Warriors’ first franchise center in decades.
After Kerr tried to ease Wiseman’s transition to the NBA through much of the first half, he made a statement by inserting Wiseman back into the starting lineup for Thursday’s loss to the Suns: Wiseman, whose 20.8 minutes per game rank 14th among rookies, needs to get experience by shouldering a significant workload.
Draymond Green is still elite:
Anyone who claims that Green is declining hasn’t paid attention. The fact that he’s averaging just 5.7 points on 39.1% shooting (23.7% from 3point range) distracts from what matters: Green understands better than anyone how to get the Warriors to defend at a high level and maximize Curry’s greatness.
It’s no surprise that Golden State’s defensive rating spiked once Green started playing big minutes this season. While anchoring the back line of the defense, he recognizes how to monitor a play without overcommitting, maintaining the right positioning to force a bad shot.
On offense, Green’s 8.6 assists per game rank sixth in the NBA. According to NBA.com, the Warriors have outscored opponents by a 3.9 net rating with Green on the floor this season and are a minus3.6 without him.
Preventable mistakes have been devastating:
The Warriors have done a lot right this season, only to enter the AllStar break on the edge of the playoff picture. This is because of nagging issues such as silly fouls, risky passes that lead to turnovers, botched boxouts and poor lategame execution.
Far too often, the Warriors deviate from their movementheavy offensive blueprint when it matters most, standing around until they force up questionable shots late in the shot clock. When Kerr talks about his team’s inconsistency, he’s really referencing the mistakes that have prevented them from winning more than three games in a row.
To make the playoffs, the Warriors must do a much better job of focusing over the final 35 games.