Are the Warriors now a dream team?
Draymond Green promises mystical run with DeMarcus Cousins finally on the court
OAKLAND » The regular season begins tonight for the Warriors.
Technically the Warriors’ exhibition season ended Oct. 12 — they’ve played 45 games since then, including a wildly impressive 147-140 win over the New Orleans Pelicans on Wednesday night.
But the truth of the matter is that this team has treated those 45 games as a continuation of the exhibition schedule. They wanted to do well and win, of course, but there wasn’t much on the line. And they certainly weren’t keen to gauge themselves against the rest of NBA; after all, they didn’t have their full squad.
All that changes tonight when DeMarcus Cousins takes the court for the first time this season when the Warriors play the Clippers in Los Angeles.
The occasion is a clear checkpoint for the Warriors, who have played their best basketball of the season over the last six games.
But they’re nowhere near where they think they can be.
Following the 147-point outburst (on the second end of a two- city back-to-back games, no less), Draymond Green issued a warning to the rest of the NBA:
If you already think that the Warriors’ are unbeat- able, you haven’t seen anything yet.
“All hell (sic) about to break loose,” Green told NBC Sports Bay Area. “It’s gonna be fun.”
Cousins’ introduction to the Warriors’ lineup comes at a fascinating time for Golden State. A few weeks ago, the Dubs couldn’t have gotten him on the floor soon enough, but as Cousins progressed toward a return from his torn Achilles’ tendon, the Warriors kicked themselves into high gear.
Gone was their seasonlong form of lackadaisical effort and wandering focus; exacerbated, no doubt, by Cousins’ long-term absence.
It was replaced by a team that looked like it had something to prove and not a lot of time to get it done.
The Dubs are coy about it, but the internal message was evident: They had put
it off long enough. They needed to find out how good they actually are without Cousins. They needed to set a baseline for this upcoming “season.”
And when Cousins takes the floor, they plan to blow away that baseline.
It’s impossible to know exactly what Cousins will be able to provide for the Warriors; no one can say with certainty that the AllStar version of Boogie will play in the NBA again. He’ll start his season on a minutes restriction and likely be the anchor of the Warriors’ second unit, which has been lackluster all year.
If he can simply knock down a few shots at the beginning of the second and fourth quarters — a la David West from 201618 — the signing will be a success.
It’s not as if the Warriors need him — they’re peerless without the 7-foot All-Star center. So far in January, the Warriors have a 130 offensive rating (points per 100 possessions), which is so good I had to triple- check it. They also have a league-best +15 net rating.
They’re playing wonderfully cohesive and freeflowing offensive basketball and are making more 3-pointers than any other team in the league. The team’s interplay — which at times this year has been clunky — has been sterling as of late, no doubt coinciding with Stephen Curry and Green taking control of the offense, just like old times.
Curry has reminded the basketball world that he’s a top-tier MVP candidate with his recent run of form: He’s averaging 34 points per game in 34 minutes per game this month on 50 percent fieldgoal, 47 percent 3-point and 96 free-throw shooting, giving him an offensive rating of 138.
But, believe it or not, Green is just as integral to the Warriors’ recent pyrotechnics. The man I maintain is the “Steph Curry of defense” is showing, in spurts, why he should win Defensive Player of the Year, but more importantly, he’s also shored up his offensive game.
Green is as much a point guard in the Warriors’ offensive system as he is a center in their defensive system. He was averaging an atrocious 3-plus turnovers per game in the season’s first three months. Now that he’s as healthy and in shape, Green once again looks in control of his game. He’s back to being a maestro in transition.
He’s averaging more than 9 assists per game in January, on a respectable 47 percent shooting from the field and 35 percent shooting from beyond the arc (helped by his four 3-pointers Wednesday). More importantly, he has cut his turnovers in half during the Warriors’ sixgame winning streak. In those six games, Green has dished out 58 assists and turned the ball over only 9 times. Those are elite numbers for a point guard. They are unparalleled for a forward.
Add in the steady and similarly MVP-caliber play of Kevin Durant, the resurgent offensive play of Klay Thompson, and Andre Iguodala’s rock-solid, highly impactful turnback-the-clock run and the Warriors’ best lineup — the so-called Hamptons Five — is unstoppable for the first time this year, posting a +39.4 net rating this month.
But again, that’s only the team’s baseline.
If Cousins does re- establish the bounce and fluidity that made him a generational talent, the Warriors — when engaged — won’t just dominate the league, they’ll raze it. We’re talking about alltime greatness here.
Of course, there’s no guarantee that will come to pass. There’s still a question of fit. Fully healthy or not, Cousins provides something the Warriors have never had in the Steve Kerr era: A big man who is an adroit scorer inside and out.
Integrating Cousins into the Warriors’ Way on the court (he’s already a beloved teammate off it) will likely be a challenge. Defensively, in particular, there are plenty of reasons for concern (a truth before he blew a tire). And given the injury and the idiosyncrasies of his game, it’ll probably take a few weeks for the Warriors to rediscover the levels of cohesion and verve they have going right now. Those few weeks might be ugly.
The Warriors seem up for the challenge though. In fact, they’ve been looking forward to it (too forward, inarguably) all season.
Ultimately, it doesn’t matter which seed the Warriors have going into the playoffs. If the Boogie experiment is working come April, no other team stands a chance.
And even if the Warriors can’t quite make it click, the team’s current form has made it clear that they can win another championship without a serious contribution from their big off-season acquisition.
Indeed, the Warriors are about to enter their real season in a position of absolute power — their grand experiment seemingly only factoring into their final margin of victory.