Don’t let Warriors fool you into doubting them
The Warriors have been playing bad basketball of late.
But jump off the bandwagon at your own peril.
This is a disinterested team on defense, and that’s making small advantages look huge.
This is a disjointed team on offense, and that’s making small slumps turn into droughts.
The Warriors have a bottomthird defensive rating and a minus-2.4 net rating over their last eight games — going 4-4 in that time.
This is a team treading water.
This team misses Draymond Green for the dozen things he provides this team that no one else can. This team could use James Wiseman — if for no other reason than he’s tall and is allotted six fouls per game by the rules. This team needs Andrew Wiggins to look like an All-Star once again.
All three of those things should come about after the much-needed, much-anticipated All-Star break. I’ve never seen a group of people pine like this for a February weekend in Cleveland, Ohio.
Yes, the No. 1 seed is out of reach for the Warriors now — they are five games behind the Suns for the top spot in the Western Conference — but that should never have been Golden State’s priority.
No, the priority is to play their best basketball come playoff time, and there is nothing that’s happening now that will preclude the Warriors from doing just that.
Much has been made of the Warriors’ lack of size, but with Green, perhaps Wiseman, and a rested Kevon Looney, there might not be much of a reason for the small-ball Dubs to bring in another big body in a few weeks.
If the Warriors were to sign a big man from the buyout market, it would require them to cut a player — likely Nemanja Bjelica or Damion Lee. Those players’ contracts will be paid in full no matter if they
stay or go, and any player the Warriors add would be subject to luxury tax multiplications.
When you’re paying six dollars in tax for every one delivered to the player, it’s not a question of want, it’s a question of need.
At this juncture, they have not crossed that threshold. Perhaps that’s imminent. Perhaps not.
This time last year, the Warriors were a .500 team, fighting for relevance. It took them until the final weeks of the season to find it, and only then did they make the play-in tournament. They never made the real NBA playoffs.
Two years ago, the Warriors were the worst team in the NBA in February. The end of the world as we knew it was an almost welcome reprieve.
You have to also remember that this Warriors team has played a grand total of zero minutes of basketball with Steph Curry, Klay Thompson and Green on the floor.
This is a team that’s built on depth but has struggled with injuries to that depth, leaving top players to carry even more weight.
But Curry is looking like his old self, Thompson is, too, and Jonathan Kuminga has wisdom well beyond his 19 years.
Call me when the AllStar break is over. Call me when the team’s three remaining games in February have been played. Call me when Green is back in the lineup.
Until then, I have no reason to believe this team is not still a top title contender — one of three, in my opinion — despite this lull. After all, a few bad games before the All-Star break is hardly unforeseeable or inexcusable.
But if some poor play as of late is enough to convince you that the Warriors aren’t worth the trouble — that they’re a second-tier team — then I’d posit that you were not paying attention in the first place.