Golden State may have been able to start the season off strong with Stephen Curry’s excellent play, but they have recently started to slip. Just take a look at their mid-November games, where they lost six games in a row to some pretty average teams.
Adding insult to injury, the Warriors don’t seem to be able to beat any real contending teams, instead picking up dubs against bottom-of-the-pack rosters like the Blazers.
The decline in the play of Clay Thompson and Draymond Green
The whole team outside of Curry seems to be all out of whack, especially Klay Thompson, with his decreased athleticism and explosiveness. We are used to him being a constant 20+ point scorer with fast lateral movement on the perimeter, but that’s just not what we’re seeing this year.
Age is finally starting to hit the Golden State roster, and we might even see them in the play-in tournament by season’s end.
However, it is really not all Klay’s fault; there are plenty of other issues with the roster they have now. To start with, Draymond Green is playing like complete crap. As harsh as it sounds, he really just isn’t having as much of an impact on most games as he should; his numbers are down across the board, and he almost seems like a liability on the court.
Golden State forgave his lacking offensive game because of his defensive intensity for many years, but it doesn’t even really seem like he has that anymore. Playing 33 minutes with 8 points and 6 rebounds is absolutely unacceptable.
Chris Paul issue
Next, we have to look at the Chris Paul issue. While he has been injured and we haven’t been able to see him mesh with the squad much this season, even when healthy, he doesn’t necessarily patch the holes in the quad that Golden State needs.
The Warriors need scoring, while Paul is a small pass-first guard, averaging 7.3 assists. He is undoubtedly an all-time great, but he just doesn’t give them the oomph they need.
The Warrior’s atrocious +- stats this season
Overall, it just doesn’t seem like the individual pieces on Golden State’s roster are playing up to snuff, at least so far this season. And nothing shows this better than the Warrior’s atrocious +- stats this season.
Klay Thompson is sitting at -29, Draymond Green at -30, Kevon Looney at -37, and Andrew Wiggins at a horrendous -81. We won’t sugarcoat it; those are terrible stats, and in all honesty, these players should be embarrassed.
Curry’s supposedly “reliable” teammates have been anything but this season, acting like an anchor for Steph to pull around.
That’s not to say that it’s completely curtains for the Warriors by any means, though, because, come on, it’s the Golden State we’re talking about.
Golden State’s prospects this season
If Klay can up his scoring to at least 20 PPG and Wiggins gets to the 17 PPG area, they could be in a good spot. Luckily for Golden State, that doesn’t seem all too unlikely, especially with the gravity Curry continues to pull matched with Paul’s assists.
On the defensive side of the ball, the Warriors also really need to stay in front of their man and clog up the inside. The smaller Warriors roster has long relied on Draymond to play more of a stretch four position, but he really doesn’t seem to be able to keep it up nowadays.
All in all, you can likely expect the Warriors to sit around the 5th-9th seed by season’s end. If Golden State’s supporting cast picks it up, they should be a strong middle-of-the-pack team, but even without that, Curry can likely drag them to at least the play-in tournament.
