Wardell Stephen Curry II flew in to save the day for the Warriors on Monday just like an NBA superhero is supposed to, which was remarkable to watch (as always) and also a bit humbling for everybody else associated with this team.
The Warriors won the championship last June with rugged and focused performances up and down the roster that set up Curry to carry them over the finish line in Boston. Everything is the same this season for Curry, but not so much for the rest of the thin and wobbly Warriors, who desperately needed the victory over Sacramento at Chase Center to end a five-game losing streak and get to, ahem, 4-7 for the season.
“We had to win,” Draymond Green said. “Like, we needed to win.” In November. Against the Kings. At home. Draymond is right, but still, what a weird spot for the Warriors so swiftly after their fourth title in eight years.
What the heck is going on here? On Monday, Steve Kerr addressed the team’s woeful bench production so far this season by benching James Wiseman and JaMychal Green, moving Jonathan Kuminga into the rotation and then pulling him out in the second half and inserting two-way players Ty Jerome and Anthony Lamb into major roles, at least for one game. Kerr tried to jumpstart Jordan Poole by letting him start the second half over Kevon Looney, to this point one of the Warriors’ three best players. Some of this worked, some of it didn’t, some of it will last for several games, some of it will never be tried again.
And when the game had to be won, it was basically Curry winning it and the rest of the Warriors getting out of his way. But afterward, even Kerr said that leaning so heavily on Curry and so little on the younger bench players is not sustainable over the course of 71 more regular-season games and into the playoffs. The Warriors absolutely need more from Poole (currently at minus-97 on the season, second worst in the league behind only the Clippers’ Norman Powell, who is minus-102) and all other supplementary players. They went into this season believing that Wiseman, Kuminga and Moses Moody could step in as reliable bench players, and after 11 games that just hasn’t happened.
Sure, the Warriors have had bad spells over the last decade-plus, and I imagine they’ll come out of this one, but I can’t remember a mostly healthy Warriors team seeming this discombobulated — 27th-ranked defense, haphazard rotations, everything reliant on Curry and the other four starters — since before the dynasty began.
So Tuesday morning was a good time to check in with general manager Bob Myers, who built this roster and wants to win another title this season as much as Curry, Kerr, Draymond, Klay Thompson, Joe Lacob or anyone else. My general summary: Myers is sure of the talent on the roster, he’s continuing to be patient about finding the right mix for the second unit, he knows the Warriors can play a lot better than this … but if they’re still clunking around by January or so, management might have to look into some other things. They’re a long way from that. But the aim is always to win the championship and doing what it takes to maximize that chance. We’ll see how it goes from now until then.
Here’s our conversation:
You’re 4-7 after needing magic from Curry to barely win last night and your players were pretty relieved just to get it. What’s your read of this team right now?
It’s early, but it did feel bigger than one game last night. We’ve gotta climb out of this place we’re in. So I guess that was the beginning. It took Curry, as usual, to lead the way.
I don’t think anybody’s playing at their best, maybe besides Curry. Draymond’s been pretty good. But everybody else has a lot more upside than they’ve shown, whether it’s the bench or Poole or obviously Klay’s going to be better. So there’s that part. And there’s the combinations of the bench and kind of revitalizing the energy to get back on track. Last night was the beginning of it, and hopefully, we can continue. But yeah, rough start for sure. Sometimes it’s tough to get out of those.
Steve will figure it out. You’ve got to take a longer view. I know a lot of fans don’t want to do that. But that’s what we have to do in this case.
What are you thinking as the general manager of this when you see both your two-way players at the moment getting more minutes than all three of your recent lottery picks?
I think what you said was appropriate: at the moment. I’ve learned watching our teams over the years, the ebb and flow of rotations and how it starts is not always how it ends. Clearly, Donte (DiVincenzo) will be back and Andre (Iguodala) at some point, and what will that do to the rotations?
We’ve got a lot of youth. It’s hard for Steve to find ways to insert those guys. All at once seems to be a challenge, so sprinkling in some veterans is probably the best way to go. I’ve just learned that whether it’s all the way back to Draymond finding a role when David Lee was injured (in 2014-15), it all evolves over the course of the year. I think right now we’re just trying to get some wins. Steve would use the word “stabilize” rotations and things of that nature.
But I’m not concerned, talking about last night, the two-way guys ahead of (the lottery picks) … Again, it’s a really long season. We just have to be patient. I think it’ll be interesting to see how it looks at the end of the season. But no matter what, it’ll look different than it did last night, in my opinion.
We’ve talked for three years about Wiseman’s starts and stops. He’s hit another stop, now apparently out of the rotation. Do you have a rising level of concern about Wiseman these days because he still hasn’t found his footing?
If he had more runway, I think I’d be a little more concerned. But there’s still not a lot of games. I think, whether it’s James or young bigs in the league or any player at any position, young baseball players getting at-bats, football quarterbacks needing reps, same thing with James. Some players come in and get it right away. I think it’s rare.
I would say that James needs to play. And Steve’s trying to figure out how to do that. We’ve seen the growth over the last few months, preseason, start of the season, then he hit a little rut the last few games. But we’re not ready to get super-concerned. We just think he needs to play. Steve believes in him; we believe in him.
And his path will be what it is. … I think a lot of people want to rush it. I’m sure James wants to rush it. We all want it to happen right away. But he has the talent, he has the desire, he has the work ethic. He’s a good kid. I would be more concerned if I thought he wasn’t putting in the work outside of the games. But he is. And he cares. And it’s just going to have to run its course.
We’re not a team that’s just throwing out young guys and just letting ’em play. You saw (the difference) the other night in New Orleans where we played guys like Kuminga and (Moses) Moody and some of the young guys and James some. And it’s a big difference, 35 minutes as opposed to eight in a system where you’re kind of coming and going, you may play one half and not the next.
James’ journey will be fine. I can’t tell you when it’ll all come together. But I am not worried. Because his approach gives us a lot of confidence. It should give him confidence.
James Wiseman (Mike Watters / USA Today)
There’s been so much talk about the two timelines, it’s really feeling tangible now. There’s so much separation between the three Hall of Famers and the young guys. It hasn’t looked good this year. Is there a chance this just doesn’t work?
I don’t know if last year you thought it was going to work.
It worked.
I think it’s interesting. I’ve learned in this business that to hypothesize 11 games in is a wasted exercise, good or bad. Last year we were 18-2 and everybody thought we were going to win it. And then we lost five or six in a row and had injuries and (people thought) we weren’t going to make it through the first round.
What I’ve learned is, certainly 11 games into a season you don’t decide if you’re champions or not. Or if you’ve decided who your 6-7-8-9-10 players are. (You decide that) way into the season, you’re talking 50-60 games, which is a big difference for guys, especially like Kuminga and Moody. And even James, who’s a rookie as far as games played. Every game you play is exponentially valuable. Every minute you get. Different than if you’re a 10-year guy or eight-year guy.
So we’ll see. I’m not concerned now. It’s a long season and I like our talent. I think we can play a lot better. Actually, I know we can. This is not our best product offensively or defensively, at all. So there’s a lot of upside to what we were doing.
Traditionally, Steve’s teams have always been good defensive teams. We think we have the personnel to play good defense. We have a lot of games to figure it out. We don’t want to waste games, but I would say that we have a good runway to come back together. And the defense has been a hallmark, and that didn’t just go away over the course of four months. We’ll get back there. But it may take a little time.
OK, I’ll ask it: Do you think Draymond punching Poole messed up the chemistry to start the season?
Maybe you won’t believe me, I would say if I thought it did. I think more of last year, we came in with a lot to prove. You know that, you felt it. And after you win, I guess you’ve checked that box in some regards. Proving it again requires a different mentality. It’s different than reminding everybody we’re not gone. We accomplished that last year. This is a new challenge now. We can’t look to the motivation of “everybody’s written us off.” That was the motivation last year and it seemed to be powerful in the minds of the players, that we’re still here.
Now what’s the motivation? And that’s something we’ve got to tap into. Is this early difficulty the motivation to climb out of it? Whatever it is. But I know we can play better. I think our fans know. I think people in our organization know. And we will. How that’ll play out over the rest of the year, no one really knows that.
But what we’re watching now isn’t an A or even B version of our team. So we’re playing at an average level, I suppose. The good news is we can play a lot better, get a lot better, and I’m pretty sure we will.
What’s your view of Poole’s play so far? He got the big contract. But he looked passive last night, he really hasn’t been good all season. It’s obviously only 11 games, but what’s your read?
Same as you said, it’s only been 11 games. Too early. It’s a little bit like a hitter that you know can hit having a tough start of the baseball season. I don’t look at it any differently. A .300 hitter that’s batting .200. It’s not something to overreact to.
(He’s) coming off the bench … Last year, he started ’til Klay came back. I think any NBA player will tell you it’s easier to start than coming off the bench. I don’t know any that would tell you differently. But he’s going to find his stride, too. He’s figuring out what’s being asked of him in the second unit, he’s trying to find the right aggressiveness level. And that’s hard for a young player to do.
I’m sure there’s expectations that he feels. Those will settle in within him. The good news is we’ve seen what he’s capable of. It’s a different thing when you’ve seen a player perform. And not only have we seen it, we’ve seen it in the playoffs. So not that worried about Jordan, because he’s done it in the regular season, he’s done it in the playoffs.
This is a hiccup. Last night after the game, he’s back on the (practice) court, getting shots up. What people can’t see and the lens that we have is we get to see what guys do after wins, after losses, after tough performances, the body language, the demeanor, how they approach practice the next day. And Jordan is fully engaged in being the best player he can be. That, we can’t make players do. He could’ve easily showered and went home last night. But he didn’t. And that shows a commitment level.
Not worried. I just would say that overall we can be a lot better than this. And that’s encouraging. The record isn’t great — 4-7 is not where we want to be. But we aren’t playing up to our level now. And I think we’ll get there. When we will, that’ll be the question.
Curry decided last night that he was going to start the process moving forward, almost by himself. But that’s the wonderment of him. Draymond said it the best, not to compare it to the finals, but (Curry) just said we’re not going to lose this game. When you’re in a rut of a five-game losing streak, the first win out of it is never easy. We’ve been there before with even some great teams. I remember when we were back in Oakland years ago with a really good team and we really had to beat Philadelphia, who was not trying to win at that time. And it was just a brutally difficult win. But you lose a little confidence, you lose a little bit of the swagger, and you’ve gotta work to get it back. And winning is the only thing that really does that.
GO DEEPER
Heated Steph Curry masks Warriors’ growing issues, gets a tech, scores 47 and drags them to win
Another big-picture question: You’ve got all these multiple champions who naturally are only thinking about now. And you’ve got these young players who might not be ready. Could there be a moment this season when you have to strongly consider doing whatever possible to maximize the present for Steph, Klay and Draymond and push in all the chips? Or are all the chips already moved in?
I know it’s been written and maybe too succinctly: We’re always open to anything. Nothing is concrete in this business and it’s never been more so in the NBA. Doesn’t mean we’re doing anything now. We haven’t made any decisions. But I would say that we think we’re a contender and we’ll evaluate if we’re still a contender, what we look like, many games from now and decide the best course to move forward.
I go back to last year at the deadline and this clamor we had to have a big guy or we weren’t going to win. And that’s fine. But you never know, right? Looney played 82, and Draymond, and it worked out. So it’s hard to say as far as personnel what the right buttons to push are.
We’re not going to overreact to this start. We’re going to see how we move through it. But we view ourselves as contenders. There’s no secret there. And we’ll look at the roster as we move ahead. But at this point, it’s way too early to kind of make any proclamations about what we’re going to do. I know there’s an intense interest. I love that we have such a following in our community and such a passion for our team. It’s so nice to work in an environment where we have that engagement level. I mean, I walk across the street and get yelled at about what we need to do, which is what I love about the Bay Area and San Francisco.
But it is 11 games. I’ll get back on the phone with you after 40 games or half the season and if we’re talking about the same stuff, maybe it’ll be different answers. But at this point, it is early. Not so early that we don’t care what we’re looking like. But it is too early to kind of make any drastic decisions.
(Photo: Godofredo A. Vásquez / AP)