The world was a little brighter in the Bay Area two weeks ago.
The flowers smelled a little sweeter. No clouds were obstructing the Golden Gate Bridge. The Athletics were still an Oakland-based baseball team. And most importantly, for our purposes, the Warriors were 5–1 after a thrilling, last-second win in Oklahoma City, announcing themselves as an early contender.
Since then… well, that’s why we’re here today.
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Golden State is in the midst of a highly concerning dip, having won only one of its last seven games entering its Nov. 18 matchup with Oklahoma City. The Warriors have lost five in a row, including four straight to start a six-game homestand. (Sorry, that was a lot of numbers.) To make matters worse, Stephen Curry—currently playing at an MVP level—missed the team’s last game because he is dealing with a knee injury. And Draymond Green will miss four more contests due to his suspension for—and I can’t believe this is a real sentence—putting Rudy Gobert in a chokehold.
Why are the Warriors struggling so much? Well, you can’t put the downturn all on one or two people, but the dispiriting play of Klay Thompson and Andrew Wiggins is a place to start.
When the Dubs were 5–1, it was almost encouraging they were succeeding without a strong Wiggins. But instead of him regaining his form and making the team better, Golden State is now having a hard time overcoming his performance.
Wiggins is currently averaging career lows in points, assists, rebounds, free throw percentage and field goal percentage. He is shooting a ghastly 13.5% from three. And as a result of all of that, Steve Kerr has his minutes at a career low, too, despite the team needing his perimeter defense.
And it’s not like Wiggins is getting terrible looks! He is shooting 17.9% on catch-and-shoot threes, typically the bread-and-butter shot that comes with playing off Steph. Wiggins is shooting a baffling 13.3% and 23.1% on threes classified as either open or wide open, respectively. The opportunities are there, but he’s just not capitalizing.
Thompson hasn’t fared much better. He’s also at career lows in field goal percentage and three-point percentage, and he is averaging his fewest points since his rookie year. Most of Klay’s threes are also classified as open, but he is connecting on just 20.6% of those looks.
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The inefficiency from Wiggins and Thompson has sunk the Warriors’ once-vaunted starting group. The fivesome of Steph, Klay, Wiggins, Green and Kevon Looney has a net rating of minus-14.4 in 87 minutes, which is middling offensively and getting smoked on the other end. Last year that group was arguably the best lineup in the NBA, posting a 21.9 net rating in 331 minutes.
Meanwhile, the full five-man bench group spearheaded by Chris Paul has also mostly gone bust. And despite playing Wiggins and Thompson fewer minutes, Steve Kerr can’t seem to crack the rotation to properly highlight Moses Moody and Jonathan Kuminga. Those two are needed more than ever, but they have their own limitations (size for Moody, shooting for Kuminga) that have made their integration less than seamless this season.
In the short term, this is all resulting in mounting losses. It is wasting what is yet another superhuman performance from Curry, who is as good as ever, and is now single-handedly forced to lift lineups that can’t shoot and can’t really defend. Steph is truly every bit as terrifying as when he led the Warriors to 73 wins in 2015–16.
In the long term, the questions are getting scary. Are Moody and Kuminga ever going to be championship-caliber role players? Could the Warriors even trade them to get that kind of player in return?
Wiggins is 28 and under contract for two more seasons and a player option. Where is he going to level off? Will he still be a part of the core moving forward?
And then there’s Thompson, who is making $43 million in the last year of his deal. The two sides couldn’t reach an extension before the season, and Thompson seems to be playing his way out of max money. Is the contract situation affecting him?
You could also argue Thompson’s expiring contract is an important trade chip for the Warriors. I would not move him and frankly think the team should have extended him already, but what if he continues to struggle? And what if his money plus draft picks can bring back players who can help win a title this year?
These are not fun thought exercises, and I wouldn’t be having them if the Warriors were still rolling. But as long as this swoon continues, they’ll continue to linger. That’s how dark Golden State’s season has been the last couple of weeks. And if the team doesn’t turn it around soon, the conversation will only grow more uncomfortable.
