MIAMI — Perhaps the Golden State Warriors entered this season with unrealistic expectations.
After hoisting the Larry O'Brien championship trophy in June, many assumed the team’s title defense would get off to a dominant start, that it would subsequently blaze through the regular season and return to the NBA Finals with little resistance on the road to a repeat.
There were times throughout the preseason when those prophecies appeared to be true, but that’s just preseason. After a 3-4 start to the regular season, that chatter looks to be wishful thinking.
The Warriors are the eighth-worst defensive team in the NBA entering Monday’s games and rank 19th in offense. Only four teams in the league foul more frequently than Golden State. And outside of an impressive performance against the Los Angeles Lakers on opening night, the team’s once seemingly imposing second unit has struggled to find cohesion.
One of the four los s es came in blowout fashion in Phoenix. The latest pair came Saturday and Sunday against two young teams they’re built to dominate: Charlotte and Detroit. It’s way too early for panic to set in, but this team has festering issues at both ends of the court that must be resolved.
“We have to get out and play with a purpose and play with some grit,” Kerr said Sunday. “Until we do, then we’re going to be experiencing games where we never quite get the traction we need to build momentum.”
With an injury-free offseason under his belt, Klay Thompson has yet to look like the Klay Thompson of old in October. Jonathan Kuminga, Moses Moody and James Wiseman were supposed to be another year wiser, more comfortable in the Warriors’ system and ready to replace the production provided by Gary Payton II, Otto Porter Jr. and other veterans lost to free agency.
Donte DiVincenzo and JaMychal Green were supposed to be seamless fits in San Francisco. And although former assistant coach Mike Brown — who oversaw the team’s defensive tactics — bolted for Sacramento, the Warriors were supposed to have a foundation in place solid enough to withstand his departure without skipping a beat at that end.
Instead, Thompson is shooting just 34.6 % from the field and 28.6 % from 3-point range. Kuminga and Moody are still trying to find their place in Kerr’s rotation, and neither has looked particularly impressive in extended minutes. Wiseman has been solid at times offensively, but his struggles on defense and lack of aggression on the glass have often made him a liability.
DiVincenzo has been inactive for the past four games because of a hamstring injury, leaving an already struggling second unit even more shorthanded. And while JaMychal Green hasn’t been terrible in his 18.2 minutes per game, he hasn’t been a difference-maker, either. But the Warriors’ second unit shouldn’t be blamed for all of the team’s issues. For example, in Sunday’s loss to Detroit, the Pistons opened the third quarter on an 11-2 run with Golden State’s starters on the floor.
“Even the second unit we had last year, it wasn’t smooth out the gate,” Jordan Poole said. “It took us quite a lot of time to start playing comfortably together.”
These inconsistencies up and down the roster have revealed a lack of synergy and have created early chaos for the Warriors. Players haven’t been on the same page, and that’s apparent in their ugly defense — both in the half-court and in transition — and their sometimes stagnant offense.
“I think our offense is killing our defense,” Draymond Green said. “Whether it’s floor balance, whether the ball doesn’t move and guys get stagnant, the two ends aren’t connecting. In order to be a great team those two ends have to connect. We’ve all seen good offensive teams, great offensive teams that don’t play defense and they usually go home, so we have to connect those two ends of the floor and right now we’re not doing it.”
Both Kerr and Stephen Curry have repeatedly told reporters that the team’s young rotation players, stepping into larger roles for the first time in their careers, need to “feel” the flow of the NBA came in order to develop. If that’s true, Wiseman, Kuminga and Moody will be just fine with continue d exposure. DiVincenzo and JaMychal Green are still learning the system and once they gain a mastery over it and their roles, they too should be in better shape in terms of production. In theory, the more rapport the reserves develop with the starters, the better the chemistry will be.
But patience alone won’t solve all of Golden State’s struggles. Kerr’s biggest concern right now isn’t the losses but the lack of urgency he senses in his players to correct their issues. So while patience must be practiced, there has to be a certain level of effort across the board. Words must match actions, and there has to be a collective desire to improve.
“We know the things we need to correct,” Draymond Green said. “We just have to go out there and do them.”
C.J. Holmes covers the Warriors for The San Francisco Chronicle. Email: cj.holmes@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @CjHolmes22
November 01, 2022 at 09:10AM
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Little has gone as expected for Warriors through season's first 7 games - San Francisco Chronicle
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