The Warriors have been the most surprising team in the NBA this season.
There weren’t a lot of expectations for the team to be a top 3 team in the NBA this season. Most were predicting them to be somewhere in the middle of the league. At the same time, everyone was eager to see the comeback of Klay Thompson after missing the last two seasons because of injuries.
But somehow the Warriors are at the top of a tough Western Conference, going neck-and-neck with the Suns for the best record in the NBA.
It’s not just about that, it’s also about how comfortably they were winning games.
How did a team that finished 9th in the West last season resurge and get back to the top of the NBA mountain again? While it’s been years since the Warriors are a title contender, let alone a consistent playoff team, they are riding the wave of numerous breakout seasons and their star core’s resurgence.
Gone are the days of relying on borderline G-League players filling the rotations.
The front office had a great offseason. They started off by bringing back 2015 NBA Finals MVP Andre Iguodala, and also signed three players who thought their NBA careers would be over soon—Nemanja Bjelica, Otto Porter Jr., and Gary Payton II.
They were able to make a huge difference on the court that has not gone unnoticed, and it would not always show on the stat sheet. Iguodala and Payton bring suffocating defense to the team, and Bjelica and Porter can spread the floor, which allowed the team to play various rotations in which opponents have had no answers for.
The brightest spot the Warriors have been having this season is from Jordan Poole, who increased his scoring by almost 6 points from last season and is averaging 17.9 points per game. Although Thompson is going to get the starting spot when he comes back, that shows how deep the Warriors are.
Leading the charge is Stephen Curry and Draymond Green. Curry is playing his best basketball since his unanimous MVP season, averaging 27.0 points, 5.5 rebounds, and 6.1 assists per game on 39.8% shooting from three. Likewise, Green is one big reason the Warriors have the best defense in the NBA, and his commitment to scoring at a higher rate is paying off.
Curry managed to become the all-time leader in three-pointers made in 500 fewer games than previous leader Ray Allen, and at this current rate, he is on pace to finish the season with over 440 total threes, obliterating the single-season record he set back in his unanimous MVP season of 402.
What’s more surprising is that he is on track to do this while shooting the worst three-point percentage of his career, not counting his injury-riddled 2020 season. By the end of this season, he could have another MVP trophy if he continues to keep up pace consistently.
It’s also fair to question how much of a lead he can build on the all-time three-point record. Even just 40 games could put him more than 200 ahead of Allen by the end of this season. He has already solidified himself as the greatest shooter of all time and is only going to further cement himself as the seasons go on.
Green is averaging 7.9 rebounds and 7.3 assists per game, the same as in his 2017 Defensive Player of the Year campaign.
Again, he is one of the main factors the Warriors have the top-ranked defense in the league, playing with a renewed aggressiveness. He’s been the vocal leader for the Warriors and is often referred to as the team’s heart and soul.
He is currently the Defensive Player of the Year frontrunner at +150 betting odds, with Rudy Gobert trailing him at +240, although Giannis Antetokounmpo is sneaking up at +700.
He is also shooting at 54.8% from the field, a career-high.
Andrew Wiggins, who has been criticized for his lack of improvement from season to season and his lack of defensive intensity, has blossomed into a two-way beast on the court, with career-highs in shooting percentages and defensive stats.
While his free throw percentage (70.9%) remains a problem, and even if his steals and blocks per game may have dipped, his offensive efficiency has improved, putting up 49% from the field and 42% from three.
Kevon Looney, who averaged 3.9 points and 4.8 rebounds per game over the last two seasons, is averaging 6.0 points and a career-high 6.4 rebounds per game.
While he’s not known for his volume scoring nor his ability to rebound at high levels, the Warriors signed him to a $15 million deal because of his ability to get in the paint and switch on guards. One example of the latter is when he efficiently guarded James Harden during the 2019 playoffs.
And this season for Looney is not even among the top three in terms of usage rate for him. He used his chances to exploit opposing teams, and has the team’s highest offensive rebounding rate too. It’ll be interesting to see how his minutes fluctuate once James Wiseman returns to the lineup.
And while Thompson is still a few steps away from his return, he is set to return on December 28th at the earliest. So, it will be over 900 days since he last played an NBA game, and even though it is rough, it’s not all that bad for the Warriors. They can build on the momentum from the first half of the season onto the New Year. Even if he does not return before 2022, they will still be a top three team in the NBA.
But the Warriors still need him badly. While they don’t need him to finish as one of the top seeds in the Western Conference, they need him to have a chance at an NBA title. The last two seasons are proof that the Warriors don’t have much of a punch without the Splash Brothers.
Curry is shooting a career-low from both the floor (43.3%) and from three (39.8%), excluding his five games from the 2020 season. That’s more than just an unusual shooting slump for Curry.
Credit must be given for opponents playing suffocating defense, but the blame can also be placed on the Warriors’ supporting cast.
Ever since the Raptors neutralized Curry in the 2019 NBA Finals, opponents have had the blueprints to neutralize the Warriors. The strategy is to harass him with athletic defenders and get all the attention to stopping him from finding any space.
Forget about Green, Wiggins, or any other Warrior—just trap Curry.
That’s the main reason teams have held him to a combined 24 of 74 (32.4%) from deep recently. Nobody on the Warriors is capable of making opponents pay for harassing Curry.
That is until Thompson’s return.
Wiggins and Poole may be having the best years of their career, but even they are too inconsistent to tear apart quality defenses from going after them over Curry.
That changes when Thompson, one of the most consistent shooters in NBA history, returns.
Two other challenges that the Warriors are facing are consistency from the bench and finding a role for Wiseman upon his return.
Bench units are rarely reliable through an 82-game season, and the rotation of trustworthy players is slimmed down when the playoffs begin.
The Warriors understand the value of strength in numbers more than any other team in the league, and that they have a talented collection of role players. But even so, Porter, Bjelica, Payton, Iguodala, Juan Toscano-Anderson, Damion Lee, Moses Moody and Jonathan Kuminga have occasionally lacked the punch the Warriors need from their second unit.
Poole is the ideal 6th man to spark life to the second unit. So far, he’s been doing great by standards of people who predicted him to have a breakout season. He can score in bunches, and there is the hope he will enjoy the freedom of leading the offensive charge when Curry gets a rest.
That solution presents itself when Thompson returns to the lineup. Naturally, Poole will embrace his 6th man role, which will happen when the Splash Brothers reunite.
While reintegrating Thompson to the lineup should not be as much of a challenge for the Warriors, finding a role for Wiseman is more complicated.
In his limited minutes last season, Wiseman never quite found his role. While he started to ramp it up before his rookie season-ending MCL injury, fitting him to the rotation is not going to be easy.
Wiseman had 11.5 points, 5.8 rebounds, and 0.9 blocks per game in his first season. His athleticism was something to watch, but sometimes, he was out of place. The Warriors didn’t do enough pick-and-roll to get him involved offensively, and, to no surprise, he looked like a rookie defensively.
Thankfully for him, Wiseman is not going to have the expectations of a 2nd overall pick entering his second season. Many people across the league have fallen low on him, and the Warriors are playing competitive basketball without him.
Wiseman doesn’t need to be a star player, nor does he need to be a rising star. All he has to do is play his role.
The Warriors currently are tied with the Trail Blazers for 14th in blocks, and Wiseman should help in the block department.
They also score just 46.0% of their points from the paint, the second-worst in the league. Wiseman should also help with that area.
He is a 7-foot athlete who can be utilized on both ends of the floor. Allow him to roam on defense and reject shots as a help defender, then get him on transition, rolls to the hoop, or get him to cash in lobs from the dunker spot.
While these two suggestions can bolster the Warriors, this is a great time for basketball fans to appreciate the return of one of the greatest dynasties in NBA history. The resurgence is surely taking shape.
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