For all of the speak about adapting to the times and changing their ways, the Warriors, despite their 10-2 start, are counting on their classic playbook: defense and depth.
Remember the 4 championship teams? They ranked second, eleventh, second and first in defense.
Do you remember the times before KD? They are “strong in numbers”.
“When we had great teams, we had incredible depth,” Draymond Green said after Friday night’s win over Memphis.
Golden State already has wins over the Rockets, Celtics, Thunder and Mavericks. They have handled the business against lottery teams or discarded teams and greater than held their very own against the competition.
They rank fourth in each offensive and defensive rating – the one team to rank in the highest five in each efficiency metrics.
Steph Curry plays at an MVP level and delivers when called upon. Green looks like he's at his best, wreaking havoc every night (and shooting 45% from 3).
“I don’t think we had the depth and versatility defensively last year that we have now. So for me the model is 2022,” said coach Steve Kerr. “We won the '22 championship with a similar mix to what we have now: good on both sides of the ball, building defense… We won a title two years ago with a group around Steph and defense and that's the formula this year , to.”
In Curry's words, they do what relevant teams do. But in reality, they're doing what championship-caliber teams do.
Of course there have been changes. Jonathan Kuminga has improved and excelled off the bench in an all-around role – particularly as a power forward. The Warriors' additions of De'Anthony Melton, Buddy Hield and Kyle Anderson are somewhere between revelation and absolute solidity. Jerry Stackhouse helped the defense and Terry Stotts cleaned some things up offensively.
And the Warriors will hit a wall at some point. It's a long season. Injuries are inevitable. This also applies to difficult shooting ranges.
But the Warriors' defense is legitimate as long as Green is available. The sample size is large enough at this point to explain this. And even if their 13-man rotation is cut at some point, it also helps them weather unplanned absences.
I was pretty skeptical about this team at the beginning of the year (the receipts are printed weekly in this column). A bunch of C+ or B- players around Curry and Green didn't seem like a championship formula to me. The roster felt unfinished and bloated at the same time.
What I didn't take into account as much was how well all the pieces would fit and how much everyone would buy. Kerr works his butt off and it shows.
The Warriors are definitely fun again, but they're more than that. They're a team that no one likes playing against.
All-Star facelift
The NBA is reportedly in serious discussions about a revamped All-Star format for the 2025 celebration in the Bay Area. The new format, per ESPNwould consist of three eight-member All-Star teams competing in a four-team tournament against the winner of the Rising Stars game.
There must be more to these “serious discussions” than has been revealed thus far. Because if the grand solution is just to show the All-Star Game right into a mini-tournament, that won't work.
Why would more meaningless games be higher than simply one? Are there another missions?
At least they're trying something. Anything.
At the very least, it seems likely that Curry and Sabrina Ionescu will reprise their roles within the interleague 3-point competition. If the league can pair Steph and Sabrina against Klay Thompson and Caitlin Clark, that may be an enormous draw.
Look at Ty Jerome, man…
Kenny Atkinson saw how effective Ty Jerome could be in short bursts when he coached him with the Warriors, then bolstered him after he took the head coaching job in Cleveland.
Now Jerome is an absolute Sixth Man of the Year.
While shooting 53.3% from 3, Jerome is averaging 9.8 points and 3.4 rebounds in 16.5 minutes per game for the 14-0 (!!) Cavs.
…so inspiring.
Grand Theft Baller
The craziest statistic in the NBA so far this season comes from Atlanta.
Dyson Daniels, who came to the Hawks as part of the Dejounte Murray trade, has recorded 29 steals in his last five games. No other player in the league has more than 27 this season.
Daniels' game record is outrageous. The steals column is six, six, six, seven and four. He is an absolute threat and leads the league with 42 shots per year.
The Hawks have been desperately looking for a defensive-minded backcourt partner for Trae Young for years. They may have found one.
The injury spike
Accordingly This week's analysis from Yahoo SportsStar players are on track to miss over 1,000 games this season, and injuries across the league are up 35% compared to last year.
Per League dataOn average, star players missed 10.6 games per yr. It greater than doubled within the 2020s.
No one has a precise explanation for the rise in injuries, either this season or over time. The game is less strenuous than it was once, equipment and technology is significantly better, players rest more often and the coaching staff includes the perfect minds on this planet. However, injuries continued to occur.
For what it's value, my theory goes something like this:
At a time when an increasing number of people world wide are playing basketball, players are having to work harder and harder at younger and younger ages to have a likelihood of constructing it into the league. Those miles – multiple AAU games a day, weightlifting, etc. – can be made up in the long run. Then while you make it to the NBA, the sort of play is quicker and requires players to cover more room on the court than ever before, putting much more strain on muscle groups through additional training just to maintain up. It's much like the phenomenon in baseball, where every hard-throwing pitcher in some unspecified time in the future undergoes an inevitable Tommy John operation: When people use their bodies to their full potential for prolonged periods of time after which need to break through that ceiling, that's when breaking happens.
image credit : www.mercurynews.com