Golden State Warriors Final 2011-2012 Season Report Card: Backcourt

What a year for the Golden State Warriors. A season that started out with optimism and hope ended up featuring struggling performances, a plethora of injuries, swirling trade rumors and vocal disapproval of team ownership. Worse, it ended in disappointment and apathy, as the Warriors redundantly did their part to extend their curse—finishing with an abominable losing record.

In fact, the season was so upside-down that by March, fans were actually rooting for the Dubs to intentionally lose—tank mode—as part of an effort to retain their draft pick in the upcoming NBA lottery.

Wow.

And yet through all the sufferable turmoil—including the loss of the lone superstar—the Dubs fanbase remained as loyal as ever, finishing with the third-highest attendance average in team history (18,858). Pretty amazing. After all, given the organization’s past 20 or so seasons, fans know that it is indeed possible to have had gone through worse.

That said, as the season is now concluded, it’s time to dole out some year-end grades. With all the player shuffling and roster adjustments throughout the campaign, we’ll take a look at the frontcourt and the backcourt. Here are the final grades for Warriors guards in 2011-2012.

Stephen Curry

Final season averages: 14.7 ppg; 5.3 apg; 1.5 spg; 81.0 FT%; 45.5 three-point percentage

What can you say about third-year point guard Stephen Curry and his horrible 2011-2012 season? He literally got off on the wrong foot back in December when he turned his right ankle in a preseason game against the Sacramento Kings. That sprain turned out to be a terrible omen and worse, the beginning of a trend for the 24-year-old Curry. It was one that cursed his year and rendered him unavailable after March 10, when he tweaked his ankle for the umpteenth time in a nine-minute appearance versus the Los Angeles Clippers.

To be sure, Curry’s repeated injury limited his confidence, and subsequently his performance, on the court. He played in only 26 games, a handful of which were abbreviated performances that he hobbled away from, contributing to career-low season averages of 14.7 points, 3.4 rebounds and 5.3 assists per game.

Despite his obvious self-consciousness toward his ankle, Curry was certainly efficient in his intermittent appearances, setting career-highs in field-goal percentage (49.0) and three-point percentage (45.5), the latter of which ranked him third in the NBA. Not too shabby.

So what? That marksmanship didn't curry any favors from fans who were beside themselves because of his reoccurring ankle problems. How much did it matter when he missed 40 games? It was more imperative that he stayed healthy, especially considering the team ultimately traded its best player—Monta Ellis—midseason. All of the sudden, the dynamic backcourt duo of Curry and Ellis was completely gone, and the Warriors were essentially rudderless without their two top players.

Curry cannot exactly be faulted for continually twisting his ankle—a few instances were pretty fluky. It’s simply unfortunate that a budding talent such as Curry could not remain healthy. The point guard position is extremely vital to this young Warriors squad, especially with rookie head coach Mark Jackson having played the same position during his NBA career.

It would have been nice to see that tutelage take shape this past year; but Curry’s ankle is just one of the reasons why the Warriors will look back and ask, what if? Hopefully this summer, Curry will be back to full strength, get some seasoning in under Jackson’s guide and be a dominant force in the point-guard driven league.

Final grade: Because Curry is a starter and one of the team’s best players, he does not receive an incomplete grade. Stars do not get waivers when they are absent, and attendance contributes to the full grade. That said, he was decent but inconsistent on the court, trading 30-point games with single-digit-scoring games. Still, had he played a full campaign, his numbers would have sufficed, no doubt.

He won’t get a letter grade, however; instead, his rating will be evaluated on a pass/no pass scale. Ironically, for this point guard, he gets a No Pass.

Charles Jenkins

Final season averages: 5.8 ppg; 3.3 apg; 1.3 rpg; 44.7 FG%; 87.2 FT%

No doubt nobody would have assumed heading into the season that rookie Charles Jenkins would start more games at point guard than Stephen Curry. But that’s what ended up happening, as Jenkins stepped in for the injured Curry and started 28 games. As such, his numbers are a bit imbalanced considering the other half of his appearances were off the bench, mostly in garbage time.

The 23-year-old out of Hofstra averaged only 5.8 points in 17.5 minutes per game for the season. However, as a starter—which he was for the final 17 games—Jenkins put up 8.6 points and 5.1 assists per game in 24.9 minutes of action. Not amazing, but not exactly atrocious either.

Jenkins did display flashes of brilliance over the course of the season, however, including a 27-point performance against the Portland Trail Blazers and a 24-point, nine-assist showing in a victory versus the Minnesota Timberwolves. He logged three double-doubles for the year and finished the season with six straight games with at least seven assists.

Not bad.

Obviously, Jenkins’ forte is not lighting it up from the outside; so much of his scoring arrived from drives to the paint. He has the quickness and showed fearlessness in the lane, and he certainly has excellent court vision and a natural sense of distributing the ball to create scoring opportunities for others. That last attribute might even be stronger in Jenkins that in Curry, who is seen in come circles as more of a two-guard trapped in a point guard’s body.

Jenkins filled in admirably as the starting point guard down the stretch—especially when factoring in the compressed season schedule that rookies might have had trouble accustoming themselves to. Unfortunately, by the time he took the reins, the team simply too young and inexperienced to make an impact in the win column.

Final grade: C. He did OK. As tends to be the case, the more minutes he saw, the better his numbers were. His playing time was sporadic sometimes, as Mark Jackson occasionally played him only 15 minutes in starts. But down the stretch, Jenkins did well, averaging 15.2 points and 8.8 assists in the Dubs’ final five games.

Nate Robinson

Final season averages: 11.2 ppg; 4.5 apg; 1.16 spg; 83 FT%; 36.5 three-point percentage

One of the pleasant bright spots on the Warriors roster was the play of back-up point guard Nate Robinson, who arrived in Golden State as an insurance policy for the oft-injured Stephen Curry. The pint-sized Robinson has always been a scoring threat, particularly off the bench, so it made sense that Robinson would lead the Dubs’ second unit, which featured mostly unknown and unproven players.

Throughout his seven-year career, Robinson’s presence on the bench has been a boost of energy, and he once again proved to be a vital contributor on the floor to a team that featured five rookies in the rotation. 

As is typical during Robinson’s career, the 27-year-old has been a fire hydrant sparkplug who fills in wherever and whenever needed. He ended up starting nine games for the Warriors, as Curry missed 40 games due to injury and off-guard Monta Ellis was traded midseason.

For the season, Robinson put up sizable numbers in limited action, averaging 11.2 points and a career-high 4.5 assists in only 23.4 minutes per game. Across the board, his shooting numbers were consistent with his career marks, and he put up a respectable 18.05 player efficiency rating, as calculated by ESPN.com’s John Hollinger.

Unfortunately, Robinson’s season ended a tad prematurely, as he missed the final six games with a hamstring injury. At least he went out with a bang, scoring 58 points in his final two games, on 21-for-38 shooting, to go with 15 assists.

Robinson’s energy and exciting play meshed perfectly with the young Warriors team and, per usual, endeared him to Golden State fans, who certainly hope he’ll be around with the team next season.

Final grade: A-. Enough can’t be said about the contributions by Robinson on and off the bench. If Golden State had been anywhere close to fully healthy and a .500 ballclub, Robinson could have garnered some Sixth Man of the Year votes. Maybe next year.

Klay Thompson

What a crazy rookie season for Klay Thompson. When he was drafted last year out of Washington State, many suggested this was a step toward squeezing out veteran shooting guard Monta Ellis. But very few could admit that they anticipated that that change would indeed occur the trading deadline.

Replacing a venerable fan favorite is tough, and Thompson had some big shoes to fill. Ellis is a natural scorer who perennially averages 20 points per game. Thompson, meanwhile, could obviously shoot with pinpoint accuracy; but would his spot-up shooting translate well enough at the NBA level?

The answer is yes.

By season’s end, Thompson had proved he can shoot with the best of them, and that his shooting can absolutely carry his scoring opportunities. His season scoring average was 12.5 per game, but in 29 starts, he bumped that up to a healthy 18.1. As a starter, he was burdened with the responsibility of shooting more often and, unfortunately, with more abandon, and his three-point percentage fell from 46.3 percent off the bench to 38.1 percent. Still, Thompson finished the campaign ranked 18th in the NBA in long-distance accuracy (41.4 percent), good for tops among all rookies.

Had he been given ample playing time at the beginning of the season, or had he been a starter for the entire season, Thompson could very well have nudged his way onto the Rookie of the Year ballot. He led the Warriors as the only player to appear in all 66 games this season and finished with the team lead in three-point field goals made (he also ranked second in total field goals made).

All in all, despite the pile of losses that oftentimes overshadowed Thompson’s growth as a rookie, it was a very respectable season.

Final grade: C+. It’s not easy to replace a fan favorite—especially Monta Ellis. But Thompson did his best to dispel any worry about his own NBA talent. That’s not to say there weren’t some kinks to iron out (103 total turnovers, several grotesque shooting performances, below-average perimeter defense), but any rookie who did not go through training camp and had to experience a shortened NBA schedule could be forgiven for those errors. At least they should be forgiven.

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