Warriors Takeaways from 1st Month of 2020-21 NBA Season
When the Golden State Warriors stumbled out of the starting block with back-to-back losses by a combined 65 points, it certainly seemed as if the sky was falling on the former NBA dynasty.
What threatened to be the norm, though, now seems like an anomaly.
The Dubs have recovered quite nicely ever since, posting a 7-4 mark which includes triumphs over both Los Angeles teams. Golden State probably won't reach the championship contender ranks this season, but this could easily be a playoff participant, and it might have enough juice to bypass the play-in tournament.
There's plenty of games left to decide that, but for now, let's examine some of this season's early lessons.
Stephen Curry Looks Like Stephen Curry
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It was fair to wonder exactly how Stephen Curry would look in this, his age-32 season.
His 2019-20 campaign never got off the ground due to injuries. He lost sibling-in-splash Klay Thompson ahead of the opening tip. Curry was a championship favorite the last time he was fully healthy, and now there were questions about whether his club would be playoff-caliber.
It turns out, Curry is still Curry—minus a chunk of efficiency, which was to be expected given his increasing responsibility and decreasing scoring support. He's making a push for the scoring crown (28.1 points per game), finding open teammates (6.3 assists) and still rendering even the most dominant defenders helpless.
With a healthy Curry, the Warriors have their identity and swagger back.
Draymond Green Is Fully Charged Again
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The question marks that followed Draymond Green into the campaign were more ominous.
His 2019-20 campaign was hard to watch as he trudged through 43 games without his typical vigor. Playing without Curry and Thompson was never going to be easy, but Green struggled to the point that it seemed as if he might tumbling down a steep decline.
About that.
Green looks rejuvenated—yes, even if he's averaging just 4.8 points per night on 35.6/25.0/64.7 shooting. He is, as per usual, making his immense presence felt elsewhere, be that initiating offense, setting defender-dislodging screens or disrupting actions all over the defensive end of the floor.
"He understands more than anybody on Earth how to get Steph and Klay a shot through all the chaos that's happening," Steve Kerr told NBC Sports Bay Area's Grant Liffmann on the "Dubs Talk" podcast. "And at the other end, he understands better than anybody on Earth exactly what's going on and how he can disrupt what the other team is trying to do. It's incredible to watch."
Green is a genius in the subtleties of the sport, and now that his motor is fully revved again, he makes the short list of the league's best non-scorers.
James Wiseman Needs Time, but He'll Be Worth the Wait
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James Wiseman is 19 years old and sometimes it shows. He played just three games at Memphis, which sometimes shows too.
He can't pretend to have experience he's never lived through, so growing pains are inevitable. Sometimes the game is too fast for him, and sometimes he'll play it faster than he should. He's prone to bouts of tunnel vision on offense, and he's not always where he needs to be defensively.
Those could be critical concerns if the Warriors were going championship-chasing this summer, and they're still tricky obstacles to navigate without falling off of the path to the playoffs. He needs developmental minutes, but the club is getting crushed when he receives them (14.9 points worse per 100 possessions with him than without).
And yet, the flashes of his wildly intriguing skill set—the soft jumpers, the explosive athleticism, the better-than-advertised mobility at the defensive end—make the entire process worth it. It's easy to see how he landed so high up the draft board, and if the Dubs ace his development, they'll have either a franchise anchor or an incredible trade chip on their hands in the future.
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