Warriors' Biggest Takeaways from Opening Games of 2021-22 NBA Season
Just three unblemished records remain after the opening week of the 2021-22 NBA season.
The Golden State Warriors have one of them.
Impressively, only one of their four victories has been decided by fewer than seven points. They've already knocked off both LeBron James' Los Angeles Lakers and Paul George's Los Angeles Clippers. Coach Steve Kerr would have had trouble scripting a better start.
How much have the Warriors learned through their first four outings? Maybe not a ton, but the following three takeaways feel like they could last.
The Bench Is Much Improved
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The Warriors bench had a lot of by-necessity pieces last season. They probably weren't keen on counting on players like Mychal Mulder, Nico Mannion or Brad Wanamaker, but they didn't really have anywhere else to turn.
Golden State has better options now.
That's partly because Andre Iguodala has returned and always finds a way to settle things down and put his teammates in the right spots. But it's also because veterans Otto Porter Jr. and Nemanja Bjelica know how to play the game. And because Damion Lee has become a more consistent offensive weapon.
So far, the Warriors' bench has outscored the opposition by 22 points over 78 minutes, tied for the second-best mark in the NBA entering Wednesday night. They're also collectively shooting like members of the Splash family and have compiled a combined 48.2/44.9/88.5 slash line.
Stephen Curry, Draymond Green Showing No Slippage
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The Warriors came into this season needing several things to happen to enter the championship race: Klay Thompson looking like himself, the young players getting up to speed quickly, the imported veterans finding their footing.
Underneath all of that, though, was the simple demand for Stephen Curry and Draymond Green to retain the elite status they had reclaimed last season. If these two aren't special, the Dubs will never be.
Luckily, each is acing his personal test.
Curry looks like he could make another run at the scoring crown, especially when his shooting rates catch up to his career averages. Green, meanwhile, has turned heads with his offense, but more importantly continued playing some of the best defense in the league. Through four games, opponents are shooting 6.2 percentage points worse against him than they do on average, per NBA.com.
Still Need a Reliable No. 2 Scorer
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When Curry summoned the second scoring title of his career last season with a personal-best 32.0 points per night, he often did it out of desperation.
If he wasn't on top of his game, the offense didn't really function. Even though the Warriors rostered the scoring champ, they only finished 20th in offensive efficiency, per NBA.com.
That group struggled to find steady support scoring, and so far, it's the same challenge with this roster. Andrew Wiggins was the No. 2 scorer last season with 18.6 points per game; he's still No. 2, but his output is down to 16.8. Last season's squad had four double-digit scorers beyond Curry; this group has three.
The Warriors have more hope this time around, since Thompson will return at some point and Poole is miles ahead of where he was last season. Still, you wonder if this roster might need one more high-level scoring threat to take it over the top. Golden State has the trade chips to pursue one, but that option will be on the back-burner as long as the wins keep piling up.
