Fans of the Golden State Warriors may or may not have been around for the dark days of yore, but the bandwagon has been getting a healthy serving of humble pie as the short-handed Warriors keep proving that they simply don’t have enough to get it done without Stephen Curry playing (and doing so at a high level).
This win was a beat down, plain and simple.
If any doubt still existed, this game was a pretty strong reminder at just how reliant the entire plan is on the main core of this roster being healthy. No Curry, Thompson, or Green tonight (plus no Porter or Wiggins (wink, wink)) made this game a scheduled loss barring a miracle — but no miracles were to be found on this night. This moves the Grizzlies to an extremely impressive 18-2 record playing without Ja Morant, and drops the Warriors down to 3-8 this season without Curry.
Golden State continues their tailspin, all but ensuring a long and painful grind out over the final few weeks of the regular season. It may feel a bit more completed, but there’s still plenty to be decided.
Oh, coach Steve Kerr got ejected.
I think this is like when I was out at the bar with Nate and Daniel and we all looked at each other knowing no one wanted to write a GSOM quick recap; so Nate wrote it on his phone while we kept drinking.
Here’s Kerr, getting out of work early because it’s just one of those days:
On the bright side (yes for real, there was some good):
The rookie tandem of Jonathan Kuminga and Moses Moody played some good minutes. And yes, I know it was the smelliest, dirtiest portion of garbage time, but these gentlemen made a series of impactful plays in the 4th quarter that kept the margin of defeat down to what it was. Seriously, have you ever in your entire life seen the hard-nosed Steven Adams step aside for a dunk?
Ok, just kidding, there’s no bullet points.
That was it, that was my one bright spot.
Andre Iguodala looked pretty spry in his return. Playing limited minutes, he still made a handful of plays — just enough to make the league remember how good he can be.
Take some deep breaths my DNHQ brethren. Golden State flies home and is off tomorrow before a presumed motor boating appointment with the powerhouse Phoenix Suns on Wednesday.
Until then, vent. Let it all out. Hug your friends and family and give the doggie a good belly rub. I’m still holding out hope that this roster can figure it out, but boy… if they manage to flip the switch and play well in the playoffs, it’s going to be one of the NBA’s more amazing turnaround stories because right now this team just doesn’t have it.
JP story by The Ringer
https://www.theringer.com/platform/amp/nba/2022/3/30/23002662/jordan-poole-stephen-curry-golden-state-warriors
I was curious regarding our payroll vs. other teams. Specifically, I wanted to see what percent of a team's payroll is dedicated to each player. I created some pie charts for the top 4 teams in each conference plus BKN and LAL.
https://bit.ly/3ISWHEh (anonymous google sheets)
Most teams have at least two big pie slices that account for 40%+ of total salary. PHI has the biggest pairing with Harden and Harris accounting for 49.7% of the team's payroll -- Steph and Klay account for 47%.
MEM and DAL are notable for not have "big" slices. They have a bunch of "medium+" slices and their stars (Ja and Luka) account for only ~9% of their respective team's payroll.
The Dubs are similar to MIA, PHI, and BKN in that our top 4 salaries account for about 3/4ths of the pie.
Oh and none of this accounts for the luxury tax... it's just the salary paid to players.