Preview: turnovers and unreliable help plague Warriors

Revenge game, or more of the same against Suns?

It’s tough being a fan of the Golden State Warriors right now. Still featuring one of the greatest talents to ever play in the NBA, the team is continually getting punched in the face with the knowledge that Stephen Curry may not be enough - not without some help.

What makes this stretch feel heavier than past midseason swoons is the absence of a familiar safety net. In prior years, a losing streak could be waved away as experimentation, rest, or the calm before a postseason switch-flip. This version of the Warriors doesn’t have that benefit of the doubt. The losses feel more final, the answers less obvious, and the path forward more transactional than transformational.

Golden State is now just 4-9 over the last 15 games, and the trade window appears to be the most viable path to improvement for a roster that simply hasn’t been able to deliver consistently. And at the heart of it all, the engine still keeps going, as Curry continues to churn out impressive performance after impressive performance.

Tonight, Golden State gets another shot at the Phoenix Suns, this time at home in SF.

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GAME DETAILS

WHO: Golden State Warriors (13-15) vs. Phoenix Suns (15-12)

WHEN: Saturday, December 20th, 2025; 5:30pm PST

WATCH: NBCSBA

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Finding the right 12

The irony of “finding the right 12” is that the Warriors’ problem has very little to do with the back end of the roster. This isn’t a team searching for its 11th or 12th man - it’s a team wrestling with the limits of its stars. The bench debates, lineup churn, and rotation tweaks are symptoms, not causes. When the top of the roster defines both the ceiling and the constraints, every downstream decision becomes an exercise in damage control rather than optimization.

It’s clear from the rotations that coach Steve Kerr and the Warriors are still trying to figure everything out. Though Jonathan Kuminga is back in the rotation, Will Richard and Seth Curry remain glued to the bench. It’s not that those players can’t help - in fact, Richard has proven to be one of the more impactful players for this team so far this season - but more so that Kerr is frantically scrambling through his index of options.

But this roster isn’t built in a way that makes the end of the bench any more important than it would be for another team. In fact, it’s the opposite, with the top-heavy salary structure of this roster defining a squad that absolutely must get a ton of support from the core three of Curry, Butler, and Green. So sure, the team could well be leaving valued contributors on the bench, but the main problem will tend to be mostly associated with your biggest salaries.

Very few players come without any flaws, so this isn’t to pick on Green, but given the impending trade season decision window, the flaws associated with one of the Warriors most important players is extremely relevant to any discussion about what may come next.

The turnovers have been getting a lot of coverage, and rightly so. Golden State is near dead last in total turnovers, averaging over 16 per game (rank 26th) and the offense is struggling. The team’s strong defense is one of the only reasons that the Warriors haven’t fallen off the deep end of the standings, but having the NBA’s 4th-best defense can only get you so far while dragging a bottom-ten offense around.

Green carries a huge share of the blame, coughing it up 5.6 times per 100 possessions - or up to 29% of the time, depending on where you look in basketball reference.¹ Whatever. It’s a lot of turnovers, the precise math isn’t all that important. One Reddit user points out that this rate is so absurdly high that Green “leads the league by a few standard deviations.” For those that are curious, that’s not a good way to be an outlier. Green isn’t just leading the Warriors in turnovers, he leads the entire league (by a fair margin).

In his defense, Green does lead the team in both rebounds and assists per game, but the Warriors are beginning to run into a wall on Green’s offense. Historically, Green has run much of Golden State’s offense, allowing shooters like Curry or cutters like Kuminga to run around without the ball in their hands. But this is one of the key design flaws that may finally be catching up to the Warriors.

The personnel here now have changed, and it’s not just that the core is getting older - many of the ancillary pieces around the edges are not as well suited to fitting in around the gaps in Green’s game. If you listen to the rumor mill, Golden State is signaling that they want to flip Kuminga for an athletic center - a move that may be driven as much by Green’s changing impact as anything.

Green is taking a career-low 3.8 two-pointers per 36 minutes, and converting those few opportunities at the third-lowest shooting percentage - narrowly beating out only his rookie year, and the weird 2019 season (which started with a torn ligament in his finger).

Complicating all of this, the new member of this trio, Jimmy Butler, is quite a bit different than old friend, Klay Thompson when it comes to their ability to stretch the floor. Green’s natural, seamless fit around Curry is highly contingent on something dangerous happening on offense. Historically, Green’s basketball IQ and ability to handle to ball have caused headaches for opponents, but it’s been long enough now that the rest of the league hasn’t just caught up, they’ve surpassed the Warriors. Golden State is in the unfamiliar position of playing catch-up.

Now, before it gets too gloomy in here, it’s still important to point out that Green is featured heavily in the team’s most used 3-man units, and in those, he’s generally attached to some of the best net ratings.

So this isn’t something that is tearing the team down - but it sure ain’t helping.

The Warriors are going to continue tinkering. If it wasn’t for a rebounding foul with less than a second left on the game clock, the Warriors could well have won that last game. Now here comes another chance, and the Warriors are increasingly aware of their limitations. Hopefully they’ve also got some new ideas about how to fix this, because Curry is still out there reminding everyone nightly about how elite he still is. Now it’s up to the rest of the Warriors to figure out a way to keep up.

And that’s the tension the Warriors can’t escape: Curry is still good enough to keep them relevant, but no longer so overwhelming that he can erase every structural flaw around him. His brilliance raises expectations while simultaneously exposing the gaps beneath it. Every incredible night keeps the window technically open - and every loss underscores how narrow that opening has become.

The window isn’t closed yet, but it’s rattling in the frame - and if the Warriors don’t act soon, even Curry’s brilliance won’t be enough to keep it from slamming shut.

Prediction

Warriors win. Curry has another big game, with major support from Jimmy and Draymond.

1. I don’t understand the stats here, but according to bball ref Green’s “per 100 possessions” turnovers are listed as 5.6; however, the table below showing “Advanced” stats puts his turnover percentage (the estimated rate of turnovers over 100 plays) as a much higher value of 29%. Shrug. Statistics.