Time for a trade? Curry's still got it, but the Warriors got bullied anyways

Curry's 39 not enough against growing physical, size gap

Stephen Curry scored 39 in his first game back from a quad injury that has kept him out of action for two weeks, but The Golden State Warriors lost another game to an opponent playing without their star. Of course, the Warriors were without Draymond Green (personal absence - expecting a new addition to the Green family), but this loss hurt a little extra.

With the NBA’s trade season about to open, Golden State will face the same hill they’ve been staring at for years: how to get younger, bigger, more athletic - while also getting better. It’s not as easy as it seems, and there’s a ton of failed roster experiments informing their next step; but one thing is becoming increasingly clear: they are going to need to make some sort of roster moves in order to stay remotely relevant.

But the gap between “not good enough” and “relevant again” isn’t as wide as it feels. This isn’t a teardown scenario - it’s a calibration problem. With Curry still bending defenses, Green organizing the back line, and Horford providing competence at the five, Golden State doesn’t need a miracle. They need one or two functional upgrades that reduce the nightly margin for error. That’s a much easier problem to solve than replacing a superstar.

Too small, Ernie - trade needs are clear

This game was close throughout, until a disastrous five minute stretch between the 3rd and 4th quarter. Both Curry and coach Steve Kerr were quick to point at the defensive lapses as the primary cause of last night’s 120-127 heartbreaker.

“I thought our defense let us down tonight,” Kerr said after the game. “We had several plays in transition, in both halves, where we lost sight of Naz Reid and a couple other shooters. I just thought our transition defense was poor... We’ve got to play better defense than that.”

…Curry meanwhile said after the loss the Warriors “had some more defensive slip-ups than the offensive side of the ball, especially early in the game.”

A couple of truths are beginning to emerge for the Warriors, and neither is especially surprising.

First of all, the core of this roster is old and pretty much locked in. Sure, some rumors are floating around out there around a potential Draymond Green plus Kuminga package to the Bucks, but even within a dream scenario that returns a star player, the Warriors are reported as being extremely reluctant to part with Green in anything but an absurdly lopsided trade.

That’s sort of like a hall pass in a marriage or something like that. The outlandishness of the proposal is the real message. In other words, Golden State isn’t leaking that as part of any viable package for Giannis Antetokounmpo so much as they are letting Green know that he is still trusted as part of the core. You’ve got to pick someone crazy for a hall pass, like a rock star - you can’t pick the neighbor or that other mom from school.¹

So the core is Curry, Green, and Butler.

And that core, for all of its miles, still solves problems. Draymond Green returning stabilizes the defense in ways no trade can replicate - communication, positioning, and the ability to cover for mistakes before they become highlights. Al Horford’s return does something similar, if less loudly: he absorbs physical matchups, keeps the ball moving, and gives Golden State a credible big who understands spacing and timing. They’re old, yes - but they’re also the exact kinds of players this team is missing when games start to unravel.

Which brings up the second truth: the design concessions this team has made are starting to break the seams of what has held this machine together for so long. The high draft picks haven’t hit as hard as needed - not if the intent was to keep up with a league that had some truly stinky teams as the Warriors dynasty grew and thrived. Those Thunder, Rockets, Pistons, and Timberwolves rosters are a multi-year result of getting a whole lot of shots. Those teams could afford to take unpaid internships as part of their journey, but the Warriors have bills to pay and can’t afford to hold on to development projects.

Curry is still great, and the Warriors are still not good enough.

captured via Reddit

Last night, it was ex-Warrior, Donte DiVincenzo slaying the flailing Brandin Podziemski. And no shade against Podz here, he’s been excellent in flashes, but looks increasingly out of his depth amidst a growing list of responsibilities. It’s a position that the Warriors are just throwing cheap contracts at. Between Podz, Buddy Hield, and now Pat Spencer, the Warriors are flush with players that might be able to help in some areas - but come at the expense of some combination of size, athleticism or quickness.

You know who might help Golden State? Ex-Warrior project player, Ryan Rollins, who has averaged 17.2 points, 6.0 assists and 4.1 rebounds in 26 games this season. On the other hand, he doesn’t block many shots, and has some games where he’ll just get a couple rebounds, or scores ten points and doesn’t do much else.

The trade season opens soon, but the Warriors may face a skeptical market if these fringe players continue to struggle. More importantly, the Warriors can’t really care too much about any of that at this point. These losses are all going to count the same at the end of the season, but after watching the Warriors almooooost come back last night, I hopped on the PS5 for some zombie games with friends and the first thing I heard from one of them was a question. “Why do the Warriors suck!?”

It’s a question I get a lot, and my answer is always that these Warriors don’t suck - and also, how dare you. No, the Warriors are just mid. Average. Pedestrian (at best). So yes, it’s a near certainty that Golden State will be active once the trade window opens up on December 15th. While that’s only two days away, the real window opens on January 15th, when Kuminga’s contract becomes trade-eligible.

The problem is that in order to get what they need to really move the needle for this team, it could well cost Moses Moody as a “sweetener” to help move Kuminga. Per reporting:

… the Warriors “have been open” about their infatuation with Trey Murphy III.

If the Warriors going to have any realistic shot at acquiring Murphy, it will likely depend on how much the Pelicans value Kuminga because they don’t really a lot of other contracts to move.

So yes, watching Podz flop onto his back and lamely throw the ball back towards the opponent’s basket last night was rough, scrolling social media this morning was a bit sad, even. But the reality is that Golden State doesn’t need to trade Podz, they just need to give him less of a job - or not, whatever - the point is that the Warriors big gets on youth haven’t really hit. Moody is extremely solid, and would only be reluctantly parted with, but without Green or Horford last night, Rudy Gobert and Julius Randle absolutely dominated the Warriors interior players. As did their wings and guards, generally; outside of Curry, of course.

There’s hope here. This team doesn’t suck. As long as Curry is playing, this team will have a chance. After spending the last week hearing about the Warriors #2 ranked defense, it’s easy to imagine that the return of Curry can move the needle. But it’s just not coming together right now.

The point isn’t that the Warriors are close to contending - they’re not. It’s that the foundation for competence still exists, and competence matters when you have Stephen Curry.

1. For the record, me and Mrs. Basketball are extremely happy together and don’t have “hall passes”. What more could I want?