41/84 W Atlanta Hawks 134-112
42/84 L Sacramento Kings 133-134
43/84 L Los Angeles Lakers 2OT 144-145
44/84 W Philadelphia 76ers 119-107
45/84 W Memphis Grizzlies 121-101
46/84 L Atlanta Hawks 134-141
47/84 W Brooklyn Nets 109-98
Golden State Warriors 22-25
Washington Wizards 9-40
The Warriors are ever so good at being almost. Since I’ve last written, it’s been a wild ride that ends where we left off. Overtime games, double overtime games, losses by one point. The record would leave you to believe that they are dreadful. And at earlier points of the season, they were. Lately, they are highly entertaining, and yet half of the time they lose. The last few games they have put up line-ups that are unbelievable. As in - never would I imagine long minutes played with Curry-Podziemski-Santos-Quinones-Kuminga. And that Santos and Quinones would play well enough to get big minutes and close in tonight’s game.
We are two days away from the trade deadline and while I’m not trying to get on that roller coaster, it’s hard to avoid. There is a distinct prospect that the Warriors are going to shake things up. According to their record, they need shaking up. To my mind, that time is at the end of the season. There is not an obvious available player or two who can solve their current problems, and the people they are willing to trade don’t have a lot of trade value right now either because they are injured or recently back (Chris Paul, Moses Moody) or they are playing below their usual (Wiggins and Looney). And for the latter, let them stay - either they will get better and be worth keeping, they’ll get better and have higher trade value or they will get worse but it won’t change much for the team.
There is another thing that’s true about the Warriors. The Dubs have a reputation of getting the most of their players. They both know how to maximize the strengths of their players and they have superior training/health/fitness facilities compared to other teams. (Whether this ability results in appropriate playing time is a totally different matter - the Dubs have left strong players on the bench many times, see Kuminga). The Warriors keep their players healthy and maximize their availability. When GPII was traded back to the Warriors last year, his first thought on hearing of the trade was that he knew he would get better treatment for his injury. (Case in point: instead of playing him as the Trail Blazers did, the Warriors put him on the injury list for rehab). Otto Porter Jr. was excellent in the Dubs Championship season, and has been more injured than not since then. Poole is not injured but is struggling mightily with his new team. The only recent player who is as good or better since leaving the Dubs is Donte DiVincenzo with the Knicks. All of that is to say that I would guess it makes teams less likely to want to trade with the Warriors because whoever they get is likely to play less well with their team.
So while it’s looking better for most/all of the Warriors to stay on the team, I also know that General Manager Mike Dunleavy Jr gave a press conference talking about how much he believed that Jordan Poole was a key member of the future of the team and then traded him two days later. Anything can happen.
Which brings me around to Andrew Wiggins. Who might be turning things around though he started the year super rough. The first third of the season Wiggins looked…vacant. As if he wasn’t prepared to play basketball either physically or mentally. Starting in about December he started to make the turn. The media did not make the turn at the same time. The fan base even less so. The noise got louder about how he had the worst contract in the NBA. He didn’t get booed specifically but the Warriors got booed at home. The noise around him has been non-stop.
Lately, he’s been, not the Wiggins of 2022, but more like the Wiggins we remember. Pesky on defense, aggressive on offense. And to be truthful, Wiggins has only been Wiggins of 2022 once, that shouldn’t be his expected level from now on.
The thing about Wiggins is he’s quiet. He’s reserved, at least in public. He doesn’t make trouble for the team. He doesn’t make waves. He doesn’t get technicals. He rarely is on the media podium. He’s happy being the 3rd or 4th option and being good at it. That doesn’t make him any less competitive. He might need a little encouragement here and there.
Dray said recently that the thing about Wiggins is that he will do whatever you ask him to. How valuable is that to a team? A person who will do whatever. Wiggins has started, not started, closed, not closed, gotten lots of minutes, few minutes, guarded the strongest player, gotten dunks. He just clearly doesn’t want to be the leader. On this team he doesn’t have to be.
And, there’s the matter of his contract. Wiggins’ contract was up after they won the Championship in 2022. He was the second best player after Steph in the finals. Wiggins took a lower contract than he could have gotten to be able to stay with the Warriors (it also allowed Jordan Poole to get a big contract). If a player takes a salary cut to be able to stay and then the org cuts him anyway…that sends a message to everyone else on the team that they should never do the same thing and just go after the money. It’s a bad look and a line that ownership is reluctant to cross.
I am hopeful that he will stay but I am also fully aware that this is a sport where there are “owners” and “trades” instead of bosses and that language means it can be even more heartless out there.
Enough trade talk - it’ll keep me up at night. A few high points from the last games.
Draymond is playing well. Really well. He’s made everyone around him better, especially Wiggins and Kuminga. He’s playing center but holding his own against much taller guys. He is also noticeably staying away from arguing with refs or even talking much to them at all.
Kuminga has been on fire and getting better every game. Since he went public a few weeks ago about his discontent with his minutes, he has been clocking at least 30 minutes a game, scoring more than 20 points, is a menace on defense and a highlight reel on offense. He has taken the Third Year Leap and just in time.
Tonight’s game against the Brooklyn Nets was a game on the schedule that should have been easy-ish but nothing is easy this year for the Dubs. In addition to all the previous injuries, Wiggins is out with a sprained foot which means we are continuing with the bizarre line-ups.
Lester Quinones and Gui Santos, the two-way G League players, mostly held their own. Quinones has an offensive game like Jordan Poole but with more defense. Last game, he was draining 3s. This game he was the perfect role player - no real highlights but also no big mistakes. The line-up with Kuminga-Podz-Santos-Quinones made for young legs grabbing rebounds everywhere. The Warriors ended up with 60 rebounds, 22 more than the Nets and 72 points in the paint, a season high. (The bad news of that is that outside of Steph, no one made a three). It’s great to see that the Warriors are capable of playing a different kind of game when necessary and that against a mid-level team like themselves, they can be competitive. Tonight the Warriors were scrappy and that’s what they are going to have to be to turn tough situations into wins.
And some high points from basketball in general
Last Saturday night, the Celtics and the Heat played - a solid matchup between division rivals. However, the women’s South Carolina-LSU game had more viewers. This is great news for basketball - women’s basketball has so many teams that are fun to watch - Iowa, Stanford, UConn, South Carolina, LSU, USC. Turns out that when you put college women’s basketball on national tv, people watch. We can pre-game for the Super Bowl by watching the UConn-South Carolina game at 11 pst (2 est) on ESPN this Sunday.
Locally, Jess Smith was announced as President of the to-be-named WNBA team in San Francisco. In a different life than I live right now, I would get in line to get season tickets. The team will be here Summer 2025 and at least a few of the stars we are watching in college now will be on that team. Will it be Azzi Fudd? Cameron Brink? Angel Reese?
The Timeout Books: (books I read during the timeouts and halftimes)
A Game At A Time Playlist (the songs that pop in my head while writing this)