Trapped by injuries and turnover, the Warriors, who completed the feat of 3 championships in 5 years, once became a fish belly team for two consecutive seasons.
Fortunately, after struggling and waiting, the core players of the team gradually got rid of injuries, and the team accumulated good young players with the mess of the past two seasons, coupled with a series of reinforcements in the offseason, the Warriors returned to the championship this season.
However, the league structure is no longer three years ago, and Clay's overall state after suffering injuries is not as good as before, so although the Warriors are the favorite to compete for the championship, they do not have the dominance of the 5-year 3-crown period.
As a result, the current Warriors are a complex of contradictions, with all the essential elements of a championship-winning team, but also a lot of uncertainty.
Whether the Warriors can win the championship this season and return to the top of the league has naturally become the focus of attention from the outside world, in response to this topic, the US media "bluemanhoop" listed 3 X factors that affect the warriors' playoff progress.
Among them, the rising star Poole, who returned from a crushing injury, ranked second among the three X factors, and there was no suspense at the top of the list.
X-factor three: Cole's platoon
As mentioned above, after two seasons of silence, the Warriors not only welcomed back the core lineup, but also unearthed a number of new stars, and made excellent reinforcements in the free market.
The first is the core rotation of Curry, Klay, Dream, Wiggins, Looney and Poole, in addition to the team also has Iguodala, Otto Porter Jr., Bjelica and other trustworthy veterans.
At the same time, there are new stars such as Cumminga, Moody and Wiseman, as well as rotating edge players such as Payton II and Damien Lee, which is a big test for Kerr's platooning.
Because under normal circumstances, a team in the playoffs, often take the 8-player core rotation to improve the team's offensive and defensive capabilities, to ensure that no player will become a short board to be attacked.
Even some exaggerated teams will take a core rotation like the 7-man or even the 6-man, although the Warriors seem to have a clear core player.
But how to take advantage of the depth of the team's lineup as much as possible is undoubtedly crucial for the team to compete for the championship, which is an X factor in the decision of head coach Kerr.
X-factor two: Poole
As a new star discovered by the Warriors in the past two seasons, Poole has ushered in a transformation this season, but Clay's return has had a big impact on him.
When he starts, he averages 19.9 points per game, and when he comes off the bench, his average per game drops to 13.7 points, and the Warriors' overall winning percentage is much lower than when he started.
Considering that Klay is clearly not in as good form as he was before the injury when he returns, and it is highly likely that he will deliver less than 40% of his three-point shooting for the first time in his career this season, how to position Pooler's role will be the second largest X factor that determines how far the Warriors can go.
X Factor One: Curry's health
There is no doubt that Curry's injuries are at the top of the list, because the Warriors without Curry are completely two different levels of the team.
In Curry's absence, the Warriors' record this season is only 3 wins and 6 losses, compared with 2 wins and 7 losses last season, which is a huge difference from the Warriors' current record of 48 wins and 26 losses.
And whenever Curry is absent, the help that Dream Green can bring has also dropped sharply, so whether Curry can return healthy and stay healthy for a long time is undoubtedly the key to whether the Warriors can win the championship, if he can't stay healthy, the strength of the Warriors' lineup is probably up and down in the first round.