The Warriors ended up with a script similar to the Grizzlies, a nightmare start, a three-point shot that couldn't be shot, and although it stabilized the situation for a while, you still know that it is impossible to catch up. The Warriors don't seem to be ready for G6, which is not too surprising, think back to the first round of the seven-break, the Warriors are actually exhausted of strategy, all relying on desperate play. Players outside of Curry shot 23-of-62, and Curry scored 50 points himself, plus Looney's 10 front-plate cannonballs, and walked past the Kings in a stiff posture.
At the time, I said that I don't like this way of winning, because it is difficult to replicate, especially against the Lakers, it is too difficult to score 50 points when there are thick eyebrows on the opposite side - 26 of Curry's 50 points are two-pointers, with or without the ball, inside and outside a variety of means to fire comprehensively, but Curry can't be as casually as Xiao Sa, and it is very difficult to play production with two-pointers, not to mention Curry's three-point game in this series.
If the Warriors want to win the Lakers, they must play a game with a "sense of design" from beginning to end, Curry's personal score serves the team, G2G4G5 is such a game, but G4 did not win. But when G6 goes to the road, the Warriors will inevitably face the Lakers' strong counterattack and strategy adjustment, and also face greater psychological pressure. Once the established strategy is disrupted, there is not enough time to adjust, and it is logical for the team to enter the pick+grab mode, and the Warriors cannot rely on this Lakers who have more advantages in winning talent.
Of course, the Warriors grabbed more rebounds, the players' hard work was there, and the Splash Brothers' inability to shoot three-pointers seemed more deadly. But Thompson has played three consecutive games, and his performance in this year's playoffs is just not reliable. Curry G4G5 overall play is excellent, but owes a three-point crosshair, he has entered the feel adjustment period has a warning, when the hand will feel warm, no one can say. Catch up with the Lakers' three-point line, and the Warriors, who are already aggressive inside, will not have to play.
So what's wrong with the Warriors?
I'm going to dedicate a special article to some of the Warriors' team-building issues, starting with this series. A very passive situation for the Warriors is that losing the G1 leads to an early overdraft of the error tolerance rate and falls into a passive catch-up situation. The reason why it's hard to turn around 3-1 is because even if you find a way to win, you can't withstand the ups and downs of the hand or the explosion of the X factor, and the Lakers have an X factor almost every game this year. Hamm G1's all-out home-court advantage allowed the Lakers to always press the Warriors for a position, and G4 Walker's chaos frustrated the Warriors' hopes of snatching back from Los Angeles, which actually determined the outcome of this series.
I have to say that the Lakers' sense of series design shown in this year's playoffs is far better than the Warriors, what game goes all out, what game is accumulating, Hamm is clearer. Conversely, the Warriors failed to defeat the Kings early in the first round, and as a result, the G7 did not have enough rest time and preparation for the second round, and they were passive from the beginning.
Relaxed leading, lack of urgency, excessive use of rotation, all kinds of unforced mistakes, unnecessary bizarre fouls, etc., are all common game content for the Warriors, and they are also seen in the playoffs and can hardly be eliminated. The Warriors used to win with these little faults because they were strong and had enough margin for error, and even 17 years until they won the championship, the Warriors were not fully drawn. But this season's Warriors are clearly not at that level, even compared to last year, the Warriors' regular season look and feel is qualitatively different:
In the 21-22 season, if the team let the Warriors lose a very humiliating game, the next time they meet, Kerr will completely crush the opponent with very amazing adjustments;
In the 22-23 season, the Warriors could no longer play revenge games by adjustment, and even in the back-to-back comeback schedule at home, the Warriors won so thrillingly. Even against some rotten fish-belly teams, the Warriors can be defeated by opponents in a row.
The decline in absolute strength has made it impossible for the Warriors to do anything wrong this season. Many times, the Warriors seem to find their way in self-motivation, believing that if they tighten tighter, the situation will immediately be different. Then it will enter the cycle of pulling the crotch when it improves slightly. In fact, it is not uncommon for the Warriors to relive in key moments in the past, and the reason why this problem is particularly prominent this season is because after losing the error tolerance, it is even more intolerant of these fatal mistakes.
To put it bluntly, the Warriors are not strong enough this season, and they are not strong enough to withstand inaccurate feelings, wrong hires, unexpected bursts of opponents, foul troubles, and small scores to lose key balls. The Warriors can survive from the first round of the best-of-seven to the second round of G6, which is actually a good result for a team that only reached 6th in the division in the regular season. Even from the perspective of team building, playing these more playoff games further exposes Poole's problems to the managers of various teams in the league, and exacerbates Kuminga's anxiety about the uncertain future, which is not necessarily a good thing.
But what can be done?
The Warriors pay a big luxury tax, the playoffs don't try to go far, sorry for the investment, even if the team's strength this year can't reach the division finals level, the Warriors have to set the goal and slogan to win the championship, this general direction is unchangeable.
The problem is that neither the Warriors' offseason last year nor their midseason operations served this big goal — the most important five-roster puzzle for the Warriors, and Porter's departure, both concrete and projective, Myers never filled in this gap. Myers just tried to get close to last year's championship team by taking back Peyton Jr. Payton Jr. also proved his worth in the end, but Porter's lack is still irreplaceable, and even Belitsa, a space-type interior lineman with some ability to handle the ball, the Warriors can't find a replacement. The starting lineup that chases Lu at the same time can still play in the regular season or on teams like the Kings that can't protect the basket, but in the face of the basket with thick eyebrows, Cole can't continue to use it. Jagglin, DiVincenzo, Poole, they also have their own problems as the last card. All in all, Cole doesn't have a lineup with both space and size, so he has to choose one of the two, and he will inevitably lose out somewhere.
Not only is there no perfect unique lineup, but the overall rotation is too small to be true. Wiggins' injured ribs resonated with the Warriors' weaknesses, and after G6 perfectly exposed the Warriors' ongoing defensive problems this season - Wiggins could not withstand James, the difference in aggression between the Warriors and the Lakers was further magnified, the first line could not be withheld, the inside line had to take care of thick eyebrows, naturally both inside and outside. G6 is a good example of why the Warriors' defense has declined this season:
Is it that the outside line cannot be guarded, resulting in high pressure on the inside line to assist in defense?
Or is the inner line not good enough to wipe the butt of the outer line?
The answer is to amplify the flaws with each other. The inside line is too busy to take care of itself, and the outside line itself is difficult to protect. Warriors need shells, joint defense, and the right strategy and execution to protect the paint area. So I am afraid of three things:
First, the opponent three separated, and the contraction was punished;
Second, there are many fouls, and the opponent does not need to go to the basket to score goals, but only needs to rely on the size advantage to create contact and can also go to the free throw line;
Third, if there are flaws in physical fitness, mentality, discipline or concentration, the defense is prone to collapse.
This is the result of neither a group of forwards nor a large center, and the Warriors know that they do not have these puzzle pieces and do not strengthen because the Warriors have these two positions of high-pick rookie - the Warriors have room for Kuminga and Wiseman, and hope that their growth will solve the lack of these two key roles for the Warriors. As a result, everyone also knows that Wiseman really couldn't raise it and was sent away, Kuminga improved in the middle and late season, but did not reach the level where he could play in the playoffs, and was eventually abandoned by Kerr.
Even so, the Warriors are quite capable of fighting, and their team integrity and superstar ability can take the team to a position close to the Western Conference finals - Poole's decline is the last straw that broke the Warriors.
At the beginning of the season, the Warriors came up with the Poole + Wiseman blocking and dismantling as the main connection plan, which declared bankruptcy after just a few games, even if Kerr split the starter and let Dreamcatch/Looney and Wiggins help Poole lead the team, they also found a very sad fact - Poole did not improve, he did not have the ability to independently lead the team's attack, and even he regressed, as a threat of the second or even third point on the court was not enough.
In the playoffs, Poole didn't help, so Curry couldn't afford to rest. Curry averaged 37.9 minutes per game, and while he was on the floor, the team won by 47 points, and the Warriors couldn't afford to be away from the floor for just 10 minutes, losing by a combined 49 points in that time. How to survive Curry's absence is actually an old question for the Warriors, and Poole's rise has made the Warriors think they have the answer, but unfortunately there is only one season.
No. 4 without both projection and size;
No big-sized centers;
There is no qualified bench engine.
Three puzzles combined to end the Warriors' season, and these problems were already in the eyes of the end of October, and even last year's offseason.
Why not make targeted reinforcements?
There are many reasons why the warriors do not strengthen themselves, and it is not clear in one or two sentences, but the biggest motivation for the warriors to do this is because:
If you're developing a high pick that aligns with the type of puzzle your team's quest for results, it's hard not to envision a blueprint that has both the present and the future.
Who doesn't want to win hemp?
That blueprint Riple and Wiseman blocked to attract three defenders, Moody grabbed a defender with an ashtray in the bottom left corner, and Kuminga slipped into the bottom line to catch Poole's ball to complete the empty dunk. Poole and Wiseman Infinity Blockers build an advantage in the articulation section, the former can be the puzzle piece of the Five when Cole wants to be extremely energetic, the latter becomes a secret weapon when Cole needs to protect the basket and eat the pie, and Kuminga is the perfect choice to balance the five small.
So beautiful.
It's a pity in a dream.
Wiseman has been sent away and there is no need to talk about it. Kuminga is an extreme rough that takes a lot of time to polish, but he doesn't get as much time as Mobley in two years. Moody's is a plug-and-play type, and the playoffs can be used, but only at the level of being able to use it, and the defense against the big and the small is too much of a loss. While Poole struggled with the mentality of the team, he also lost himself in the precarious form and playing time. These guys need at least 20 wins in 82 games, but the Warriors need at least 44 wins to secure a playoff ticket.
So, of course, Kerr has a reason not to train newcomers, because he is responsible for the team's playoffs in the first place. With the completion of the Warriors' young people and the risk of the Warriors' journey to the playoffs this year, a slight mistake may have been taken off.
What about the veterans? Tang Chai has reached the contract year, how do you get them to give up places for young people? That punch already shows the attitude.
Of course, Poole, who has already taken a big contract, looks rotten, and that's another story. We'll talk about him later.
This season of the Warriors, a lot of things have not been done well, and they simply come from unrealistic goals. Vainly trying to use rough rookies to solve puzzle gaps, but unable to give rough rookies time to exercise. But I don't want to push the pot to the management, each step of the management's choice has causes and consequences, not a sentence or two clear things, we will talk about it in detail later - in short, the warriors have a lot of helplessness, piling up money can not cure the sequelae of the dynasty, in the face of human favor, human nature, can not be as easy to achieve the theoretical optimal solution as playing 2K. The Warriors need a little luck, such as the unexpected rapid improvement of newcomers, like last year's Poole and this year's Reeves, to let the team eat another rookie dividend. This kind of good thing can not be sought.
The dynasty will eventually have a lot of energy, just like Reeves' long-range three-point shot in the half. I had a hunch two months ago that such a thing would happen to the warriors, and even the protagonist guessed correctly, and now that I think about it, this is the providence of the underworld. Just as Poole was able to throw in the whistle logo in last year's finals, when luck came, he couldn't stop it, and when luck went, it was awkward to do anything.
Luckily, Curry continues to prove his unique game value, allowing management to see that he can still do it. The team also immediately revealed the possibility of continuing to cooperate with Tang Chai after the dismal exit of G6, and Tang Chai also gave the management a greater bargaining confidence at the negotiating table with his ability. I'm not saying that the Warriors will be able to renew the contracts of these two men at cabbage prices, but these signals hint at one thing:
The story of the warriors is not over, and they can continue to walk.
Curry has said that no one wants to touch us next season. After that, the Warriors won the championship, and Curry won his first FMVP trophy of his career. Since then, Warriors fans have had no regrets. There will be some noise these days, don't mind, temporary failure can't take away Curry's brilliance, which doesn't even need special emphasis, nor does it need a sensational article to comfort everyone. Warriors fans have eaten and seen it, and this confidence should be there.
Now, the Warriors have a tougher salary structure than they did two years ago, and Curry is two years older. But the NBA has proven over the years that management's operational imagination knows no bounds, and the upper limit of the peak age of superstars is constantly rising, so I believe the Warriors have a chance to make a comeback.
The Lakers turned the tide and returned to the Western Conference after two difficult seasons. Congratulations to Lakers fans, you can continue to enjoy the home team in the playoffs.
I also want to congratulate the Warriors fans for finally unloading their baggage, coming out of this chaotic and exhausting season to enjoy the game with a purer mindset, and I'm excited about the situation and the opportunity that lies ahead – we'll be fine.