Watch the NBA | Let's talk about the current warrior "Iron Triangle"

132-133, the Warriors lost to the Kings by 1 point at home. The last attack, plenty of time. Kerr said after the game that he likes to seek opportunities from the Kings' retreat. Curry said they planned not to call a timeout when Huerter made a free throw.

Rebounding, pushing, Curry chased and dismantled, Curry was sandwiched by Huerter and Fox, and this scene was staged for the first time in the Warriors' games over the years.

Curry misses the dribble. Warriors send.

After watching this scene, I was inexplicably calm, probably because I had already been desensitized after many heart-wrenching defeats this season. Don't call a timeout, dribble mistakes, this is really trivial compared to leading by 24 points and being killed, being reversed by 18 points in a single quarter, going into overtime with a three-point foul, and turning around and bukkake to press the whistle into overtime.

This season, the Warriors are 15-16 in key shots, which means that before losing to the Kings, the Warriors' key ball win rate is five to five, compared to a net score of just zero, in terms of luck, it is fair. However, the Warriors played 31 key games, five more than the Hawks and Raptors, who ranked second and third. Therefore, Warriors fans are not hypocritical, but really suffered. I have to wait until the last few tenths of a second, and I will kneel in advance, and most of them will be slapped in the face.

Why do the Warriors always play so hard?

It's hard to put into words.

The big score lead has been overturned more than once, today the attitude is relaxed, tomorrow the choice is too conservative, and the next choice is too prodigal. Every time there is a plot that you can't think of. But what is more disgusting than being overturned is that the beginning is always digging. One set, I don't know how many sets of starters have been changed, have you changed it? Change the soup but not the medicine.

Kerr tried and tested the starting lineup repeatedly, but it didn't work, which shows that there must be some underlying structural problems in the starting lineup, which have not been solved. Of all the attempts, there is only one change that has hardly appeared, and the reason why it has not appeared is understood by those who know.

The Splash Brothers use it together, and it's hard to defend. In the past, Thompson had a strong ability to align, could lead the block, and could also switch to multiple positions. Although Curry's alignment ability is poor, his single defense resistance is acceptable, he can hide it, and he also has a certain contribution to the defense. The duo is very compatible on the defensive end.

Now that both men are old, Thompson has suffered two major injuries. Neither man can lead a talented defender. It is very troublesome for a guard to not be able to defend against a defender, which means that the defensive alignment must be upside down, and the forward player must go to the line to lead the guard, and the guard squats in the bottom corner to carry the forward, and has to take care of the help defense and card rebounding.

Curry is hiding on the wing in the low play, and it's getting easier for teams with more balls to find him, and his presence at letting go of defenders to help defend is far less than it used to be. Thompson goes to defend the forward, not to mention how effective the single defense is — let's forget Porter in the Christmas game and Barnes yesterday — as a forward player, Thompson can't contribute a forward-level help and defensive rebound. His frequency of "steals + blocks + offensive fouls" is at the bottom of the league, and defensive rebounding has never been a strong point.

The Warriors' roles as talented guards are generally Wiggins, Kuminga and Payton. All three have their own problems:

Purely based on the quality of the lead defense, Wiggins will still be better than most of the Warriors' players this season. His ability to move, his ability to interfere with shots, can put pressure on the ball carrier. Wiggins' problem is that his confrontation and concentration have slipped and steals have been completely absent. As a lead defender, it is already more difficult to help defend and get backcourt rebounds than off-ball defenders. As a result, there are few players in the league who are lower than Thompson's "offending" and "defensive rebounding rate", which happens to be Wiggins;

Kuming's one-on-one defense forward is good, and he is not good at blocking and dismantling in the backcourt. His position selection in the pick-and-roll and his sense of cooperation with his teammates behind him are still immature and have no experience in making trade-offs. He's fast enough to keep up with defenders, but the dimension and weight of his body are there, and he can't move away when he encounters cover. If Kuminga was on a team that would allow him to defend at ease, or switch defenses indefinitely, his defensive evaluation would be much better. It's a pity that the Warriors don't have this condition;

Payton's defense is fine, but injuries keep making it impossible to play, and the offensive end needs a specific environment to be useful. Kerr has placed him in Paul's transition this season and also used it with Kuminga, and Payton is about the same as an offensive black hole.

Kerr currently starts Wiggins and Kuminga comes off the bench, which is a compromise between keeping the starters leading the defense (Wiggins) and protecting the offense (Kuminga) off the bench, while not giving up on finding Wiggins form (increasing trade value). But it's not necessarily the best option to win.

Splash's defensive compatibility problem has locked in a forward position where he must be responsible for leading the defense in the backcourt, and it is difficult to expect this forward to contribute to the help defense and rebounding. And because the splash's own defensive value is not high, this requires the remaining two positions to be strong in help defense and rebounding.

Normally, these two positions should be the safest to place the twin towers of the basket.

In other words, the last two pieces of the Warriors' puzzle should have "tower" level defense.

However, is it as simple as locking a forward lead point?

No.

Cole's obsession with dual control is a higher priority for the formation.

Of course, Cole's pendulum control is not all due to aesthetic fetishes. Objectively speaking, Curry's pass-and-control performance this season is unqualified, with an average assist-to-lose ratio per game that is a career-low low.

My feeling is that Curry entered the season with a relaxed demand for his role at the No. 1 position, and was not mentally prepared to organize the offense at all. In the past, Curry and Green shared the task of passing and control, but with Paul, Curry is completely flat in this area. After Paul's injury, Curry is gradually adjusting himself, and his passing and control performance is much better than at the beginning of the season, but with Curry's current situation, it is difficult to grasp both the main offense and the organization, and choosing the same good is a more suitable way out. Since the Warriors can't do without Curry's scoring, Kerr must have another playmaker next to him.

Obviously, Thompson, Wiggins, and Kuminga don't have this functionality.

Therefore, after locking a collar defense point, another point needs to be used for the organizer. There are actually only 2 people who can really do this job for the Warriors:

Green and Paul.

The former has experienced a ban, the latter has been injured. Even if the latter is not injured, since he is unable to provide collar defense, the contribution of the assistant defense will not reach the aforementioned "tower" level, which is not enough to help the Splash Brothers wipe their butts. In the formation, the splash cannon is still very limited.

Green is, of course, the most preferred. He's back now, and he's working well when he's there. But Kerr didn't put him back in the starting line-up, and it's not hard to see why – it's a statement. Whether it's from a league perspective or from within the team, there's a need to punish Green. This punishment may not be permanent, but there must be at least a transition.

Green can't start, Paul is not there, Kerr wants to put double control is unrealistic, and the next best choice is the current Saric + Looney twin towers. Both of these people have a certain ability to do hand-to-hand handing, and can also deal some cards in response to the ball, two people plus one piece, which is equivalent to the pass-and-control contribution of an organizer. At the same time, both men are inside, have height, and can provide top defense and defensive rebounding. Saric has shooting and ball-handling offense, and Looney has screens and rebounds up frontcourt, all of which can support the Splash Brothers.

On the surface, with the interior combination of Saric + Looney, it seems that it meets the needs of the Warriors on both offensive and defensive ends. But in fact, Saric + Looney almost do not provide a co-protection basket, and both of them have poor mobility, which is superimposed on the disadvantages of the Splash Brothers. Wiggins isn't the normal version, as he's lowered the offensive ceiling of the lineup and doesn't provide enough value to alleviate the overall disadvantage on the defensive end. The Warriors' starting five-man group lost a lot of points.

In fact, Curry, Thompson, Wiggins, Saric and Looney, these five people are almost the five people with the least defensive vitality in the Warriors, and their "fake fake" data is just at the bottom of the Warriors.

The quartet's turnover-making ability is outrageous, and the defense is not aggressive, so they can only rely on a shrinking formation to bet on the opponent's three-point shot.

This is really ironic, because this lineup of Kerr is exactly a compromise solution after the Warriors' current situation, including having to find form for Wiggins, Thompson must start, Green is embarrassed to start, starters need an outside leader and defensive strength, a second organization point, space can't be too bad, there must be a cover wall, there must be a connection to develop offense, and the pursuit of chemistry (Saric started last season). Everything was set up for a reason, and all parties were taken care of - except for the result, it was all right. But the result is not right, there is an egg?

What to do?

I don't know how long it will take for Wiggins to become normal, or how long it will take Kerr to pose for Green to sit on the bench. But it is not difficult to see that the current characteristics of the Splash Brothers actually determine the other three positions of the Warriors, which must have the following characteristics:

can be prevented. With Splash's current defensive ability, one or even two defensive strong points can't be made up. Need a collar defense strong point + two auxiliary defense strong points to escort;

At least one person is an organizer;

Green met both of these requirements and solved 1 position. But Green himself is also locked in the team, and he needs an interior partner who can shoot, or, two forward partners who can shoot;

Can the Warriors come up with two frontcourt players who can defend (one leader, one assist) and also shoot?

Obviously, the Warriors don't have that condition. Even, in order to settle for the next best, TJD, which can protect the defense and finish, was DNP by Cole.

Another situation is that Curry, who is struggling to carry the main offense, and Thompson, who can barely maintain the efficiency of a large sample size when his round share has dropped to 22.8%, is already painful as the only two scorers to drag a lineup. This means that even if the Warriors are placed with two high-quality 3-and-D forwards, they will not necessarily be able to play high-end games on the offensive end.

So, here comes another request for the lock-matching team:

The Warriors also need a qualified scorer.

This person, perhaps, is Kuminga.

An ideal picture would be for Kuminga to improve his projection, become more solid on the ball, and have an epiphany on the timing of his help defence. Wiggins is back to being who he was two years ago.

Then, the Warriors can roughly match a lineup that fits the Iron Triangle.

Let's be optimistic and estimate that these two things are really not impossible.

It's just that the Warriors may not have time to wait this season.

At the peak of the iron triangle, although the three of them have their own flaws, they complement each other perfectly. Curry is the core of the system, and his huge offensive energy drives the team, covering up the lack of independent offense from Thompson and Green. Thompson can help Curry take over the backcourt defense, clear space for Curry's chase and pick-and-roll, and switch defenses with Green to break and break the pick-and-roll. Green is the duo who knows Curry best, using Curry's ball and containment as opportunities for teammates, and dispatching the overall situation on the defensive end to become everyone's last barrier. They are like "Hu Xingzhong" and "Cao Xingjiu", the three of them build a complete offensive and defensive underlying logic to ensure the core competitiveness of the team. Then, depending on the specific opponent's situation, replace another 1~2 countermeasure cards.

Time has passed, Thompson is no longer who he once was, and Green has become a player who can't guarantee his presence on the court. And Curry, in this season of scorer explosion, is still trembling with a 30 points.

Even, he is no longer an All-Star starter.

It all came too fast.

Everything is coming too slowly. The three of them have been in the alliance for more than ten years, and the splash has actually been chasing together for more than ten years. This combination cannot last forever, at least not forever in the "Audio-Technica + X" mode.

It's time for a change.