The overall landscape of the Western Conference is becoming increasingly interesting two months into the regular season. The Thunder are firmly in first place, with Alexander and Jiewei's bottom-up capabilities ranking among the best; the Pelicans are also stable at the bottom, unable to win after Ingram went down, and they have turned around to prepare for rebuilding, but it's a pipe dream to rely on Zion Williamson and McCollum to exchange for rebuilding assets. In the middle of the big melee zone, the Grizzlies, Rockets, and Mavericks are fighting for second place, while the Clippers are gradually stabilizing in fifth place in the West. The big melee corps behind them includes many giants, such as the Lakers, who always bring hope when fans are desperate, and pour cold water when fans are looking forward. At the Nuggets, as Jokic said, "We're playing so badly, but we're still seventh in the West, which is pretty good."
The most embarrassing thing is still the two championship-level giants, one is the Suns, who started 8-1 and topped the Western Conference, then 7-14, all the way down to tenth in the West, Durant is not there, the team is hard to win; Booker is not there, the Suns are also hard to win, I really don't know where the nearly 400millionspentwent?It′sverysimple,inthebattlewiththeMavericks,whenDurantscored35pointsinvain,his50 million partner Beal only got 11 points out of 18 shots. What's even more annoying is actually the Warriors. On the Suns side, it belongs to Durant and Booker choosing the wrong people; but the Warriors directly ruined a good hand and refused to face reality! With a record of 3 wins and 12 losses, they should have tanked and rebuilt long ago after slipping quickly from first in the West.
In the first 15 games of the season, the Warriors were 12-3 and ranked first in the West. At that time, American media predicted that the Warriors' championship odds were only behind the Celtics and Thunder, ranking third in the league. However, in the next 15 games, the Warriors made a 180-degree turn, going 3-12 and dropping from first to 11th in the West! Not only that, the Warriors this season are also typical of being strong against the weak and weak against the strong, such as being triple-killed by the Clippers, losing to the Suns, losing to the Lakers, leading by a large margin, and easily getting overconfident and suffering a reversal, losing to the Spurs and the Nets are also like this. Even in some games, they could obviously win in the last moments, but there were major problems with some shooting choices, such as losing to the Rockets, losing to the Mavericks, and losing to the Pacers, Curry had to bear a lot of responsibility!
To put it bluntly, the Warriors have three problems, but none of these three problems can be solved! The first is Curry's decline. This season, when Curry was absent, the Warriors were 4-2; when Curry was present, the Warriors were 11-13. Curry's average of 22.5 points, 4.8 rebounds, and 6.5 assists has gradually lost his ability to cover the bottom, such as scoring 2 out of 13 against the Pacers and leading a 51-point loss against the Grizzlies. The core's state of decline is a problem that the Warriors' management cannot solve. Finding helpers for Curry, but who to trade? Even if a qualified second-in-command is found, can Curry still lead the team to compete for the championship? This leads to the second problem: Kerr's rotation. In the first 30 games of the Warriors, there were 18 different starting lineups, the most in the entire league!
Kerr has at least four times this season proactively admitted that he can't find a suitable starting and rotation lineup! Point guard Curry and Pojimski take turns experimenting, shooting guard has successively used Wiggins, Walters, Hield, Xiaopei, Moody, Pojimski, Schroder; small forward is Kuminga, Moody, Wiggins, Xiaopei taking turns trying; power forward belongs to Green, Li Keller and Kuminga; even in the interior, they can't find a suitable starter, Davis + Looney + Green take turns switching! Either the offense doesn't meet the requirements, such as Curry leading three non-shooters + the interior on the court, Curry is wrapped up like a dumpling; or the defense can't keep up, since Melton was injured + sent away, the Warriors simply have no perimeter defense!
Schroder, as a firefighter, came to the Warriors and started playing, and both he and Curry are defensive loopholes, being chased and beaten! What can this lineup do? The most critical point is that many players don't get opportunities under Kerr. For example, Kuminga can only explode and get enough opportunities in the games where Curry is absent; Moody, the Warriors renewed him for 3 years and 39 million, but Kerr doesn't use him, what's the point? There's also Li Keller, who once fell out of the top 10 rotations in the team, so why did the Warriors sign him for 3 years and 27 million? Since Kerr likes Walters, Pojimski, Xiaopei and others, the team could have saved tens of millions of dollars in expenses this summer. It seems that in Kerr's eyes, two-way contract players + rookies can meet his needs.
In my opinion, the Warriors should continue to play like this, continue to lose, so that the team management can realize how cruel reality is: Curry's decline is an indisputable fact; Kerr only knows how to use his passing and cutting system, giving him 10 minimum salaries can also meet the needs, Wiggins' 27 million salary, Schroder's 13 million salary are a bit redundant; Kuminga, Moody can't get enough upward space channels, leaving is just a matter of time. The Warriors have only cultivated one Poole in recent years, and they threw him away when they said they would. When Curry retires, what will the Warriors have left? They should have tanked and rebuilt long ago, whether Kerr steps down or not is not important, what's important is to completely tear down and start over!
