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NBA
The magic that remains: Golden State is back to being relevant, but not to the end
Kerry still has a rare influence, Green still has supreme acting wisdom and Kerr's creative style still works.
The Warriors could have gone back to being the finest machine in the NBA, but their Ferrari engine was installed in Mitsubishi.
Luckily, they have the tools to make a trade that will make her a true contender for the crown
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Golden State Warriors
Assaf Ravitz
Friday, January 22, 2021, 4:00 p.m.
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It works.
Golden State (Photo: GettyImages)
In a season full of question marks and uncertainty, there is no bigger mystery than Golden State.
The Warriors' five years between 2015-2019 were among the greatest of all time, last season this was the weakest team in the league sponsored by injuries and completely anonymous players.
This year the Warriors planned to return to the top tier, but Clay Thompson's additional injury devoured the cards.
Without him, a plausible roster remains around Steph Kerry and Raymond Green.
Andrew Wiggins is no longer that big promise but a reasonable secondary scorer in small teams, Kelly Ubera is a likable complementary player who has not played on a winning team so far, James Weissman from the second pick in the draft is a very talented center still learning the basics of the game. Of last season's kids who grew up in a year and some rotation end players are usable.
Since Steph and Drey broke out six years ago, they have become accustomed to being surrounded by players who complement their greatness.
Kerry has made his very presence on the floor the most lethal offensive weapon in the league, much thanks to players who know how to take advantage of the constant attention that his shooting threat and relentless movement impose.
Green has become the most important defensive player of the current generation also thanks to the coordinated and well-oiled defensive machine that Steve Kerr built around him.
Kerr himself has never coached a reasonable staff, but only a large or unpretentious sluggish team.
Steph's rare influence, Drey's superb game wisdom and Kerr's creative style may still be the engine for the finest machine in the league, but this year it's a Ferrari engine installed at Mitsubishi.
The first two games (without Draymond Green) looked very bad, Golden State losing 26 points to Brooklyn and 39 points to Milwaukee.
It was mostly reminiscent of last season's opening, in which Steph's four games in which he managed to play before being injured included three unconditional defeats.
The initial feeling was that this experiment was not meant to be successful, that surrounding Steph with players without outside shooting is a complete waste of his abilities.
But since then Golden State has begun to form an interesting shape.
She struggles to maintain stability, but in her good days looks like a team that can handle even the biggest and she has managed to beat both Los Angeles teams.
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Still deadly, still changing the geometry of the game.
Kerry (Photo: GettyImages, Harry How)
It all, of course, starts with Steph Kerry.
In less than two months he will be 33 years old and in the last year and a half he has barely played, this is reflected in unusual instability and the low shooting percentage in his career from three (37.1, to date he has not dropped from 41).
But he continues to be the player who demands the most from the opposing defenses, a nimble demon who never stops moving and knows how to spot every fraction of inattention to vacate a three.
When he's hot, he looks better than ever.
He scored 62 points against Portland, and also provided 38 points and 11 assists against the Clippers ’quality defense.
The rivalry is focused on him more than ever, but in his good days it does not matter.
The best news for Steve Kerr is that the rest of the players are starting to settle around him, figuring out how he makes the game easier for them.
Kerr bases the attacking game of the top five more than ever on Steph and Dray's deadly pick n roll, which often drags a double-team on Steph who is handed to Drey who is free to conduct four-on-three attacks in which he specializes.
The other three begin to understand the proper timing of movement to the ring during this course and achieve the easy lay-ups and free-throws that characterized the great Golden State.
The one who best adapts to his place on the team is Wiggins.
After two weak first games, he established himself as one of the most stable phenomena in the league.
Starting in the third game he has not dropped from 15 points and 40 percent from the field in any game, he has scored threes in 40 percent or more in eight of the 13 games en route to 2.2 threes per game in 42.6 percent.
It seems appropriate for him to be the player who barely notices that he is on the floor but accumulates his points, takes advantage of the free space that Steph produces, hardly takes unnecessary shots and feels when he is hot.
If outside shooting percentages indicate a trend, he could be a worthy top five player in the years to come.
Ubera is just the opposite, a very unstable player who appears to be a Warriors barometer.
He is an energetic athlete who knows how to move to color with and without the ball, he is also an active guard who constantly bothers opponents, but in his weak days he is destructive.
He stands at 35.5 percent from the field and 20.7 percent from the three so far, adding a great many mistakes of lack of concentration and lack of discipline in defense.
Weissman can be added to him, a very talented center who should not be a developing center in a team with pretensions in his first months in the league.
Every game has a few minutes where you can see his offensive potential and defensive presence, but the rest of the time he makes every possible mistake of rookies.
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Find his niche.
Wiggins (Photo: Reuters)
Weissman and Ubera's inefficiency at the moment is very noticeable next to the gameplay wisdom of Drymond Green, who almost without scoring affects the game in so many ways with very precise actions on offense and defense.
Too often his actions are canceled because they are followed by an irresponsible shot, a bad decision, a missed miss or an unnecessary foul by one of the two frenetic players next to him.
Kerr can expect Uber not to continue to score such bad percentages and that Weissman will get better as the season progresses, so he can certainly expect a gradual improvement in his top five.
While Kerr adapts himself to players with less playing wisdom and shooting ability than he is used to, he does assimilate his style in the current team as well.
Golden State is ranked third in the league with 66 percent of its baskets falling from assists, and the offensive game continues to be based on movement and blocks without a ball.
This is especially noticeable in the minutes of the substitutes who surprise for good.
In recent games Kerr has found a second unit that works well and includes Uber with Brad Vanamaker, Imagination Lee, Eric Pascal and another player from Jordan Paul, Kenneth Bizemore and Kivan Lonnie.
This quintet plays Golden State basketball according to the book: the ball flies from player to player, players come out of graded blocks and take advantage of the small advantage to start movement to the ring and take out a ball to a free player until they reach a good shot.
Like many coaches who in their first role were successful on big teams, the question arose as to whether Kerr's style would work with average players as well, and not just with Steph, Clay, Drey and Andre Iguodala.
If this second unit continues to play so well and beautifully, it will be proof of the effectiveness of the method even in a quintet that in another situation should have a hard time getting to shot situations.
This second unit also allows Steph, Dray and Wiggins to rest together and arrive fresh for the decisive minutes, so if it succeeds over time it will be of great importance.
The most intriguing player among the substitutes is Eric Pascal, a bulldozer with a sense of creating points and game vision that is sometimes reminiscent of Green.
It combines the ability to play with the face to the basket and the ability to move almost any guard in color, it makes him a player who is very complicated to keep, especially for the chins.
He has a hard time dealing defensively as a chin, so Kerr uses area defense or automatic substitutions when he plays, which works not bad either because Vanamaker is very surprising in his ability to keep players bigger than him.
Still needs a lot of intention.
James Weissman with Kerry (Photo: GettyImages, Ezra Shaw)
Bottom line, the current Golden State is a good and interesting team, but not a candidate for the top spot.
It will probably fight for automatic entry to the playoffs among the top six, but in the West this too will be no easy task.
I believe that if and when the Warriors are there, the very big ones will want to avoid meeting them in the post-season, would prefer solid teams like Utah and Phoenix than this crazy card.
Steph can still explode in any series, Dray is still a rare defensive anchor, on any given day and in a given series it can be a tough team to deal with.
But with all due respect to the current season, the curiosity about Golden State is tied to the near future.
How many big seasons did Steph have left in his resume?
Will Clay recover after two years of serious injuries?
Will Bob Myers sacrifice the future to add another contemporary star and exhaust the years left for his big three?
Golden State will have something to offer for teams looking for a star trade, except for Weissman, Myers has the choice of Minnesota, protected top 3 this summer and unprotected in 2022, this is a very attractive choice that together with Weissman puts together a package that other big teams will have a hard time comparing.
If someone like Bradley Bill is available, it will be hard to resist the temptation to get it, even if it means giving up the two cornerstones of the future.
Then it will be possible to talk about a real candidate for the degree.
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