Steph, Kerr express faith as Warriors’ plans look deficient originally appeared on NBC Sports Bay Area
SAN FRANCISCO – Steve Kerr is keeping the faith about this Warriors roster.
But for how long?
Stephen Curry is trying to keep the faith, too. But will there become a point at which he concedes?
When it becomes evident that the three steps taken by the front office over the past six months are not enough to lift the Warriors back into the NBA elite?
Step One came last spring, when in the wake of a lopsided Play-In Tournament loss, the Warriors remained committed to the decorated veterans. Step Two was devising a plan to properly support them. Step Three, the pursuit of an All-Star forward, was abandoned. Which left Step Four, the difficult endeavor of plucking several worthy veterans to fill the gaps.
The new enriched veteran core would, theoretically, form a coalition capable of building a real-time development program for Golden State’s four youngsters.
That was the Backup Plan formulated by Golden State general manager Mike Dunleavy and his comrades in the front office. Once dream acquisitions Paul George and Lauri Markkanen were out of reach, they turned to Kyle Anderson, Buddy Hield and De’Anthony Melton to fill specific needs.
When Melton, the only new vet in the starting lineup, was lost for the season, the Warriors scanned the market for a replacement and landed on Brooklyn point guard Dennis Schröder. Backup Plan, Part II. Another helpful vet.
That’s four vets added, with Schröder, the most recent to join, suddenly is the most important.
And, right now, none of them is money. Melton showed promise but is gone. Hield, blowtorch hot for the first couple weeks, is bricking triples and struggling to make a layup. Anderson is languishing on the bench, outside the rotation. Schröder is starting in the backcourt alongside Stephen Curry, and through six games the duo is a two-pack of disharmony. Peanut butter and salami.
“The numbers obviously haven’t been great,” Curry said late Monday night, after Golden State took a 113-95 smackdown from the truly elite Cleveland Cavaliers. “The feel of him with the ball in his hands, me playing off him, there’s been some good spurts. That Phoenix game was kind of indicative of that.
“But we’ve had more games where we’ve been struggling a little bit. We have to get more clarity on when he’s on the court with me and Draymond [Green], and when he’s with a different unit. Some go-to sets, because teams are starting to go under a lot of the pick-and-rolls and clog the paint.”
In the first 99 minutes of the Curry-Schröder backcourt, the duo’s net rating is minus-13.7, 103.2 on offense, 116.9 on defense. The Curry-Hield numbers have only 47 minutes over the past two weeks, but are vastly superior even with Buddy slumping: 125.2 on offense, 102.7, plus-22.5 net.
Kerr’s latest starting lineup, with Draymond Green, Andrew Wiggins and Trayce Jackson-Davis joining Curry and Schröder is sitting on a minus-20.2 net rating (100 on offense, 120.2 on defense). It’s a small sample size, yes. But if you look closely, you might see that lineup waving a sign that says “HELP.”
Despite Golden State’s slide, losing four of its last five, seven of its last nine and 12 of its last 16 – and a 2-5 record since Schröder was acquired and immediately installed in the starting lineup – the coach is not waving that sign. Not yet.
“Given the stretch we’re in, losing 12 out of 16, we’ve got to settle in these next couple weeks,” he said. “Stick with the same lineup, the same rotation off the bench if possible, and see if we can find some rhythm.”
That’s where the Warriors are, searching for a reason to keep believing they can be special. The promise of October and early November, when they sprinted to a 12-3 start, has dissolved in the lake of acid that builds when the losses, all kinds of ways, keep coming.
When nothing seems to work from game to game, and generating momentum is like grabbing dust in the wind.
Meanwhile, Golden State’s front office, which exhibited patience after Melton was struck down before bringing in Schröder as the potential remedy – is studying next steps.
Step Five. Backup Plan, Part III.
“It’s an emotional roller coaster for sure,” Curry said. “It’s frustrating as you’re losing games for all different types of reasons.
“But as the calendar flips into the new year and this small home stand that we’re on … it’s literally right there to turn the corner. To having a positive momentum or something that you can kind of hold on to as an identity of how we win basketball games.”
Faith today. Faith tomorrow. Faith forever?
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