![]() ![]() Green has been better on offense than expected, too, finishing with more craft and explosiveness than the past couple years while serving as a much-needed stabilizing presence of playmaking and organization for Steve Kerr’s second unit. Perhaps the most impressive one for a 6’6, 30-something big man coming off a summer spent rehabbing degenerative disc issues in his back? Green is forcing opponents into 48.2% shooting at the rim when he’s the primary defender, second behind Defensive Player of the Year frontrunner Jaren Jackson Jr., according to NBA.com/stats. Green’s all-time genius as back-line quarterback and ability to switch across five positions aren’t the only driving forces behind those gaudy numbers, either. Their debilitating foul problems vanish with Green in the game no player in basketball has a more drastic positive effect on his team’s foul rate. The Warriors give up a whopping 9.7 fewer points per 100 possessions with him on the floor, in the 98th percentile among all players, per Cleaning the Glass. To the fleeting extent Golden State has defended at a level worthy of winning back-to-back championships, Green’s presence is easily the biggest reason why. His pointedly public-facing burden looms even larger in context of the preseason punch that threatened to completely derail the Dubs’ title defense before it ever began, too.īut even if Green can no longer be the game-long, all-court terror he was in his physical prime, he has still been a clear First-Team All-Defense contender this season. It’s commendable Green has personally taken the onus of shouldering the responsibility for Golden State’s wildly inconsistent defensive performance so far in 2022-23. Grade: A- Draymond Greenĭraymond Green wants to be blamed for the Warriors’ bottom-half defense because he believes his sweeping influence on the court and in the locker room are supposedly enough to lift this team to sustained excellence on that side of the ball all by itself. Here's hoping Curry is back on the floor soon after the All-Star break, leading Golden State on a second-half surge up the Western Conference standings - if so, surely overcoming those lingering crunch-time woes in the process. The one lingering stain on Curry's near-pristine offensive resumé so far this season? Crunch-time shooting and decision-making foibles that have helped shove Golden State down to a -7.3 net rating during clutch situations, seventh-worst in the NBA. Curry is hitting a ridiculous 47.3% on 6.1 pull-up triples per game, best in the NBA, and finishing an easy career-high 75.8% of his tries at the rim, according to NBA.com/stats - better accuracy from there than Giannis Antetokounmpo. His +10.9 on-off net rating ranks in the 95th percentile league-wide, right in line with eye-popping career norms, per Cleaning the Glass. When Steph Curry tweaked his left leg in an early February win over the Luka Doncic-less Dallas Mavericks, his already long-shot chances at a second MVP were dashed entirely.ĭespite those relative labors post-shoulder subluxation, though, Curry has still been among the most impactful players in basketball when on the floor this season. The reigning Finals MVP was playing perhaps the best basketball of his career before going down with a left shoulder injury in mid-December, struggling to regain that peak form upon returning to the floor a month later. Warriors NBA All-Star break report cards Stephen Curry Let's hand out report cards for some of Golden State's most notable players based on the season's de facto first half. ![]() At 29-29 entering the six-week sprint toward the regular-season finish line, the defending champions are ninth in a tightly-packed Western Conference, with outside chances of both rising to third in the standings and missing the play-in tournament altogether.īut before turning the page to a stretch run that could decide the long-term fate of this roster's core, it's worth looking back on how the Warriors reached the All-Star break as nothing more than mediocre. ![]() The Golden State Warriors' title defense hasn't exactly gone as planned. ![]()
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