The moment the Warriors realized that Kristaps Porzingis probably wouldn’t play for them this season or ever again, everything about this potentially gloomy season got worse.
But only temporarily.
Basically, it was three games of the Warriors feeling a bit sorry for themselves; three bad losses that made the outside world conclude that this thing was over; and oops, now the Warriors are 6-3 and any plan featuring Porzingis seems like part of the irrelevant and ancient past.
That’s how quickly the page can be turned in the NBA, even for a franchise loaded with future Hall of Famers. That’s what a successful reordering on the fly can do. And that’s what has fueled the Warriors’ current six-game winning streak to climb back into the middle of the Western Conference standings immediately following their 0-3 start.
First, let’s be clear: Nobody on the Warriors is celebrating Porzingis’ absence. He’s still officially a teammate and associate and an incredibly talented one. They’ve kept his locker — though the glass panels are closed up and it obviously hasn’t been touched in months. And every player, coach, and executive understands that Porzingis’ battle with a lingering health issue must be terribly frustrating for him.
So it’s not as plain as saying they’re simply better off without Porzingis. But losing him has forced the Warriors to figure out how to be better without Porzingis right now and they’re certainly better off for the long term.
After the Warriors’ victory over Miami on Thursday, Stephen Curry noted the 0-3 start, the slow starts to the last few games, and several other hits the Warriors have absorbed and rallied past. He didn’t include the loss of Porzingis, but I’m putting it in there, too.
“Just the way that we respond is a great testament to how bad we want to be a great team,” Curry said. “We’re not there yet, but this run that we’re on is building a lot of confidence.”
It’s very early. Nine games in an NBA season is still just a blink. But it’s also a lot more informative than three games. The season is starting to take shape.
Is this win streak real? It’s definitely long enough to feel substantial, with a few more winnable games coming up.
“It’s real, but we’ve got a long way to go,” Draymond said. “We’re not sitting here, like, ‘Oh man, we won six in a row, we’re about to win a championship.’ We won six in a row — which we spoke about the beginning of the season about taking our process one day at a time. We’ve done that. We’ve done that at a high level.”
Curry is the No. 1 part of this, as always. And so is Steve Kerr, who made sure to keep the team’s spirits up through the 0-3 start, also knowing that Jimmy Butler and Moses Moody are due back at some point in the next few months.
After the Warriors lost but played feistily in Phoenix on Oct. 24 (with Curry, Draymond, Brandin Podziemski, and Al Horford all getting rests), Kerr told his players that they were doing good things, they had a good training camp, and the record would soon show that. Which started two days later, when Yaxel Lendeborg put up 31 points and had 12 rebounds in a victory in Denver.
“Sometimes when you’re doing some new things it takes a little while for those things to take hold,” Kerr said Thursday night. “I think we needed that game in Denver and when we went and got it — it felt like as soon as we won the Denver game, guys relaxed, ‘We’re OK.’”
The Warriors survived the loss of their projected starting center, who they’ll try to trade before the Feb. 11 deadline. And here are a few specific reasons why they’re actually thriving without Porzingis:
It opened up a giant opportunity for Lendeborg, who has more than taken advantage of it
Here’s the progression: Losing Porzingis made Kerr commit to Draymond full-time at center, which moved Lendeborg to the starting power-forward spot, his natural position, and big things started to happen.
Otherwise, Lendeborg would’ve been jammed in at small forward, which might not have been a disaster, but doesn’t fit nearly as seamlessly as Lendeborg’s size helping Draymond on the frontline with the starting unit then Lendeborg taking over as the lead guy — surrounded by guards and wings — when Curry’s resting.
We’ve already all written a ton about Lendeborg’s immediate impact, and we all will keep doing it if this continues. In the ultimate sign that he’s arrived, opponents are definitely starting to game plan against him — for instance, Miami’s Erik Spoelstra put guards on him to force Lendeborg off the three-point line.
But I’ll just add here that Lendeborg registered a 17-point, 8-rebound, 6-assist line and helped make sure Curry only needed to play 28 minutes on Thursday, and I sort of considered it a ho-hum performance. In Lendeborg’s ninth game.
As Curry said a few days ago when asked what’s different about this team from last season: “I mean … Yaxel.”
And there’s probably no way Lendeborg would be averaging 31.8 minutes, 21 points, and 14 shot attempts (5.9 of them from three-point) per game if Porzingis was playing this season.
Maybe my mind is still stuck on “Lanterns” or something, but it feels like Porzingis’ departure opened up a portal for Lendeborg to jump through.
Yaxel Lendeborg has made 39.6% of his 3-point attempts through nine games. | Source: Lachlan Cunningham/Getty ImagesDraymond has to be a center now — and he’s still a very good one
He’s always been the Warriors’ best center and for more than a decade Draymond also gave them great minutes as a pick-and-roll power forward alongside Curry.
But in the current space-and-tempo NBA, it’s all narrowed down for Draymond: At center, he can defend, rebound, pass, and make plays and almost never look to score; at power forward, the non-scoring part becomes problematic.
Today
3 days ago
Wednesday, Oct. 28
And if Porzingis was playing, Draymond would’ve had to play mostly power forward. It might’ve worked a little — Porzingis’ shooting ability is a nice complement for Draymond. But I don’t think it would’ve turned out like what we’re seeing with Draymond, Al Horford, and Charles Bassey splitting the center minutes.
It’s the perfect way to maximize Draymond’s value as a ferocious defender and team leader, which is obviously still very significant. And the way it’s going, unless there’s an injury at this position, the Warriors probably won’t have to make an emergency trade for another center.
Draymond is currently averaging 26.7 minutes, 3 points, 1.3 field-goal attempts, 0.3 made field goals, and 0.6 free-throw attempts per game — if maintained, all would be career lows since he’s become a main-rotation player.
“It’s not necessarily a conscious thing,” Draymond said Thursday when I asked about the very low shot total so far. “Like, I don’t go into the game like, aw, I’m gonna take less shots.
“But I do go into the game knowing that I have a million other things to do. And I just don’t really focus on it much, if I’m honest with you. I’m not really out there looking for a shot. There’s so many other things that I need to be on top of for this team to have a good opportunity to be winners.”
To that point, Draymond currently has scored 21 points this season. He has 49 assists and 35 rebounds.
It has also opened up key minutes for Georges Niang
You’ll never guess who the Warriors’ cumulative plus-minus leader is right now. Yes, it’s Niang at +56.
He was a little rusty very early in the season after missing all of last season due to a foot injury, but during this win streak, Niang has become one of Kerr’s old reliables.
Niang is now the Warriors’ late-game in-bounder, he spaces the floor, and he fits perfectly as Lendeborg’s backup — and since Lendeborg spends so much time leading the second unit, Niang gets a lot of minutes with Curry and Draymond.
If Porzingis was playing, I don’t know if Niang would be on the floor much at all, because he’d be squeezed behind Draymond and Lendeborg. Right now, Kerr barely ever wants to take him out.
“This guy, you can’t keep him off the floor,” Draymond said. “I absolutely love being his teammate.”
Currently, the Curry-Draymond-Niang unit has played the second-most minutes among the Warriors’ three-man groups and has a +12.5 net rating in those 88 minutes. (The team’s most-played three-man unit is Curry-Draymond-Brandin Podziemski with 104 minutes at +4.8.)
Georges Niang is averaging 7.9 points and 3.1 rebounds off the bench. | Source: Lachlan Cunningham/Getty ImagesThe Warriors have their most cohesive and coherent second unit since Jimmy Butler was leading it
If you’ve watched the Warriors’ new second unit run through a few other teams’ reserve squads during the winning streak, you won’t be surprised by this stat:
The Warriors’ highest-rated three-man unit right now is Lendeborg-Podziemski-Brandon Wiliams, which is +31.4 in 56 minutes on the floor together.
Maybe the most important long-term stat from Thursday: Because the second unit held the lead in the fourth quarter and actually extended it a bit, Curry didn’t have to check back in to close, which kept his minute count at 28.
Curry has been amazing but has only needed to play 201 minutes so far this season — just 46.5% of the team’s total of 432. And they’re 6-3 and the engine’s purring. That’s a great sign for the Warriors.
They were never going to be able to count on Porzingis, anyway
Pretty self-explanatory.
Any high hopes they had for Porzingis helping to carry them into the top tier of the West … were better off dashed quickly rather than, say, in January.
There’s no need to rush Butler
Butler will come back when it’s right, but if there was ever any worry that he might feel pressure to hurry back to save the season when his knee wasn’t 100% ready for it … well, that’s likely gone.
There’s no way to know how this new configuration of the Warriors will adapt to Butler’s return, but it’s almost never bad to have an extra excellent and proven player to throw at opponents, especially in the playoffs.
Jimmy Butler tore his ACL in January and has been making strides in his rehab. | Source: Ezra Shaw/Getty ImagesThe Warriors can focus on the big fish at the trade deadline or July
The big-picture theme is unchanged: The Warriors have more than $100 million in expiring contracts and future draft picks to package together if there’s a major star available on the trade market in February.
And the Warriors will absolutely take a look at everything.
But if they just stay above .500 through January, they don’t have to make this decision in desperation. They can be a little picky. If there’s no great trade to be made this winter, they can play this out, see how far they go in the playoffs, then contemplate what to do with a ton of cap space next July.
I’m not saying the Warriors will be totally in control of the market, but they also don’t need to do anything now that could prevent them from doing something much more significant later.
For instance, if there’s a superstar who sees the good Bay Area vibes and wants to join the Warriors either in February or July, the Warriors will want to save as much flexibility as they can. And they want to keep winning. Which they’ve certainly been doing lately.
This isn’t just because the Warriors are better without Porzingis. He could’ve been great for them, if not for his illness. This isn’t addition by subtraction. It’s multiplication by adaption.