SACRAMENTO — With 9:03 left, after a fast-break layup by De’Aaron Fox capped a 7-0 spurt in 55 seconds for the hosts, Warriors coach Steve Kerr called a timeout. He couldn’t wait any longer. Stephen Curry and Draymond Green had to come back in. This would, indeed, be another heavy-minute night, the third consecutive game urgency was their guide.
The Warriors need victories. Their chance for one Sunday night was slipping away. So it was winning time. That meant, again, it was time for the young studs to take a seat.
“We’re not a team right now where we can afford to let guys make mistakes,” Kerr said before the 122-115 loss to the Kings. “We’re not good enough to withstand a lot of mistakes.”
It’s hard not to miss the messaging. It’s subliminally loud. This was supposed to be the year the young guys on the roster took on larger roles, stepped forward in their destiny to one day be the stewards of this championship franchise. But when it’s time to win, they have to take a seat.
James Wiseman, the third-year center and former No. 2 pick was plucked from the rotation after their five-game skid sent the team into desperation mode. Forward Moses Moody, the second-year lottery pick, has joined Wiseman for the last two games Gorilla-Glued to the bench. Forward Jonathan Kuminga, the other second-year lottery pick, has managed a couple of stints in the early parts of games. But when it gets real, he’s right next to them.
Sunday, even Jordan Poole sat most of the fourth quarter, sacrificed in their push for a three-game winning streak.
The Warriors went with six players for most of that final nine minutes and change. Five of the six have championship rings — six of seven if you include Poole, who came in for the final 30.2 seconds when the Warriors needed 3s. The only player who didn’t have a reservoir of NBA experience but was worthy of playing in crunch time was Anthony Lamb, a 24-year-old wing who went undrafted in 2020 and snatched up a two-way spot late in Warriors training camp.
It still ended in defeat. It was their seventh consecutive road loss to start the season and a missed chance to inch closer to .500, where they can get back to the developing part of their plan.
As it stands, the Warriors have four first-round picks on the bench and none of them are sniffing the court once crunch time hits, if at all. This doesn’t look or feel sustainable. But the most troubling part is that when they lean on their veterans, they don’t have enough. They’re 0-7 on the road because those are the hardest games to win in the NBA, and Golden State is playing them largely shorthanded.
The season is 13 games old, too early to make grand proclamations. This will all be old news in March if they have figured things out as they head into the postseason.
But the direction the Warriors are heading is clear. The two-timeline plan is looking far more perpendicular than parallel. Colliding instead of complementing. They can’t seem to develop their young players and expect to win. And even when they just focus on winning, sans the development, their commitment to the youth has left them with too many holes.
Something is going to have to give. Either they will have to re-align this roster to give the veterans more immediate help. Or Kerr is going to have to swallow the mistakes and commit to playing one or two youngsters, win or lose. It’s the only way either of them can be ready when the Warriors will really need them later in the season.
No doubt, the ol’ heads on the roster could play even better. That would buy everyone more time.
The veterans had a chance to beat the Kings. Curry and Green came in, and the 9-point deficit morphed into a 111-109 lead following a Klay Thompson 3 at the 5:11 mark. In the past, this was all but a done deal. The Warriors’ wave would come and opponents would wilt. The champions flexed, and the pesky Kings were supposed to submit. But the opposite happened.
The Kings trapped Curry,…
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