The Warriors Were Winning—Now Steph Curry Is Hurt

We're gonna start out in your neck of the woods, the Bay Area, uh, where the vibes have changed, decidedly changed over the last couple of days.

Uh, Stephen Curry, Warriors, all NBA guard, uh, he is out for at least the next 2 weeks with an oblique injury.

There's been some reporting that suggests it could be as long as 1 month.

Uh, this Golden State team, Grant was flying high earlier this week, W 8 games in a row, beat the Pelicans by 51.

Um, all the talk at that point was built around the possibility that Golden State.

could keep its championship window open, that this dynasty that began more than a decade ago, um, could still have some life left in it.

Now , it is only November, but it's a pretty big injury, um, to their superstar.

Um, uh, how devastating is this for Golden State at this stage of the season?

So it's devastating, and if I say anything that has some glass half full or optimism, it's just me trying to, you know, look for something.

And it's devastating, no matter what, there's no way around it.

Steph Curry was playing some of the best basketball of his entire career.

This guy's 38 years old.

They were playing so well, coaching has been on point, the players are, are responding.

Yaxel's been great, Paz has been doing well, and they're doing this all despite not having two presumed stars, definitely one in Jimmy Butler and Moses Moody out as well, so.

Oh, Apple 3 stars, Chris S Porzingis doesn't exist for that team either.

So, they're doing all this, all those vibes are going, and then this happens.

So, this is, you and I have kind of talked about this before, and I just, I truly believe if you're gonna deal with an injury like this, you want to do it earlier in the season.

Because, well, depending on what's happening in your season, if you're already struggling, and then that happens, that's pretty bad.

But you want to have confidence with your group going into something like this.

If they were struggling and they're like, ah, we can't generate offense, we can't do this without Steph, and then he gets hurt, that would be devastating.

But this team has shown.

That even without Steph on the court, when Yaxel and other guys are on the court, they compete and they can, they, they execute and they play hard.

Now, careless turnovers, those things have, those have plagued Golden State forever, and, hey, let's just put it, like, Steph Curry is part of that as well.

But if they can execute correctly, if they can fight through this.

There's no way of knowing how many games Steph's gonna miss.

I'm just like, let's just go out.

If you look, if you project almost a month or so, it's maybe 12 to 14 games, it's really kind of hard to project, but let's just , let's go further.

Let's say 14 games, right?

This team is 4 games over 500 right now.

If they go 5 and 9 and are 500 by the time Steph comes back.

You're probably in the play world, at the bottom of the play world at that point, and then you make it, and then you try to make a run at it, and Jimmy Butler and Moses Moody come back after that.

So, while it is devastating, I actually think, and maybe I'm delusional because I've just been so impressed how they've been playing and he acts on those guys, I actually think they can kind of stay afloat during all this, because at the end of the day, I'm a firm believer.

If you execute and compete, especially on the defensive end, and give all you, everything you got in a regular season game, you have a good shot of winning.

Playoffs, you need that plus skill, but I truly believe if you give that much execution and effort defensively, you have a shot of winning every single game.

I think that team's doing that right now.

You know, I, I was looking at the schedule and it's not awful for Golden State over the next few weeks.

Um, they've got San Antonio on Friday night.

They're probably gonna get boat raced in that game.

Um, the Pelicans, they just beat by 51 is after that.

Dallas, mixed bag after that.

Memphis, same thing.

Boston, they'll get creamed, but then they got Sacramento, there's a couple of games against the Clippers on the schedule, Utah, another one, Memphis, Indiana, like they've got the kind of schedule that at least opens the door for them to stay afloat, you know, during this, this Steph Curry absence.

Um, I think they're gonna have to go, like radically change.

How they play and how they try to win.

I mean, during this eight-game winning streak, they had the best defensive rating in the NBA.

They're really gonna have to lean into that defense cause not only is Steph gone, but Brandon Williams is gone as well.

So their backcourt has been decimated by short-term injury.

So, they're gonna have to lean into the defensive side of the ball.

They're really gonna have to lean in on Draymond Green, who's been outstanding to start the season on that end of the floor.

He is gonna have to Really be a catalyst for this team's success over the next month.

I guess my question is like, You know, the 8 games a small sample size, but they were number 1 in defensive rating.

Are they good enough on that end of the floor to continue to be a high-level defensive team in Steph's absence?

And, and that's the point is that you mentioned these great teams like San Antonio.

Those, those are gonna be hard to beat.

Like, it's just, let's be honest, you need both sides of the court going really well to beat both those guys, but The execution and defensive intensity that you can bring, they have some really good defenders when they're locked in, and Draymond Green is an all-time guy, right?

He, he's not just, you know, we talked about the gravity that Steph Curry brings offensively, the, the, the anti-gravity that Draymond Green brings on defense.

He's just plays free safety, he can do so many things, he can dictate how an off uh defense moves.

Is he the same defender he was in the past?

No, and he can't bring it every single night, and that concerns me a little bit, right, as you go through this, cause he has to bring it every single night, especially with step out.

But you look at it and you just say, can you execute, can you lock in completely defensively, and you just try maybe different things, because if you really look at it, you start wondering who's gonna be the starters for this group moving forward.

And I don't know, I can't, I'm, but I'm gonna project that maybe you put D'Anthony Melton maybe in the backcourt with Podjamski moving forward.

I think LJ Cryer is gonna be doing, he's gonna play a lot because he's two-way, he's one of your guards on the backup, but.

Maybe instead of putting pods purely as the point and moving forward, you have like a melt-in pause and you move it, and, and that's the solid defensive backcourt right there, with Horford and Draymond cleaning up the, the front court, and you have Yaxel who's large, and I just, I don't know, I, I, I think, as to your point, I, I think they'll lean in defensively, I think they'll hopefully, for their sake, do enough offensively, and the Axel, again, you and I have talked this countless times, like, we're gonna find out.

When Yaxels relied upon a 24-year-old rookie rookie, to be like, hey, will you lead the Golden State Warriors in offense?

Um, we're gonna find out a lot about this guy, we're gonna find out a lot about this team.

And Chris, I'll say this, what if they survive this stretch, at least 500, like if let's say they get, like, they win 7 of their 14 games.

Uh, you go all in on this team if you're that front office because you said like, you get Steph Curry back, you're gonna get Jimmy Butler back.

You, you go all in because this has a chance to be something special.

Yeah, um, Yael is gonna play a big role for them offensively, and I, I'm curious to see kind of how he responds to being the focal point of a defensive game plan, um, because now team's gonna be gearing up on him.

Like Pajimski's still there, Draymond's still there, they've still got some pieces there.

But he's gonna be the offensive hub.

I mean, they've used him as a point forward and stretches and his playmaking has been really good.

Uh, but he's gonna get the full brunt of teams defensive attention now that Steph's out of the lineup, or at least a lot more of it than he got before.

Um, I was watching the, uh, Warriors pregame show on Monday and I saw Mike Dunleavy Jr.

on there, and this is before the Steph injury, of course, and Mike was kind of asked about Porzingis or, you know, roundabout way Porzingis doing a deal.

Um, and he kind of said like, you know, we're gonna see kinda how this, the early part of the season plays out, and we'll, you know, kind of go from there.

Do you think this Steph injury Accelerates that timeline at all?

Do you think it increases the urgency from Golden State?

Because it, to, to be successful at a high level, they're gonna have to deal Porzingis for something.

Like they still are missing something.

I think it's a big You know, maybe these injuries changed that equation a little bit, but do you think, does this situation they're in now, the pickle they're in now with step out, do you think that front office, you know, steps on the gas a little bit when it comes to talking deals for poor Zingis?

So that's a tricky one.

So, for different reasons.

Number one, the trade season usually doesn't even open yet, right?

Nick Clifford was traded, but that was a very unique situation.

And with the draft lottery changing , it's not like teams just sell right now, right?

So, you're giving away a player that's not playing.

So whoever is taking him, you're probably giving out a player back to the Warriors, that's not playing much for you either, right?

You're not taking a starter right now and be like, hey, here you go, then we'll take a guy who's not playing basketball.

So therefore, like, before Steph got hurt, the Warriors all of a sudden were awarded to be a little patient, because they're like, oh right, we're clicking, let's let's wait till this market, uh, you know, finds itself.

But the market isn't there yet still.

And so the urgency to me, maybe December 15th, when that comes around, you can do some smaller moves around the edges, but I highly, highly doubt some team's gonna be like, hey, you know what, just take my center right now, unless it's like Milwaukee being like, please take Miles Turner .

So, in this case, I would say it doesn't change that much.

I think the Warriors are really trying to see if they can use the poor Zingis uh contract to say, this is the the final piece to make a run at it this season, and if you give that away too early.

You better hope it's players coming back that A either help you definitely in a rotation, or B , players that can then flip again, when it comes down to the deadline, right?

And you'd have to do that soon if you're going to do that.

So, Warriors are aggressive, they're looking around, they're talking to every team, they really are, but the feedback they are getting is teams just don't know what they're doing yet.

Like, you can, we can talk and speculate all we want about players that might be available, and, but teams have not made those guys available yet.

Besides the ones you, but besides the ones you probably know, like, yes, like you probably can pluck some, some kings away right now, yeah, you can pluck any king away at this point.

Uh, yeah, the, the targets that I've got kind of jotted down here, I mean Jalen Smith is someone they could probably get their hands on, but how big a difference maker is that?

Miles Turner, of course, um, in a vacuum kind of makes some sense, but there's a lot of potential baggage there, including that contract that he's got that goes through 2029.

Um, I love Wendell Carter there, but I don't know that the Magic are ready to pull the chute quite yet with all the injuries that they've had.

Daniel Gafford, same thing with Dallas, they're pretty good.

Patrick Williams, I don't know what the Bulls are doing with him .

Um, and again, to Milwaukee, Jericho Sims might be a guy that you can, you know, tap into, but like, I don't know how many guys, these guys are needle movers, Grant, like, you know, I don't know how big a difference they're gonna make.