Warriors Offense Has Growing Problem Steph Curry Can't Fix

The Golden State Warriors have a lot of issues, but their lack of offensive firepower aside from Stephen Curry stands out the most.

Let's see how Curry's teammates compare to those of other top 10 NBA players to identify just how bad this problem is.

Note that I used Dunks and Threes' EPM to pick out the top 10 players, with two caveats: I took out any player who hasn't appeared in at least half of his team's games, and I replaced Chet Holmgren with Tyrese Maxey because Maxey was just 0.1 behind Holmgren and I didn't want two teammates in the top 10.

The top 10 are OKC's Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Denver's Nikola Jokic, Milwaukee's Giannis Antetokounmpo, Curry, Los Angeles' Luka Doncic, New York's Karl-Anthony Towns, Cleveland's Donovan Mitchell, San Antonio's Victor Wembanyama, Detroit's Cade Cunningham and Maxey.

Scoring Average of Each Top 10 Player's Sidekick

As you'll see below, Jimmy Butler has a below-average PPG among sidekicks of top 10 players:

Top 10 Player	Top 10 Player's Sidekick	Sidekick's PPG
Karl-Anthony Towns	Jalen Brunson	28.8
Luka Doncic	Austin Reaves	27.8
Nikola Jokic	Jamal Murray	24.9
Victor Wembanyama	De'Aaron Fox	23.9
Tyrese Maxey	Joel Embiid	20.5
Giannis Antetokounmpo	Kevin Porter Jr.	19.3
Donovan Mitchell	Evan Mobley	19.1
Stephen Curry	Jimmy Butler	19.1
Shai Gilgeous-Alexander	Chet Holmgren	18.7
Cade Cunningham	Jalen Duren	18.0

With that said, Butler is not at the bottom. And it must be noted that most people would consider Brunson to be the Knicks' best player. If we instead made KAT the sidekick, his 22.4 PPG would drop the PPG of the non-Butler sidekicks down to 21.6. That makes Butler 2.5 points below the average, which is not ideal but not a total disaster.

Butler needs to be more aggressive, but considering how good of an all-around player he is, he's not the main problem with the Warriors offense or the Warriors in general.

Scoring Average of the Third Option on Each Top 10 Player's Team

Here is where it becomes the clear the Warriors have a big problem that's getting worse.

Top 10 Player	Sidekick	Team's Third Option	Third Option's PPG
Nikola Jokic	Jamal Murray	Aaron Gordon	18.8
Victor Wembanyama	De'Aaron Fox	Stephon Castle	18.4
Luka Doncic	Austin Reaves	LeBron James	17.6
SGA	Chet Holmgren	Jalen Williams	17.3
Tyrese Maxey	Joel Embiid	Paul George	17.1
Giannis	Kevin Porter Jr.	Ryan Rollins	17.0
KAT	Jalen Brunson	Mikal Bridges	16.4
Donovan Mitchell	Evan Mobley	Darius Garland	15.5
Cade Cunningham	Jalen Duren	Tobias Harris	14.3
Stephen Curry	Jimmy Butler	Jonathan Kuminga	12.4

The Warriors are easily last here, and their third option's PPG will likely drop a bit more if Kuminga is used as a deep bench piece who doesn't get enough playing time to improve his average.

The average of the other nine third options is 16.9. That's a 4.5-point difference, which is a huge disadvantage for Golden State.

And it gets worse.

The Warriors are the only team in the NBA with just two players averaging more than 12.4 points.

The only team that's currently in a worse third-option situation is the Utah Jazz. With Walker Kessler (14.4 PPG) out for the season, they don't have a healthy third player averaging more than 10.0 points per game.

Warriors Need to Trade for a Third Option

Golden State would love to get a big wing defender like Herb Jones or a shot-blocking center like Myles Turner, but they must first set their sights on a legitimate third scoring option who gets some of his points in the paint.

These are not easy players to acquire, and they tend to be costly.

The four that immediately come to mind are Michael Porter Jr., Trey Murphy III, Ivica Zubac and Andrew Wiggins.

Porter is having a monster season, so if the Nets make him available, they might ask for two first-round picks.

Murphy is under contract for the next three-and-a-half seasons, so the Pelicans will likely request two first-round picks if they shop him.

Zubac has one the most team-friendly contracts in the league and is a dominant two-player, which is why the Clippers are reportedly looking for at least two first-round picks.

Wiggins would be cheaper to acquire. The Heat probably don't have interest in a Kuminga-for-Wiggins swap, but if the Heat won the Giannis sweepstakes, it would make sense for the Bucks to rope the Warriors into that trade so they get Kuminga and the Warriors get Wiggins. Even in that three-team trade, the Warriors might have to give up a first-round pick.

Curry is averaging 29.6 points per game on excellent efficiency. He can't do much more. It's up to the front office to get him some help.