The 2022-23 Golden State Warriors week-in-review: 12/26 - 1/2.
The Warriors go undefeated in a big week for Jonathan Kuminga, who breaks into Steve Kerr's closing lineups, surprise rotation minutes for Patrick Baldwin Jr., Kevon Looney looks tired, and much more.
Is anybody on the injury report?
There is still no timetable for Andre Iguodala’s return to the court.
Andrew Wiggins is expected to return to the Warriors on Monday night’s game against the Atlanta Hawks. Wiggins was reportedly cleared to return from his abductor strain this past week but sat out the last two games because of illness.
Draymond Green has apparently been playing through back issues, as revealed by Ty Jerome post-game after the Warriors’ Wednesday night game. Green was actually listed as questionable for that game, not because of his back, but for foot soreness.
JaMychal Green is now out of the NBA’s health and safety protocols, but missed Friday night’s game because of a leg infection.
James Wiseman also missed Friday night’s game after spraining his ankle earlier that day.
Jonathan Kuminga will miss Monday night’s game against the Atlanta Hawks with a foot sprain.
Steph Curry is set to be re-evaluated at some point next week.
Who did the play this past week?
The Warriors played the Charlotte Hornets on Tuesday night, the Utah Jazz the next night, and then played their last game of the calendar year on Friday night against the Portland Trail Blazers.
How did the Warriors do this last week?
The Warriors went 3-0.
How did that happen?
12/27/22: The Warriors beat the Charlotte Hornets, 110-105.
You can read my full recap here.
Here are the Warriors’ substitutions from this game:
1st Q:
12:00 — Poole/DiVincenzo/Thompson/D. Green/Looney: 0-0, tie game.
6:12 — Poole/DiVincenzo/Thompson/Lamb/D. Green: 13-10, Warriors lead.
4:25 — Poole/DiVincenzo/Thompson/Lamb/Wiseman: 21-13, Warriors lead.
3:33 — Jerome/DiVincenzo/Thompson/Lamb/Wiseman: 25-15, Warriors lead.
3:17 — Jerome/Thompson/Lamb/Kuminga/Wiseman: 25-15, Warriors lead.
2nd Q:
12:00 — Poole/Jerome/Moody/Kuminga/D. Green: 37-26, Warriors lead.
8:15 — Poole/Jerome/Moody/Kuminga/Looney: 49-33, Warriors lead.
7:22 — Jerome/Moody/Thompson/Kuminga/Looney: 51-36, Warriors lead.
5:45 — Poole/DiVincenzo/Thompson/Kuminga/Looney: 55-40, Warriors lead.
4:41 — Poole/DiVincenzo/Thompson/D. Green/Looney: 57-42, Warriors lead.
3:05 — Poole/DiVincenzo/Thompson/Lamb/D. Green: 60-47, Warriors lead.
3rd Q:
12:00 — Poole/DiVincenzo/Thompson/D. Green/Looney: 65-52, Warriors lead.
5:27 — Poole/Jerome/Thompson/Lamb/D. Green: 79-70, Warriors lead.
3:49 — Jerome/Moody/Thompson/Lamb/D. Green: 82-75, Warriors lead.
2:50 — Jerome/Moody/Thompson/Lamb/Wiseman: 82-75, Warriors lead.
4th Q:
12:00 — Poole/Jerome/Moody/Kuminga/Wiseman: 89-78, Warriors lead.
9:31 — Poole/Jerome/Moody/Kuminga/D. Green: 94-87, Warriors lead.
8:57 — Jerome/DiVincenzo/Lamb/Kuminga/D. Green: 94-90, Warriors lead.
7:11 — DiVincenzo/Thompson/Lamb/Kuminga/D. Green: 96-95, Warriors lead.
4:57 — Poole/DiVincenzo/Thompson/Kuminga/D. Green: 98-95, Warriors lead.
0:16 — Poole/Jerome/DiVincenzo/Thompson/D. Green: 109-105, Warriors lead.
For most of the Warriors’ victory against the Charlotte Hornets, the opposing team trailed by double-digits. The Warriors jumped out to an early lead thanks to Klay Thompson’s three-point shot-making and took an 11-point lead into the second quarter. Jordan Poole’s drives to the hoop were a reliable source of efficient offense in the first half and he was 5/6 through his first 12 minutes of play and it wasn’t until the early second quarter that he took (and missed) his first three-point shot of the night. The Warriors actually went on to miss all 9 of their three-pointers in the second quarter and in spite of that, their lead grew as high as 17 points late in the period.
The Warriors’ frigid three-point shooting carried into the third quarter and from the start of the second quarter until the 1:22 mark of the third period, they missed 17 straight threes. The three that broke that ugly streak came off of a James Wiseman offensive rebound, which he promptly passed to Klay Thompson. Wiseman played the first few minutes of the fourth quarter as well, but in his minutes, the Hornets trimmed an 11-point lead down to 7, and when Jordan Poole subbed out of the game shortly after, the Warriors only led by four points. Poole sat for exactly four straight minutes, during which the Hornets got as close as a single point, and the Warriors led 98-85 with just under five minutes when he came back into the game.
After a Poole and-one layup at the 4:34 mark, Gordon Hayward hit a three to tie the score at 101 points apiece. In the final four minutes of the game, the Warriors outscored the Hornets 9-4, and those four points by the Hornets came with the game effectively out of reach. Jonathan Kuminga and Jordan Poole created several highlights in the final minutes of the game, Kuminga’s on the defensive end, and Poole with typical ball-handling flair. The Warriors didn’t hit a single jump shot in the final four minutes of the game, but their locked-in defense let them survive cold late-game shooting, which set the stage for Jordan Poole to put an end to the game:
Highlight of the game:
12/28/22: The Warriors beat the Utah Jazz, 112-107.
You can read my full recap here.
Here are the Warriors’ substitutions from this game:
1st Q:
12:00 — Poole/DiVincenzo/Lamb/D. Green/Looney: 0-0, tie game.
4:51 — Poole/DiVincenzo/Moody/Lamb/Kuminga: 13-20, Jazz lead.
6:21 — Poole/DiVincenzo/Moody/Lamb/D. Green: 10-15, Jazz lead.
4:14 — Jerome/DiVincenzo/Moody/Kuminga/Wiseman: 16-22, Jazz lead.
1:26 — Poole/Jerome/Moody/Kuminga/Wiseman: 25-31, Jazz lead.
2nd Q:
12:00 — Poole/Jerome/Moody/Kuminga/D. Green: 27-37, Jazz lead.
8:41 — Poole/Jerome/Lamb/Kuminga/D. Green: 36-46, Jazz lead.
8:12 — Poole/Jerome/Lamb/Kuminga/Looney: 38-46, Jazz lead.
7:32 — Jerome/DiVincenzo/Lamb/Kuminga/Looney: 41-50, Jazz lead.
6:58 — Jerome/DiVincenzo/Lamb/PBJ/Looney: 41-50, Jazz lead.
5:14 — Poole/DiVincenzo/PBJ/D. Green/Looney: 44-54, Jazz lead.
3rd Q:
12:00 — Poole/DiVincenzo/Lamb/D. Green/Looney: 54-59, Jazz lead.
10:33 — Poole/Jerome/DiVincenzo/D. Green/Looney: 54-61, Jazz lead.
7:01 — Poole/Jerome/DiVincenzo/Lamb/Looney: 65-71, Jazz lead.
5:19 — Poole/DiVincenzo/Lamb/Kuminga/Looney: 70-79, Jazz lead.
3:16 — Jerome/Moody/Lamb/Kuminga/Wiseman: 76-84, Jazz lead.
1:27 — Jerome/Moody/PBJ/Lamb/Wiseman: 82-90, Jazz lead.
4th Q:
12:00 — Poole/Jerome/DiVincenzo/PBJ/D. Green: 88-94, Jazz lead.
9:26 — Poole/DiVincenzo/PBJ/Kuminga/D. Green: 97-98, Jazz lead.
7:37 — Jerome/DiVincenzo/Lamb/Kuminga/Looney: 97-99, Jazz lead.
4:08 — Jerome/DiVincenzo/Lamb/Kuminga/D. Green: 107-103, Warriors lead.
3:48 — Poole/Jerome/DiVincenzo/Kuminga/D. Green: 107-103, Warriors lead.
2:03 — Poole/Jerome/DiVincenzo/Lamb/D. Green: 107-103, Warriors lead.
For most of the Warriors’ win against the Utah Jazz, the Warriors trailed. From the 7:34 mark of the first quarter until the 10:17 mark of the fourth quarter, the Warriors did not lead, due in large part to the play of Lauri Markkanen, who scored 23 points and shot 5/8 from deep in the first half. The Warriors went into the second quarter trailing by 10 points — Markkanen scored 14 points on 4/5 shooting in the first period — and when Jonathan Kuminga picked up his third foul at the 6:58 mark of the quarter, Steve Kerr called a timeout and made a surprise substitution for Kuminga: rookie forward, Patrick Baldwin Jr.
After passing up a good look from three early in his stint, Baldwin Jr. hit his first three of the night off a gorgeous cross-court pass by Draymond Green and as he ran back on defense, he got called for a foul defending a Colin Sexton drive to the hoop. Kerr successfully challenged Badlwin Jr.’s foul and the Jazz went scoreless over the next three-ish minutes of the period. Baldwin Jr. hit another three and was so good in his minutes that he was trusted to close the half alongside Jordan Poole, Donte DiVincenzo, Draymond Green, and Kevon Looney and by the end of the half, the Warriors trailed by only five points.
Early in the third quarter, the Warriors' offense looked stagnant, so Steve Kerr subbed in Ty Jerome to put another ball-handler on the court. A few minutes later, Draymond Green subbed out of the game with 7:01 left in the period with the Warriors down 6 points. Green did not play for the rest of the quarter. Late in the quarter, Steve Kerr Kerr tempted the fates by playing James Wiseman more than three minutes without Jordan Poole or Draymond Green. Still, his Wiseman’s helped Ty Jerome score six points in the final minutes of the period to trim the Jazz’s lead to 6 points going into the fourth quarter.
Extended rest for Draymond Green in the third quarter allowed Steve Kerr to play him early in the fourth quarter alongside Jordan Poole, Ty Jerome, Donte DiVincenzo, and Patrick Baldwin Jr., and in a little more than two-and-a-half minutes, they took the lead on consecutive threes by PBJ, Poole, and Draymond. At the 7:37 mark, Kerr subbed out Green and Poole to buy them some rest for the game's closing minutes. This put Ty Jerome in the position of the Warriors’ lead ball-handler in high-leverage minutes, which is a concept that would have been shocking to Warriors fans a few weeks ago.
With the Warriors trailing by four at the 6:08 mark, Jerome hit a driving layup to put the Warriors within two points. After a pair of Jonathan Kuminga free throws, Jerome got a steal on defense and then took a pull-up transition three to give the Warriors a 104-101 lead with just over five minutes left in the game. From that point on, the Jazz only made two more field goals for the rest of the game, only one of which came after Draymond Green and Jordan Poole subbed back into the game.
Green’s crunch-time defense was transcendent and he came up with two huge blocks on what looked like certain Jazz buckets in the interior. Green’s defense allowed the Warriors to survive Jonathan Kuminga fouling out with just over two minutes left, as well as some turnover scares in the final minute of the game.
Highlight of the game:
12/28/22: The Warriors beat the Portland Trail Blazers, 118-112.
You can read my full recap here.
1st Q:
12:00 — Poole/DiVincenzo/Thompson/D. Green/Looney: 0-0, tie game.
6:44 — Poole/DiVincenzo/Thompson/Kuminga/D. Green: 19-6, Warriors lead.
4:47 — Poole/DiVincenzo/Thompson/Lamb/Kuminga: 24-12, Warriors lead.
3:29 — Jerome/Thompson/Lamb/Kuminga/Looney: 29-12, Warriors lead.
1:23 — Jerome/Moody/Lamb/Kuminga/Looney: 35-20, Warriors lead.
0:09 — Moody/Lamb/Kuminga/D. Green/Looney: 38-25, Warriors lead.
0:03 — Poole/Jerome/Moody/Thompson/Lamb: 38-25, Warriors lead.
2nd Q:
12:00 — Poole/Jerome/Moody/Lamb/D. Green: 41-25, Warriors lead.
9:11 — Poole/Jerome/DiVincenzo/Kuminga/D. Green: 41-35, Warriors lead.
7:31 — Poole/Jerome/DiVincenzo/Kuminga/Looney: 49-38, Warriors lead.
7:18 — Jerome/DiVincenzo/Thompson/Kuminga/Looney: 50-38, Warriors lead.
4:42 — Poole/DiVincenzo/Thompson/Kuminga//Looney: 54-45, Warriors lead.
4:21 — Poole/DiVincenzo/Thompson/D. Green/Looney: 56-45, Warriors lead.
1:24 — Poole/DiVincenzo/Thompson/Lamb/D. Green: 58-51, Warriors lead.
1:07 — Poole/DiVincenzo/Thompson/Lamb/Looney: 58-53, Warriors lead.
0:34 — Poole/DiVincenzo/Thompson/Kuminga/Looney: 59-56, Warriors lead.
3rd Q:
12:00 — Poole/DiVincenzo/Thompson/D. Green/Looney: 60-56, Warriors lead.
8:29 — Poole/DiVincenzo/Thompson/Kuminga/D. Green: 67-72, Trail Blazers lead.
4:23 — Jerome/Thompson/Lamb/Kuminga/Looney: 80-85, Trail Blazers lead.
1:55 — Jerome/Moody/Thompson/Lamb/Looney: 85-93, Trail Blazers lead.
4th Q:
12:00 — Poole/Jerome/Moody/Lamb/D. Green: 88-96, Trail Blazers lead.
9:39 — Poole/Jerome/DiVincenzo/Lamb/D. Green: 93-99, Trail Blazers lead.
7:42 — Poole/DiVincenzo/Lamb/Kuminga/D. Green: 95-103, Trail Blazers lead.
6:42 — Poole/Thompson/Lamb/Kuminga/Looney: 99-105, Trail Blazers lead.
6:06 — Jerome/DiVincenzo/Thompson/Kuminga/Looney: 100-105, Trail Blazers lead.
4:41 — Poole/DiVincenzo/Thompson/Kuminga/D. Green: 102-110, Trail Blazers lead.
The Warriors went into their final game of the week with unexpected absences — Andrew Wiggins and JaMychal Green had both been cleared to return from their original injuries, only to miss Friday night’s game for other ailments, James Wiseman was ruled out of the game with an ankle sprain, and Wednesday night’s surprise contributor, Patrick Baldwin Jr., was unlikely to play because this would have marked his third game in three nights. That made it all the more impressive that the Warriors overcame dead legs to dominate the Portland Trail Blazers in crunch time with lockdown defense.
Friday night’s victory was something of a bizarre amalgamation of their victories against the Hornets and Jazz — just as they did against the Hornets, the Warriors (and more specifically, Klay Thomspon) got off to a hot-shooting start and led by nearly 20 points at certain moments in the first half. Later on in the game, the Warriors looked dead in the water, just as they did against the Jazz, and trailed going into crunch time, only to dominate defensively in the game’s closing minutes.
Jordan Poole and Klay Thompson scored 14 and 15 points in the first quarter, which helped the Warriors jump out to a 41-25 lead at the end of the first quarter. In the second quarter, the Warriors led by as many as 15 points, but scored just four points on just one made field goal in the final four minutes of the half. The Warriors’ offense was particularly ugly in those minutes as they committed four turnovers and missed all of their jump shots. For good measure, the Warriors also committed four fouls in those final four minutes, which made the score 60-56 going into the second half.
The Warriors’ sloppy play in the second quarter gave the Trail Blazers momentum that carried into the third quarter and less than two minutes into the period, they took their first lead of the game. During that third quarter, the Blazers took advantage of inattentive Warriors’ defense to bully them on the offensive glass and for easy buckets and fouls. Speaking of fouls — Jonathan Kuminga picked up his fifth foul of the game late with 4:23 left in the third quarter and struggled to defend Damian Lillard, who scored 11 points in the period.
At the start of the fourth quarter, the Warriors trailed by 8 points and while they did cut the Blazers’ lead to three points early in the period, they trailed by 8 and 6 points when Draymond Green and Jordan Poole got respective fourth-quarter rest. When that duo came back into the game at the 4:41 mark, the Warriors led by 8 points, but from that point on, they outscored the Blazers 16-4.
Poole, who finished the game with 41 points, hit a three at the 2:57 mark to make the score 99-100, Blazers lead. That three forced a Trail Blazers’ timeout and in the following possessions, the Warriors’ closing lineup of Poole/DiVincenzo/Thompson/Kuminga/D. Green, put together several possessions of suffocating defense that led to the Warriors’ buckets in transition that gave them a lead. Damian Lillard did hit a layup with just over a minute left to cut the Warriors’ lead to just two points, but Donte DiVincenzo then closed the door on the Blazers with a poke steal on Lillard and a pick-and-pop three on the other end.
Highlight(s) of the game:
The Warriors’ most-used lineups for the season:
Before we dive into this past week, let’s contextualize some numbers: league-average ORTG in the NBA is currently 113.5, which is the highest ORTG in league history.
Below is a screenshot from Cleaning the Glass that the 15 most-used Warriors’ five-man lineups (positive ones are highlighted in green):
The Warriors have now played so many games without Steph Curry that he only shows up five times in the team’s 15 most-used lineups. Curry-led lineups do, however, still account for three of the four Warriors’ lineups to play over 100 possessions together. The only non-Curry lineup to have played more than 100 possessions is the Warriors’ recent starting lineup without both Curry and Andrew Wiggins — Poole/DiVincenzo/Thompson/D. Green/Looney — and it has a +5.4 net rating. Some other things of note: Andrew Wiggins only appears five times in this list because he’s missed 13 straight games and at the time of writing, is expected to miss Monday night’s game against the Atlanta Hawks as well.
The absence of Wiggins has opened up opportunities for Donte DiVincenzo and Jonathan Kuminga to play themselves into more prominent roles. DiVincenzo shows up 9 times in this list and all but one of his lineups is a positive one. Kuminga only shows up four times here but all of his non-Steph Curry lineups are positive. The two most notable Kuminga lineups — Poole/DiVincenzo/Thompson/Kuminga/D/ Green and Poole/DiVincenzo/Lamb/Kuminga/D. Green — both played big crunch-time minutes this past week.
What lineups played a lot last week?
Here are the Warriors’ five-man lineups that played at least four minutes this past week (positive ones highlighted in green):
The Warriors’ preferred non-Curry/non-Wiggins starting lineup was actually a negative in its 26 minutes together this past week. But the next most-used lineup — Poole/DiVincenzo/Thompson/Kuminga/D. Green — was excellent in 16 minutes because of its suffocating defense. Only two other lineups played more than five minutes together last week: Poole/Jerome/Moody/Kuminga/D. Green had a +16.7 net rating in its minutes together while Poole/DiVincenzo/Lamb/D.Green/Looney played all of its minutes together against the Utah Jazz and had a putrid -46.7 net rating in 7 minutes together. In 19 possessions together, Cleaning the Glass has that lineup at a -26.3 net rating, so here’s hoping we don’t see much more of that lineup.
Here are the Warriors’ 25 most-used three-man lineup combos from this past week (positive ones highlighted in green):
It should be no surprise that variants of the Warriors’ starting lineup were excellent in their minutes together. The most-used three-man combo of this past week was Poole/DiVincenzo/D. Green, which had a +13.8 net rating, and in 482 possessions together over the course of the entire season, they have a +11 net rating. On offense, that trio has a middle 113.3 ORTG, but their 102.3 DRTG ranks in the 99th percentile. The next two most-used trios are both Klay Thompson variants of the Warriors’ starting and closing lineups with either Draymond Green or Jordan Poole alongside Donte DiVincenzo and they both held their opponents to under 100 ORTG. Seems good!
The next five lineups that come out negative all involve Kevon Looney and all 7 of the three-man combos that he appears in have negative net ratings. What’s a little jarring is that these minutes all came alongside likely variants of the Warriors’ starting lineup. I expected that some of Looney’s negative lineups here would occur in weird combinations with some combination of Ty Jerome, Anthony Lamb, or Jonathan Kuminga, but that was not the case. Have I mentioned that Looney is, again, the Warriors’ only healthy center? Seems important.
Some other trios of note:
Poole/Kuminga/D. Green had a +40.0 net rating this past week with an 84.6 DRTG. while the Poole/DiVincenzo/Kuminga trio had a +47.8 net rating with an 81.0 DRTG. The other trio that combines variants of the others, DiVincenzo/Kuminga/D. Green, had a +33.1 net rating with a 77.8 DRTG. All three of those combos have been positive over the course of the entire season and their recent success gives the impression that a bench unit revolving around Poole/DiVincenzo/Kuminga/D. Green + one other player could be a playoff-ready second unit.
Another three-man combo caught my eye: Poole/Jerome/D. Green. In 28 minutes, that trio had a +9.8 net rating with a 101.6 DRTG. That trio has been a net negative this season with a -8.9 net rating, but Jerome’s recent play gives me some hope that the Warriors can keep surviving Poole/Jerome minutes with the right defensive frontcourt.
One last Ty Jerome stat: Poole/Jerome/DiVincenzo did not play enough minutes to qualify for the 25-most used lineups this past week, but they had a +19.7 net rating in 15 minutes. While that lineup scored the shit out of the ball with a 129.4 ORTG, their 109.7 DRTG is pretty mediocre. Over the course of the full season, that trio has a +3.7 net rating in 54 non-garbage time lineups. It’s not a trio that should be relied upon, but it’s been good enough to survive its minutes together during a tough stretch of the season.
Here are the Warriors’ 20 most-used two-man lineup combos from this past week (positive ones highlighted in green):
Two players in this list seemed to have a negative impact on the Warriors’ best players this past week: Anthony Lamb and Kevon Looney. All of the negative combos in this list include one of Lamb or Looney or one of Ty Jerome, but I’m reluctant to group Jerome in with Lamb and Looney for their performances this past week because we have some data of positive Jerome trios and five-man lineups from this past week.
Lamb coming back down to earth is not surprising. If anything, it’s a welcome development. Lamb has been a rugged defender and reliable shooter, but he’s turnover prone, foul-happy, and he’s an alleged rapist. The idea of the Warriors becoming even more reliant on Lamb and rostering him, only to learn of additional allegations or for his alleged victim’s legal case against the University of Vermont to move forward would put the Warriors in a bind that they should have avoided to begin with.
As for Looney, well, is it any surprise that he’s flagging after being run into the ground this early into the season? Looney is averaging a career-high 22.9 minutes a game and as the Warriors’ frontcourt depth dwindles, more has been asked of Looney. This was especially true in the Warriors’ Friday night game against the Portland Trail Blazers, when Looney was the Warriors’ only healthy player over 6’7 and had to play extended minutes without Draymond Green in an attempt to stabilize the Warriors’ interior defense over the course of 48 minutes.
The rest of the two-man combos you see on this list make sense. There are that I want to take a closer look at though: Thompson/Kuminga and Poole/Kuminga. In 35 minutes last week, those duos has net ratings of +22.5 and +27.4. Zoom out for the entire season and their net ratings are -2.8 and +0.9 respectively.
In the previous regular season, Thompson/Kuminga had a -2.0 net rating and they were actually better in minutes without Steph Curry (-0.6 net rating in 312 possessions) than they were with (-3.2 net rating in 385 possessions). Weirdly enough, that same trend holds for this season, but with a way more dramatic swing — Thompson/Kuminga have a +2.7 net rating in 288 possessions without Curry and a brutal -16.2 net rating with Curry in 116 possessions. Hopefully, Curry’s absence provides Klay and Kuminga an opportunity to familiarize themselves with each other’s games over a larger sample size and that momentum can translate into a positive impact upon Curry’s return.
Poole/Kuminga have the same weird on/off splits with and without Curry this season: in 165 possessions with Curry, their net rating is -2.1, and +1.7 in 677 possessions without Curry. Last season, that was not the case as the two young players were +4.5 without Curry in 841 possessions and +8.8 in 342 possessions with Curry.
James Wiseman watch:
Prior to spraining his ankle before Wednesday night’s game, James Wiseman played less than 10 minutes each in his two games this week.
The good:
Against the Charlotte Hornets, Wiseman looked pretty solid defending in drop coverage in his first-half minutes. Wiseman’s positioning was improved, his hands were in the right place, and he racked up a fair amount of neutral plays where he did the right thing and was unnoticeable, in the best of ways. Wiseman also had this impressive finish out of a pick-and-roll with Klay Thompson:
In Wiseman’s second-half minutes against the Utah Jazz, he was part of a surprisingly solid defensive unit with Ty Jerome, Moses Moody, Patrick Baldwin Jr., and Anthony Lamb. This defensive possession demonstrated some nice awareness by Wiseman:
The bad:
Wiseman’s first-half minutes against the Hornets featured several instances of him struggling to finish in the interior and he got dunks blocked twice. In both games this week, Wiseman got a little adventurous putting the ball on the ground with poor results:
James Wiseman’s stats in a 110-105 win against the Charlotte Hornets:
8 points, 2 rebounds, 1 assist, and 1 turnover on 4/7 shooting in 9:44 minutes.
James Wiseman’s stats in a 112-107 win against the Utah Jazz:
4 points, 4 rebounds, and 1 foul on 2/4 FG in 7:20 minutes.
Stray thoughts and observations:
Jonathan Kuminga’s poorly-timed injury leaves the Warriors very thin in the frontcourt and it comes at an inopportune moment in Kuminga’s season. This past week felt like a coming-out party for Kuminga and his fourth-quarter defense was a huge part of the Warriors’ crunch-time success. Here’s Kerr on Kuminga after the Warriors’ win against the Blazers: “I trust him. His athleticism. The fact that he’s really embraced this role defensively. There’s a reason he’s out there. We’re playing a team with three difficult players to stop with (Anfernee) Simons, Lillard and (Jerami) Grant. Felt like a good night for him to be out there.” Kerr’s willingness to put Kuminga back on the court after some sloppy defensive rebounding and early foul trouble was remarkable. In all three games this past week, Kuminga made huge late-game plays on defense that fueled the Warriors’ transition offense. This, in turn, led to easier buckets for Kuminga and his teammates. Kuminga is not Gary Payton II, but he can be explosive in transition, and the more opportunities the Warriors get to push the ball, the more they stress the defense of their opponents. This stretch of extended minutes for Kuminga has come in lineups that pale in offensive firepower to the ones with Steph Curry and Andrew Wiggins and as Kuminga learns how to use his considerable physical gifts in less favorable lineups, it’s intoxicating to imagine how his defense will translate in minutes with a healthy Warriors’ team.
Kuminga’s injury hopefully won’t last too long, but you never really know that because of how opaque the Warriors are about injuries to their players. At least for tonight, Kuminga’s injury will open up minutes for Patrick Baldwin Jr. in the frontcourt. In Baldwin Jr.’s surprise minutes against the Utah Jazz, he had the good fortune to sub in directly for Kuminga midway through the second quarter and play minutes with the Warriors’ adults. This was something I’d been very curious to see — how PBJ would look alongside smart players rather than his young garbage-time counterparts. The results? Pretty awesome. Baldwin Jr. shot the ball confidently and most importantly, he knew where to be on the court on both ends of the court. I think that the mere threat of Baldwin Jr.’s shot should make him useful on offense even if his shots aren’t falling. But it’s his defensive know-how that really makes him intriguing. Here are two examples:
Relatively nondescript Patrick Baldwin Jr. sequence compared to his more notable highlights. But he seems to already have a good grasp of team-defense concepts. He knows his role as the "fill" man when Donte DiVincenzo "traps the box" and Ty Jerome "sinks" in to help the helper.Really great defensive footwork by Patrick Baldwin Jr. as he closes out, has his arms in the right position and then cuts off Rudy Gay's baseline drive. Nice shot-making by Rudy wins thoughIf Baldwin Jr. can consistently make plays like that on defense, why can’t he be a neutral presence — even if he isn’t making shots?
Another young player who stands to get extended minutes in Kuminga’s absence is Moses Moody. Given his draft slot and the fact that he’s a second-year player, he’s probably the more intriguing prospect than Baldwin Jr., but I think there’s a chance that those two players find themselves in direct conflict for minutes over the next few weeks, especially once — if? — Andrew Wiggins gets healthy. As it stands, Donte DiVincenzo has solidified his role as one of the most important Warriors’ rotation players and the Warriors are getting big minutes from both him and Ty Jerome in minutes with and without Jordan Poole. All of this is to say, there’s a barrier to guard minutes for Moody right now, as well as an Andrew Wiggins-sized obstacle to wing minutes. Since getting DNP’d in two straight games in late November and early December, Moody has only turned the ball over three times in 13 games, so he’s clearly taken to heart what Steve Kerr said about him not being “allowed to be a high turnover guy” on November 18th. But the downside to Moody’s commendable turnover aversion is that he’s become passive to a fault. In those past 13 games, Moody has only taken five or more shots in 6 of those games, two of which were blowouts. For Moody to have value as a 3+D guy, he needs to bring the 3’s. Moody is actually shooting 38.3% from deep this season but he’s taking 5.9 three’s per-36-minutes compared to last season’s 6.5.
In most of my week-in-review posts, I’ve checked on the three-point dependency of Donte DiVincenzo and Klay Thompson and also checked their finishing stats, so I might as well keep that up — Donte is shooting 38.1% from three but his field-goal percentage is back down below 40% and he’s still shooting below 40% from the restricted area while Klay finally cracked the 40% field-goal percentage threshold and is shooting 37.9% from three. Klay’s portion of shots from 0-3 feet is still a career-low of 4.4% of all of his shots while his share of shots from 3-10 feet accounts for 12.3% of all of his shots, which is the most he’s ever shot it from that range. Klay is shooting 42.6% from 3-10 feet, the second-best mark of his career from that range. Klay-ups, which were once believed to be a thing of the past, have made their unfortunate return this season, and Klay’s combined percentage of 45.2% on layups and finger rolls is the lowest mark of his career. Hell, even last season Klay shot 65% on 83 combined attempts and during his sophomore year, the season the “Klay-up” was coined, he shot 60.1% on finger rolls and layups combined.
I’m probably coming off as hyper-critical of Donte DiVincenzo every time I focus in on his bizarrely impotent finishing. Here’s the thing — I quite like Donte as a player! He’s a brilliant defender, a rugged rebounder, and he rarely makes mistakes. So let’s focus on some positive stuff about Donte for a minute: while the Warriors are only a +0.7 in his minutes, DDV lineups with him at the 3 have been spectacular to the tune of a +15.7 net rating. Those lineups have, however, only accounted for 16% of his minutes this season. Once Steph Curry is healthy, I think it’ll be fun to see Curry/Poole/DiVincenzo lineups play some more minutes, if the recent successes of the Poole/Jerome/DiVincenzo have any predictive value.
Speaking of layups/finger rolls and the like, let’s take another look at Ty Jerome, who is shooting 20/28 on finger rolls + layups, 56.5% on drives to the hoop, 61.5% on 26 floater attempts, and 38.9% on 36 catch-and-shoot three-point attempts, and 44.4% on 9 pull-up threes. Despite Jerome’s weird penchant for giving away his advantage on pick-and-rolls, he’s been a very efficient shot-maker for the Warriors and at this point, it’s hard to see how Ryan Rollins might provide more value to the Warriors during his rookie contract than Jerome might over the next few seasons.
Rollins will, however, have a chance to get rotation minutes in tonight’s game against the Hawks. Well, at least in theory. The last time the Warriors played a blowout garbage-time game, Rollins didn’t get onto the court until there were 6 minutes left against the Brooklyn Nets. The Warriors trailed by a margin that ranged from 30 to 40 points for most of that game, by the way.
At some point, it would be great if the Warriors could buy some rest for Draymond Green, Jordan Poole, and Kevon Looney. Poole has played all of the Warriors’ games this season and recently cracked the 20-point average and is averaging 26.9 points as a starter this season. I don’t really know what to make of Poole’s declining three-point percentage — he’s shooting a career-high 55.1% on two-point field goals — but he’s only shooting 30.5% on open threes (he gets 3.2 of those a game and just 29.0% on 3.5 pull-up attempts a game. Still, Poole has been a valuable engine of offense with Steph Curry sitting, and hopefully, an extended stint as the Warriors’ lead ball-handler makes him more resilient once Curry and Wiggins get healthy.
As mentioned at the start of the piece, Draymond Green has been playing through back problems this week while playing out of his mind defensively in high-leverage minutes. You’ll recall that last season, Draymond missed a career-high 36 games, most of which were the result of a herniated disc that was so painful he couldn’t sit down at the peak of his suffering. As I wrote in my 2021-22 season-in-review post about Draymond Green, NBA players with his injury who declined to get surgery had shorter careers post-recovery than those who went under the knife. It sure would be nice if the Warriors did something to not send Draymond to his early grave, wouldn’t it?
As for Kevon Looney... well, he’s been an iron man for almost a season-and-a-half now, but I don’t want that forced upon him. Last season, Looney went through an extended period of physical malaise around the trade deadline that only really got better after the All-Star break. Looney has a track record of getting it together once he’s well-rested and I hope that the Warriors’ injured frontcourt finds its health soon so that Looney doesn’t have to wear down this early into the season.
What’s in store for the Warriors this next week?
The Warriors play three home games this week: a Monday night game against the Atlanta Hawks (17-19 record), a Wednesday night game against the Detroit Pistons (10-29 record), and then a Saturday evening game against the Orlando Magic (13-24 record).
My prediction for the week:
The Warriors go 2-1 with a loss tonight to the Hawks.