After a hot start in which the Golden State Warriors appeared to be performing beyond their means – that is, they had a single elite asset on the roster, supplemented by a role player who didn’t particularly excel in a particular area – the world now shines They crashed where most people expected them to be at the start of this season.

This has to do with several things. For one thing, one of those role players, De’Anthony Melton, proved to be their best offseason signing, a two-way guard with ball-handling skills in a pinch, three-point shooting and the ability to defend opponents, becoming the team’s best perimeter scorer. But with an ACL sprain that forced him to undergo surgery, Melton has been completely unhinged this season. Another development (or rather lack thereof): the slower than expected emergence of the youth movement. It’s one thing when second-year players like Brandin Podziemski and Trayce Jackson-Davis are already in a panic in their second year as pros; It’s another when Jonathan Kuminga and Moses Moody – fourth-year NBA players – struggle to achieve the stability expected of them. The calculated gamble the organization took in its roster (e.g., becoming a capable two-way backup to its aging stars and developing into franchise cornerstones) has faltered.

These issues are part of an overarching roster issue that indirectly plays a role in the aging curve of Steph Curry and Draymond Green. The lack of scoring support has forced Curry — who is 36 and turns 37 this March — to carry the load most nights, at an age where wear and tear is starting to rear its ugly head. To a lesser but important extent, Green was also forced to put out fires, which he rarely caused. At 34, he may be younger than Curry, but the physical nature of his game and years of clashing with bigger frontcourt players have aged him quickly.

On-off stats have never shown the importance of having Curry and Green on the field at all times as they have this season, when the Warriors – heading into the game against the Phoenix Suns – outscored opponents by 12 in 351 minutes The Curry-Green duo has exceeded .6 points per 100 possessions. On the other hand, in 293 minutes when Curry and Green both sat, the Warriors were outscored by 0.4 points per 100 possessions – virtually neutral in such minutes. That means the team is 13 points worse per 100 possessions without its two franchise cornerstones.

The fact that the Warriors can’t find stability beyond Curry and Green is a roster issue. Depth has been touted as a big plus this season; The use of 12-on-13 players is unprecedented for an NBA team in the regular season, but Steve Kerr and his coaching staff were confident that it would address issues such as the lack of a secondary shot artist/scorer beyond Curry and the revolving door of centers This has forced Green to bulk up and continue to pound bodies with larger opponents. Such a problem often leads to execution problems on both sides.

For example: Without Curry and Green on the field, the Warriors’ offense was only able to score 103.5 points per 100 possessions, which was the worst offense in the league (as opposed to 124.9 points per 100 possessions on the field). Defensively, a pattern is emerging: an extremely slow start in the first half, followed by a course correction in the second half. The former is certainly an issue, while the latter comes with the aforementioned offensive issue that has resulted in the rallies coming up short.

In his post-game comments following the Suns’ game, Green pointed out their inability to defend straight-line drives. No possession captures this problem better than this one, which led to a Suns corner kick in the third period:

While over-helping is certainly a problem – see Gary Payton II above, sinking too deep into the play and falling victim to a long, hard closeout – it’s Lindy Waters III’s inability to stop Devin Booker from making the most Getting past the attack point This triggers the chain reaction of scrambles and rotations.

Kerr mentioned after the game that some measures were taken to address the defense’s issue in the first half (in which the Warriors allowed the Suns to score a whopping 137.5 points per 100 possessions). One adjustment was to place Kevon Looney at the five and adjust pick-and-roll coverages accordingly. This change came about because Looney was playing a higher form of drop coverage, with the on-ball defender “weakening” the ball handler away from the screen (“weakening” in this sense would mean shadowing the ball handler toward his weak player ). Hand). Such personnel and coverage changes gave the Warriors a good start defensively, which continued for the remainder of the second half (94.0 points allowed per 100 possessions).

In addition to scoring 112 points per 100 possessions, this allowed the Warriors to outscore the Suns by a total of nine points – which wasn’t enough to offset the 17-point hole they dug in the first half (which resulted in a big one Part caused by …). The only time they were able to muster 100 points per 100 possessions was against the Suns.

Curry’s slow start and Green’s inability to cover all the bases uncovered on defense alone expose the roster-wide issues. There’s only so much a hot start and variance can explain before it all comes undone. It may be too early to conclude that the Warriors are in free fall — after all, they still have a record well over .500. But if Curry and Green can’t cash the checks written by the rest of the roster, they’re dangerously close to teetering into that territory.