The 2022-23 Warriors are the defending champions, and they are exceptionally talented.
The 2022-23 Warriors also stink.
Three weeks into the team’s title defense, the Warriors are 3-7 with one of the NBA’s worst defenses. The Dubs are a team devoid if identity or cohesion, and the more they search for that winning spark, the further they seem away from it.
For the Warriors, the issue is talent.
It’s not that the Dubs lack it. They have talent in spades. The team’s starting lineup is arguably the best in the NBA. The young guns on the bench are dripping with potential. Yes, this team’s record is jarring, but these Warriors might still be — top-to-bottom — the most talented Golden State squad in the Steve Kerr era.
But talent alone does not result in a great team.
And the Warriors’ early-season struggles leave me with a strange feeling.
It’s not frustration, befuddlement, or even schadenfreude.
It’s appreciation.
Appreciation for how hard it is to transform talent into a team.
Appreciation for the nightly challenge the NBA provides.
Appreciation for just how good the champion Warrior teams of the past, including last year’s title-winners, were.
These are all things that, deep down, I knew and understood. I think you did, too. But it’s easy to forget that winning isn’t easy when Steph Curry is around every day.
But this year’s Warriors are providing stark, nightly reminders.
The first two years of Steve Kerr’s run as Warriors head coach were charming and incredible. The Warriors were immensely talented (a big reason Kerr took the Warriors’ job) but also likable.
That changed when the Warriors added Kevin Durant to the mix after a 73-win regular season in 2016.
The Warriors became Supervillains. Their closing lineup, with Draymond Green at center and Andre Iguodala, Klay Thompson, and Durant flanking Steph Curry, was so good playing it was considered cheating by fans and players around the league.
From the outside, it was easy to think that those Warriors rolled off their couches and into the arena and then put a whooping on whatever team they were facing that night. Such was the top-end talent of that team.
Of course, those lucky enough to peer behind the scenes knew that couldn’t have been further from the truth.
But even as I and others saw the consistent, focused, and painstaking work the players individually and collectively put forth daily in the three years of the Durant era, it was still easy to fall prey to the easy explanation for the Dubs’ success — their talent.
They just made it look so easy when the cameras were on.
The talent on this season’s Warriors roster is undeniable and enviable. We see it isolated with the team’s starters — the NBA’s best five-man unit by net rating. We saw it again on Friday, when those starters sat out the Dubs’ game in New Orleans and the Golden State kids gave a good Pelicans team a run.
But collectively, the mix of young and old on this squad makes everything look so hard.
Or, in the bastardized words of Zaza Pachulia: “nothing easy.”
How can watching the Warriors’ struggles following a title not leave you with a greater appreciation for the greatness that was on display in the first leg of the Warriors’ dynasty — that five-year, five-Finals run?
After the team’s first championship, the Warriors’ success seemed inevitable. The Dubs — to the detriment of their reputations at the time — only strengthened that belief year after year.
Last season, after two down years, the Warriors became the team to beat again. Curry made carrying a team to a title look so easy. Just give him Andrew Wiggins and Kevon Looney — maybe Draymond and Klay for stretches — and he would get you a ring.
It’s not that easy. Curry is just that good.
The Warriors’ superstar is playing at an MVP level right now. He’s consistently absurd in the best possible way — averaging 31 points per game on 41 percent 3-point shooting through nine contests.
And yet here the Warriors are.
The Warriors’ struggles to start the season also make you appreciate Kerr. He has his work cut out for him now.
Not only does he and his staff have to develop young players — a clear mandate from on high — but the Dubs have to win for the veterans, too.
Last year can be cited as evidence the two timelines can coexist. But last year’s Warriors weren’t this young and weren’t this committed to the youth movement. If anything, the Warriors’ title was the exception that proves the rule.
If Kerr has to pick a timeline, he’ll go with the veterans and winning now, but such a push-come-to-shove moment could still be weeks away, even if the Warriors continue to struggle. Such is ownership’s commitment to development.
In the meantime, Kerr and his staff will tweak and adjust rotations, they’ll continue to provide one-on-one guidance, and they’ll trust that the Dubs’ veterans will help them in that process.
It’s a lot to manage, and every loss makes it more difficult.
For all those who embarrassingly suggested that even they could coach the dynastic Warriors to titles, do you still think you can do Kerr’s job today?
It’s more likely than not that the Dubs will figure things out — that they’ll round into a championship-contending form by the time the long regular-season ends.
But there are no guarantees, as this team has taught us before and is teaching us again to start this season.
The Dubs started this season with a flat tire. This team is facing some real adversity, here.
So if — we can only say if, for now — Golden State comes out of this rut as title contenders once again, it will bring about a new batch of appreciation for the Dubs.
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