Kurtenbach: The Warriors are being bullied and we can’t ignore it any longer
Golden State Warriors: The Dubs have dropped back-to-back games against
teams that were bigger, stronger, and meaner. Getting Draymond Green
back will help, but this could be a big problem for Steph Curry and
company in the postseason.
>SAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA – FEBRUARY 10: Golden State Warriors’ Andrew
Wiggins (22), Golden State Warriors’ Stephen Curry (30) and Golden State
Warriors’ Jonathan Kuminga (00) defend against New York Knicks’ Julius
Randle (30) in the fourth quarter at the Chase Center in San Francisco,
Calif., on Thursday, Feb. 10, 2022. (Nhat V. Meyer/Bay Area News Group)
>SAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA – FEBRUARY 10: Golden State Warriors’ Andrew
Wiggins (22), Golden State Warriors’ Stephen Curry (30) and Golden State
Warriors’ Jonathan Kuminga (00) defend against New York Knicks’ Julius
Randle (30) in the fourth quarter at the Chase Center in San Francisco,
Calif., on Thursday, Feb. 10, 2022. (Nhat V. Meyer/Bay Area News Group)
By DIETER KURTENBACH | dkurtenbach@bayareanewsgroup.com | Bay Area News
Group
PUBLISHED: February 11, 2022 at 5:30 a.m. | UPDATED: February 11, 2022
at 7:51 a.m.
https://www.eastbaytimes.com/2022/02/11/kurtenbach-the-warriors-are-being-bullied-and-we-cant-ignore-it-any-longer/

Two-city back-to-backs are tough.

They’re even tougher when you play two teams that are bigger, stronger,
and tougher than you.

The Warriors are being bullied.

Wednesday night in Utah, it was the Jazz — namely Hassan Whiteside —
dishing out the beat down.

Thursday it was the New York Knicks coming into Chase Center and pushing
the Warriors around.

Golden State is a good enough team that Thursday’s game was close — Klay
Thompson missed a clean look at a game-tying jumper as the final buzzer
sounded — but the preceding 47 minutes and 54 seconds of the contest was
defined by the Knicks playing old-school, beat-’em-up basketball against
the decidedly new-school Warriors and controlling the contest.

The Knicks had 11 more offensive rebounds than the Warriors and 22 more
rebounds, total, in the game.

“They had a huge size advantage on the frontline, we were getting
crushed on the boards,” Warriors coach Steve Kerr said after the game, a
night after he commented that his team looked “small” next to the Jazz.
“But our guys fought, I’m really proud of them.””

The Knicks shot 33 free-throws in Thursday’s contest. The Warriors
attempted half of that — 17.

It’s hard for the Warriors to control the game when they can’t speed it
up. Allowing offensive rebounds and free throws guarantee the game is slow.

Now, I won’t pretend that the Warriors’ back-to-back losses mean much in
the grand scheme of things. No sir. The Warriors won’t play a meaningful
game against the Knicks all season. The Dubs might meet the Jazz in the
playoffs, but in a seven-game series, I’ll bet on Golden State’s ability
to pull bigs out of the paint, forcing them to play on the perimeter,
where they will be barbecued chicken. Utah is a flawed team.

But that’s not to say that these last two contests haven’t been informative.

The Warriors look like a team that needs Draymond Green back in the fold
sooner rather than later. Would the Dubs be getting punked like this if
Green was on the floor?

No way.

But Green might not be able to mitigate it all.

Thursday afternoon was the NBA’s trade deadline. Now that the massive
moves have been made around the league, teams naturally start looking
towards the playoffs.

The big questions start to be asked: Who are our best players? What are
our best rotations? How do we match up against our top rivals?

Now, the Warriors are still one of the NBA’s title favorites. They might
even be the favorite.

But the other teams in that class — the Suns, the Bucks, and perhaps now
the Philadelphia 76ers — share a common trait:

They have an elite big man.

The Warriors were unable to handle Whiteside, Mitchell Robinson, and
Julius Randle. Those are second-tier bigs at best; run-of-the-mill falls
if we’re being honest .

What will Giannis Antetokounmpo or Joel Embiid do to this team — even
with Green back in the fold?

Will the Warriors even be able to reach the NBA Finals? They’ll likely
have to go through the Suns’ DeAndre Ayton first.

I understand, fully, why the Warriors didn’t make a trade before
Thursday’s deadline. Their roster wasn’t built for tinkering and it’s
not like the Dubs are some scrub team that needs to find another level
to make something of this season.

But I’m not sure the return of Green and 7-foot sophomore James Wiseman
is going to provide the kind of stoutness the Warriors appear to need to
get past the league’s best bigguns.

There is a solution if the Warriors want it: The buyout market should
provide options for depth bigs.

Nemja Beliica played his first game in two weeks Thursday and was
benched for ineffectiveness. He wasn’t playing that well before a back
injury put him on the bench. If things don’t pick up soon, he would be
the guy to go to make room for a new Dub.

Now, I’m not yet advocating for a move. That would make mountains out of
the molehills that were the last two games.

But I’m not saying the Warriors should rule out the possibility, either.

This decision is tricky. With Green sidelined until after the All-Star
Game — perhaps decently into March, and the buyout deadline March 1, the
Warriors might have to make a call on adding size without having seen
Green back on the court.

The Warriors are a small team. There’s no getting around that. And in
most cases, it’s a strength.

But if the Dubs don’t start playing bigger — Saturday’s game against
Anthony Davis and the Lakers is a great test; next Wednesday’s game
against Nicola Jokic and the Nuggets and even better one — something
will have to be done.

There are too many impressive big men along the road to a championship
to ignore.

And while an immediate response seems implausible and also rash, the
Warriors unimpressive play in the paint can’t be ignored after these
last two games.

» I asked for 20-plus minutes of Jonathan Kumigna every night until the
All-Star break and Kerr delivered — and then some — on Thursday.

Kuminga delivered as well. He played 36 minutes, had 17 points, was the
Warriors’ best foul-drawer, and was a plus-8 in the contest.

The Congolese 19-year-old has looked like a reliable pro the last five
games.

It’s to the point where if you were to ask a casual fan how old Nos. 00
was, there’s no way they would guess 19.

Was he worked over a bit by Randle? Of course. The Knicks power forward
— perhaps the last true power forward in the NBA — had 28 points, thanks
to eight made free throws. He also had 16 rebounds.

No, Kuminga’s game wasn’t perfect, but it was still impressive.

So impressive that it’s hard to imagine qualifying his play with “he’s
only 19 years old” anymore.

It’s truly jarring how far his game has come in such a short amount of time.

» Damion Lee played with you-can’t-cut-me energy on Thursday night and
it was needed for both Lee and his team.

Legitimately: Good for him.

Not many teams can go to the end bench and grab a guy who can reasonably
play 20 minutes a night and knock down a couple of 3-pointers.

And while it had been a while since Lee had done that, Thursday served
as a reminder that he’s a nice piece for this team moving forward.

Allen wrote:
> Kurtenbach: The Warriors are being bullied and we can’t ignore it any
> longer
> Golden State Warriors: The Dubs have dropped back-to-back games against
> teams that were bigger, stronger, and meaner. Getting Draymond Green
> back will help, but this could be a big problem for Steph Curry and
> company in the postseason.
> >SAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA – FEBRUARY 10: Golden State Warriors’ Andrew
> Wiggins (22), Golden State Warriors’ Stephen Curry (30) and Golden State
> Warriors’ Jonathan Kuminga (00) defend against New York Knicks’ Julius
> Randle (30) in the fourth quarter at the Chase Center in San Francisco,
> Calif., on Thursday, Feb. 10, 2022. (Nhat V. Meyer/Bay Area News Group)
> >SAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA – FEBRUARY 10: Golden State Warriors’ Andrew
> Wiggins (22), Golden State Warriors’ Stephen Curry (30) and Golden State
> Warriors’ Jonathan Kuminga (00) defend against New York Knicks’ Julius
> Randle (30) in the fourth quarter at the Chase Center in San Francisco,
> Calif., on Thursday, Feb. 10, 2022. (Nhat V. Meyer/Bay Area News Group)
> By DIETER KURTENBACH | dkurtenbach@bayareanewsgroup.com | Bay Area News
> Group
> PUBLISHED: February 11, 2022 at 5:30 a.m. | UPDATED: February 11, 2022
> at 7:51 a.m.
> https://www.eastbaytimes.com/2022/02/11/kurtenbach-the-warriors-are-being-bullied-and-we-cant-ignore-it-any-longer/
>
>
>
> Two-city back-to-backs are tough.
>
> They’re even tougher when you play two teams that are bigger, stronger,
> and tougher than you.
>
>
> The Warriors are being bullied.
>
> Wednesday night in Utah, it was the Jazz — namely Hassan Whiteside —
> dishing out the beat down.
>
> Thursday it was the New York Knicks coming into Chase Center and pushing
> the Warriors around.
>
> Golden State is a good enough team that Thursday’s game was close — Klay
> Thompson missed a clean look at a game-tying jumper as the final buzzer
> sounded — but the preceding 47 minutes and 54 seconds of the contest was
> defined by the Knicks playing old-school, beat-’em-up basketball against
> the decidedly new-school Warriors and controlling the contest.
>
> The Knicks had 11 more offensive rebounds than the Warriors and 22 more
> rebounds, total, in the game.
>
> “They had a huge size advantage on the frontline, we were getting
> crushed on the boards,” Warriors coach Steve Kerr said after the game, a
> night after he commented that his team looked “small” next to the Jazz.
> “But our guys fought, I’m really proud of them.””
>
> The Knicks shot 33 free-throws in Thursday’s contest. The Warriors
> attempted half of that — 17.
>
> It’s hard for the Warriors to control the game when they can’t speed it
> up. Allowing offensive rebounds and free throws guarantee the game is slow.
>
> Now, I won’t pretend that the Warriors’ back-to-back losses mean much in
> the grand scheme of things. No sir. The Warriors won’t play a meaningful
> game against the Knicks all season. The Dubs might meet the Jazz in the
> playoffs, but in a seven-game series, I’ll bet on Golden State’s ability
> to pull bigs out of the paint, forcing them to play on the perimeter,
> where they will be barbecued chicken. Utah is a flawed team.
>
> But that’s not to say that these last two contests haven’t been
> informative.
>
> The Warriors look like a team that needs Draymond Green back in the fold
> sooner rather than later. Would the Dubs be getting punked like this if
> Green was on the floor?
>
> No way.
>
> But Green might not be able to mitigate it all.
>
> Thursday afternoon was the NBA’s trade deadline. Now that the massive
> moves have been made around the league, teams naturally start looking
> towards the playoffs.
>
> The big questions start to be asked: Who are our best players? What are
> our best rotations? How do we match up against our top rivals?
>
> Now, the Warriors are still one of the NBA’s title favorites. They might
> even be the favorite.
>
> But the other teams in that class — the Suns, the Bucks, and perhaps now
> the Philadelphia 76ers — share a common trait:
>
> They have an elite big man.
>
> The Warriors were unable to handle Whiteside, Mitchell Robinson, and
> Julius Randle. Those are second-tier bigs at best; run-of-the-mill falls
> if we’re being honest .
>
> What will Giannis Antetokounmpo or Joel Embiid do to this team — even
> with Green back in the fold?
>
> Will the Warriors even be able to reach the NBA Finals? They’ll likely
> have to go through the Suns’ DeAndre Ayton first.
>
> I understand, fully, why the Warriors didn’t make a trade before
> Thursday’s deadline. Their roster wasn’t built for tinkering and it’s
> not like the Dubs are some scrub team that needs to find another level
> to make something of this season.
>
> But I’m not sure the return of Green and 7-foot sophomore James Wiseman
> is going to provide the kind of stoutness the Warriors appear to need to
> get past the league’s best bigguns.
>
> There is a solution if the Warriors want it: The buyout market should
> provide options for depth bigs.
>
> Nemja Beliica played his first game in two weeks Thursday and was
> benched for ineffectiveness. He wasn’t playing that well before a back
> injury put him on the bench. If things don’t pick up soon, he would be
> the guy to go to make room for a new Dub.
>
> Now, I’m not yet advocating for a move. That would make mountains out of
> the molehills that were the last two games.
>
> But I’m not saying the Warriors should rule out the possibility, either.
>
> This decision is tricky. With Green sidelined until after the All-Star
> Game — perhaps decently into March, and the buyout deadline March 1, the
> Warriors might have to make a call on adding size without having seen
> Green back on the court.
>
> The Warriors are a small team. There’s no getting around that. And in
> most cases, it’s a strength.
>
> But if the Dubs don’t start playing bigger — Saturday’s game against
> Anthony Davis and the Lakers is a great test; next Wednesday’s game
> against Nicola Jokic and the Nuggets and even better one — something
> will have to be done.
>
> There are too many impressive big men along the road to a championship
> to ignore.
>

I agree with this. Is there really no one the Warriors could have picked
up to play some defense against the truly big centers? Asking Green to
do it has to wear him down, and it means that he's not free to roam
defensively.

I don't think Bjelica would be the player to cut, though. It doesn't
make sense to let go of one of their few bigs. Maybe Chiozza or Lee. I
was going to suggest Weatherspoon, but he's on a two-way contract.

--Robin

Robin Miller wrote:
> I agree with this. Is there really no one the Warriors could have picked
> up to play some defense against the truly big centers? Asking Green to
> do it has to wear him down, and it means that he's not free to roam
> defensively.

I've seen enough analyses that there really wasn't anything for the
Warriors to trade, given salary cap issues. Apparently, the only player
they could really move and get adequate value back for would be Moody.

I think they're seeing what turns up on the list of buy-out players,
somebody that they can sign as a free agent. Even then, only a minimum
contract.

I'm guessing that if they sign somebody, the Chiozza seems to the most
likely player on the roster that can be released.

Smith