Is it smart to fade the Golden State Warriors heading into the playoffs?
The season started out so promising for the Golden State Warriors. However, over the course of the last 6-7 weeks of the season, something has shifted drastically for the team.
Over the last month and a half, the Warriors have had to battle injuries and the team simply hasn’t adjusted as hoped. From all indications, it seems as if the injuries to Stephen Curry and Draymond Green (who has since returned) threw the Warriors off and they can’t seem to get the rails back on track.
Curry has been out the last two weeks for the Warriors but this team has been struggling far before his injury. Since Feb 9, the Warriors have one of the worst records in the NBA. Since then, Golden State is only 7-16.
Over that stretch, the team has a bottom 10 offense, the 18th ranked defense, and 20th ranked net rating in the league. They’ve fallen from the second seed in the West to, now, fourth and there’s a very real chance that the team is going to have a dogfight of a first-round matchup against the Denver Nuggets or Utah Jazz.
The big question for the Warriors heading into the playoffs is whether any of this changes when Curry makes his return from injury. The hope is that he will be back before the playoffs.
That’s the big gamble.
Even since Draymond Green has returned from injury, he hasn’t looked the same. If that’s the same fate that Curry could have, with some rust after time off, there’s no question that the Warriors will be in danger of losing in the first round of the playoffs.
And considering where this team was just a couple of months ago, it’s hard not to view that as anything other than a huge disappointment.
Time is running out in the regular season and the Warriors picked the worst time to play their worst basketball of the season.