The Golden State Warriors are still the presumptive favorites to win the NBA championship. But it’s hard not to look at this team without noticing that something seems off from last year’s record-breaking squad.
Although the Warriors have arguably the greatest collection of talent in NBA history, it does not appear like there is much confidence around the team. The Warriors are not the same fun-loving and cocky squad that ran teams out of the building while showing off. Instead, they’ve had moments of vulnerability including Draymond Green’s clear disapproval with how Kevin Durant ran an offensive play late in a loss to the Grizzlies.
Perhaps the biggest cause of the change has been Stephen Curry. The Warriors’ point guard seems to have taken a step backward. He is shooting 47 percent from the field after 50.4 percent last season. He is shooting 40.1 percent from three after 45.4 percent last year.
It’s clear that Curry, while still unarguably great, is not the same player that won two straight MVP awards. Curry acknowledges that but also has a message for his critics (via Chris Haynes of ESPN):
“Yeah, I heard the words ‘slump’ and ‘down year’ and all sorts of other ways to describe something that wasn’t really a problem for me,” Curry told ESPN. “I obviously hold myself to the highest standard. Still, at this point, I’m not at the numbers I was last year, but I’m not worried about that because it’s a different year. Every shot I take, I have confidence I’m going to make it, and over the course of the season, I expect that to show itself as we go along.”
“There’s a lot of scrutiny over something, to me, that wasn’t really an issue — knowing that it will all average out, most likely,” Curry told ESPN. “I try to get better from year to year, so if you survey it from that standpoint just off of raw numbers, I’m not achieving my goal right now. But there are a lot of things that go into it, obviously.”
Curry finds it humorous to suggest he has been “in a slump.”
“That is the one that’s most comical, because if you look at the numbers at that point, in the politest way, I’ll take those slump numbers any day of the week,” Curry told ESPN. “But I know it’s a long year and a lot more games to play. I try not to get caught up in that nonsense. It’s a roller-coaster ride of a season. It is what it is.”
Curry certainly has a point here. His numbers are still phenomenal even as he adjusts playing next to another high-usage player in Durant. That’s not to mention that his decrease in production hasn’t quite made the Warriors any worse than last year.
That said, this goes to point to the first thing I mentioned. Last year’s Warriors had a chip on their shoulder from all the talk about being “lucky” but they did not waver when faced with criticism. Curry wasn’t sitting down for interviews about slumps or other criticisms.
This is technically much ado about nothing. Stephen Curry is still great and the Warriors will almost certainly reach the Finals. But they don’t have the same air of inevitability and immortality that they had last season. It will be worth tracking this all year to see how it affects the Warriors’ ultimate goal.
