Foreword
Although basketball is a team sport, if you want to win, every player in the team has to contribute, but whether a team can become a strong team in the league depends on the level of the star, if there is no superstar, even the best role players can not make too many waves in the league. And once the game comes to a critical moment, only the star has the ability to make the final decision, so it is important to have role players on a team who have their own roles, and it is even more important to have one or two superstars.
Last year, the Nuggets were able to win the championship thanks to the explosion of Jokic and Murray, who averaged 30 points per game in the former in the playoffs.135 rebounds 95 assists 11 steal and 1 block, while Murray averaged 26 per game1 point 57 rebounds and 71 assist, 15 steals performance. In fact, the Nuggets' roster depth at that time was not particularly good, and many teams in the league had better depth than them, but there was no way that their core duo was incomprehensible, and more importantly, both of them also had the ability to make their teammates better.
Like those favorites to win the championship this season, in addition to the Nuggets, the Celtics, Bucks and other lineups have the league's top superstars. And the disappointing performance of the teams, Lakers, Suns, etc., a large part of their current sluggish state has a lot to do with the decline in star strength or obvious shortcomings, if the Lakers are 35-year-old James, then they don't need to rely on Russell and other outside states, and the Suns have a player who can have excellent tandem offensive ability, they will not be ranked in the play-offs.
And there are also the Warriors, their current sluggish state is also inseparable from the core of the team, not to mention the decline of role players such as Wiggins and Looney, and now the Warriors can't even make the play-offs, the most critical thing is Thompson and Curry. Let's start with Thompson, the 33-year-old has been unable to compare his form this season with his peak due to his cruciate ligament rupture and Achilles tendon rupture, but his decline has exceeded expectations. So far, Thompson has only averaged 17 per game2 points and 42 percent from the field5%, but his annual salary is as high as 43.21 million.
Compared with the past, Thompson's state is too unstable now, no one knows what kind of play he will play in the next game, and when he is in good shape, he can also score 8 shots in a single game against strong teams such as the Clippers and Celtics. 6 three-pointers, but when the state is not good, he can shoot 1 of 8 three-pointers in a bad team like the Trail Blazers, and it is worth mentioning that Thompson has shot 1 of 8 shots in a single game outside the three-point line more than once this season, especially in the early part of the season, his performance was simply miserable, fortunately, he has picked up in these games in the past, otherwise the Warriors would have fallen out of the top 11 in the West.
Curry, if you look at the overall performance this season, he can still average 274 points 45 rebounds 44 assists on 45-field shooting8% and 41% three-point shooting. I have to say that such data is nothing to fault with other players, but as Curry's all-time No. 1 scorer and all-time No. 2 point guard, it is normal for the Warriors and the outside world to have high standards for him. And so far this season, Curry has not been without shortcomings, because he has played more balls, which also exposes his lack of control turnovers, so he is only averaging 44 assists but 10th in the league with an average of 31 turnover.
And the defensive end is also a cliché, Curry has never been a good defender, but as he gets older, his shortcomings in this area are being infinitely magnified. Before this season, except for the 2019-2020 season when he was injured and only played 5 games, and the 2021-2022 season when he gained muscle and changed shooting muscle memory, Curry's shooting rate has never been lower than 46% in recent years, and the three-point shooting rate has never been lower than 42%, but this season Curry's efficiency on the court has declined visibly.
Curry is the same as Thompson, he is unstoppable when he is in good shape, how he shoots on the court, but when he is not in good shape, he is also really iron, the most important thing is that Curry has been in the doldrums more and more this season, playing 29 games, Curry has a three-point shooting rate of less than 30% in 8 games, and he is a player who relies heavily on scoring outside the three-point line, so no matter how good or bad he feels, he will shoot a lot of three-pointers, so once there is no feeling, this kind of shot will hurt the team very much.
The instability of the team's core form has also caused the Warriors to fall into a slump again after a wave of five consecutive wins in the past, and they have lost the past two games to the Nuggets and the Heat, and the two games have been lost in very different ways. Facing the defending champion Nuggets, the Warriors played with the opponent to the last moment of the game, but in this game, Curry only shot 7 of 21, 3 of 13 three-pointers, contributed 18 points, 4 assists and 3 turnovers, it can be said that his better performance will lead him to win.
Against Butler, Lowry did not play the Heat, the game was played by them early, this game Curry was 3 of 15 shots, 2 of 8 three-pointers got 13 points, the fourth quarter chase Curry 4 shots 0 did not get a point is completely killed the suspense of the game, it is worth mentioning that Thompson also played badly in these two games, the two games combined 23 shots 7 shots, three-point shots 5 shots 5 shots got 22 points.
I have to say that before the start of the season, or even at the beginning of the season, no one could have imagined that Curry and the Warriors would fall into such a situation, when they played a wave of five consecutive wins after losing the opening game, and Curry played at the level of MVP, just when Warriors fans began to imagine that everything was fine, the team competed for the championship, and Curry hit the third MVP of his career, the team went downhill. And just after another wave of five consecutive wins, Curry and Thompson stood up and poured cold water on the fans, and the current Warriors give hope first and then disappoint the fans every time. The most important thing is that the Splash Brothers are now older, and one of them has suffered multiple major injuries, so it is becoming more and more difficult for them to break out in the play-offs or even the playoffs.