Let's gossip less and get straight to the point.
No. 10 Wiggins.
If you were to calculate the absolute difference in game contributions, Wiggins wouldn't be just 10th on this list.
Prior to this season, Wiggins' regular season shooting and defensive performance in the Warriors was relatively stable, with a three-point shooting rate of more than 38% in the past three seasons, and a steal rate and block rate maintained above a good level. Although the average of "Mr. Seventeen or Eighteen" per game is ridiculous, it can be achieved stably for a long time, and it is also a guarantee solution that cannot be ignored for the Warriors.
In the same period last year, Wiggins' form was extremely explosive, and his three-point crosshairs soared to 45% in the first two months of the game, and there was a faint trend of entering the peak of his career. This makes the four-year contract that the Warriors signed him with in the summer of 2022 look like a great value for money.
Wiggins' departure from the team on leave was a turning point. His absence has not only caused a shortage of resources for the Warriors' forward line and perimeter leaders, but also caused a slump in the form of the Warriors' return to the same condition as at the beginning of the season. This is understandable, although we don't know exactly what happened to Wiggins, but it is difficult to find a feeling after not playing for a long time, which is quite in line with the normal physiology of the players.
It's hard to understand why Wiggins' slump has continued to this dayIt's even better than last season's playoffs — it was just an inaccurate shot at the time, and now it's down 10 percentage points from the bottom of the basket, and there are weird dribbling and ball errors. In addition, Wiggins has lost a significant portion of his defensive contributions, with no steals in his first seven games and 14 steals in 18 games, as well as making all sorts of bizarre defensive discipline mistakes.
The impression is that the Wiggins people came, but they didn't bring their souls to the arena, only a Wiggins-like body moved mechanically on the field. In terms of game impact, Wiggins is actually much worse than Thompson. So far this season, Wiggins ranks fifth from the bottom and third from the bottom in terms of EPM and BPM, respectively, among players who have averaged more than 25 minutes per game.
So why is Thompson and not Wiggins the main target of Warriors fans?
Speaking from Wiggins's side alone, there are two reasons:
First, although he only has a shell, his shell is quite hardworking, and it can be seen that he is fighting both offense and defense, and the rebounding rate in the front court is even a career high. Although we don't know if Wiggins really didn't train during the offseason, at least he came on the court with an attitude. It's not good to play, it's more because of the real dish;
The second is that when Wiggins is cooking, Cole can do without him.
In the past five games, Wiggins has made 11-of-23 three-pointers and scored 31 and 29 points against the Thunder and Kings, respectively, showing signs of recovery.
Then, he was squeezed by the door.
No. 9 Cunningham.
The Pistons have won 2-17 since the start of the season, basically locking in another bad season. Even, the degree of rotten may have a chance to make team history.
The pistons' rot is definitely not Cunningham's problem alone. However, when a young team still fails to improve at the team level, you will pay more attention to the performance and growth of the core of the team, and then put more hope into the future.
Cunningham will make it hard for you to judge.
On the one hand, I think Cunningham's ability is okay, and even at the beginning of the season, I think he basically passed the "first-in-class" test and was generally worthy of the picks given to him by the Pistons. He has all the basic configurations of a big core with the ball, shooting, sudden, passing, and creating opportunities for the team by attracting pinchs in some games, which is a driving style of play. This makes it easier for the team to build.
Another situation is that Cunningham's completion as a big core with the ball is too low. He did have something to throw in the passes, but they weren't enough. Cunningham made a mistake, and the Pistons had the most constipated space in the league, and although he had to carry some blame, there were many cases where he didn't do a good job of controlling the pass. In particular, he couldn't get in halfway through the break, and forced a pass error without changing the defense sufficiently, which may be a problem he will always have to face in the future.
Cunningham will use screens, change tempo to create shooting space, finish with both left and right hands, and have throwing techniques, but it seems that each technique has not been refined, and there is still a lot of room for improvement. He has a whopping 42% of his shots in the mid-range, which may not be deliberately retro. In fact, Cunningham's style of playing a lot of blocks and pick-and-rolls from mid-range is not retro in itself, because he is not cracking the iron bucket formation, but really can't get into it. To manage that distribution, Cunningham's current 38 percent shooting percentage from mid-range is far from enough.
Cunningham may be a 70-point ball-handling core, and he's done a close loop of logic in this type of play. The problem is that the passing mark for this style of play is 90 points, and 70 points can only compete for the top prize if you go this way.
Most of Cunningham's teammates are not complete enough, or too extreme. The monarch killer is a typical half-hanger, who doesn't stick to any side. Ossar is full in areas related to vitality, but it doesn't provide space at all. Ivey is a good scorer, but he can't play second guard as a dominant player. Hayes can play that role, but the scoring efficiency is touching. Cunningham needs at least two teammates who can really share the pressure on him, rather than letting him dominate the offense too much, which is not allowed by his current ability.
Maybe Bojan can count one after his return.
The good news for the Pistons is that Cunningham can turn without the ball. Even if the way of holding the ball with the big core doesn't work, he has a way out.
8th place Spurs' defense.
Spurs' defense is incomprehensibly poor. They currently rank 27th in the league in defensive efficiency, with only the Hornets, Wizards, and Pacers worse than their defense.
You can easily forgive the Wizards for their defensive answers, because during the offseason, as long as you look at their roster, it's not hard to guess that no matter how hard you try, they can't save the league's lowest defensive efficiency.
The Pacers are more like a trade-off, anyway, no matter how hard you work on this wave of people's defense, there is a high probability that it will not be good, so it is better for everyone to be happy and replace defense with offense.
Wasps do have some problems, but that's wasps after all.
What's the deal with Spurs?
Why can't they even pick out any merit in their defense?
Their lead defense is not aggressive, the basket protection only exists in the highlights, and the strength of the weak side defense comes and goes, but it does not delay the outside line at all and is shot into a mess. It's hard to believe that this is Popovich's team. The Spurs' toughest defensive moment is probably Popovich's expression of dissatisfaction with the defense and calling a timeout, and after the timeout, you can't see the change.
It's hard to understand why the Hawks can score under the Spurs' basket with just one pass in a row, or why Kawaii can dunk so easily with Zubac and Mann on the weak side and Wemban and Collins on the floor.
Spurs' defense is inexplicable. Although Wemban is still a defensive player with a lot of shortcomings, he has problems with his co-defense selection and pick-and-roll selection. But just by virtue of talent and instinct, Wemban has already contributed to the league's top 3 breaking total data. Such a spider monster is placed in the right position, and it is impossible not to improve the defense. At the same time, the Spurs' starting lineup is a double interior line + double forwards + a wing that is not small, no matter how immature the players are, the basic conditions for defense cannot be the bottom rank in the league.
The Spurs' poor offense can be attributed to configuration. But the defense was poor and there was no suitable excuse to find it.
Unless, their goal is to get another champion and replicate the path of success.
7th place Zaire Williams.
Zawi's performance is very poor, and whether the degree of poor performance and popularity is enough to rank in this position in this list is debatable.
After all, he's not the only third-year player who can't play.
I put Zawe here because his inability to play has an impact on the Grizzlies' team-building strategy. The Grizzlies have always wanted to develop a standard-sized wing on the front line. Long before Dillon contributed to that earth-shattering series, the Grizzlies were already considering a replacement for Dillon.
Without a doubt, Zawe, the 10th overall pick in '21, is the Grizzlies' most important resource on the wing. In the case of Dillon's departure and Morant's ban, Zawe's ability to start as the No. 3 position gives enough time, which is logical.
However, with such a favorable situation for him personally, Zawi completely missed the opportunity. He started 8 games at the start of the season, averaging 91 point, true shooting percentage of 523%, and 19 mistakes, so it was logical to lose the starting position, and even the time became unstable.
It looks like the Grizzlies' confidence in nurturing him has been severely shaken.
If Zawei really can't play, the Grizzlies won't have a vacuum on the flanks and forwards, after all, they still have Aldama and dug out Wenwei. But the wings and forwards with a high ceiling are gone, and the other first-round pick at this position, David Roddy, is just an abstraction of a different posture compared to Zawey.
So, the Grizzlies are a potential contender for that small forward stud. They used up two first-rounders to get Smart, one with the 25th pick this summer and the other with the Warriors. His future first-round picks are in his hands, and there are two more first-rounders from other teams.
Although, the grizzly bear has always been fearless in the matter of stud.
No. 6 Henderson.
Henderson played 9 games and the stats are:
8.3 points +24 rebounds +43 assists +36 turnovers + 4 fouls, 7-of-36 three-pointers, 10-of-15 free throws, and a true shooting percentage of 401%。
The on-field performance can be described as:
Can't vote;It can't be transmitted;
Unstable luck. Is it necessary for a rookie who has only played 9 games to be so him?
Not necessarily. All you need to worry about is that the ignite team.