Traditionally, an NBA player who is on the trading block doesn't play the game before the deadline. Gary Payton II not only played for Portland against the Golden State Warriors, he sank the foul shots that beat them.
Hours after the game however, Payton was on his way back to Golden State, to provide a defensive presence. The Portland game suggests why: J. Poole scored 38, Klay scored 31, Andrew Wiggins scored 18 and two others also scored double digits, and they still lost.
The Dubs sacrificed a potential future with James Wiseman (though really, who is to say he can't wind up back someday) for help today. (Wiseman wasn't helping because he wasn't playing.) Still, with this likely improvement in the roster, the rest of the late trades dramatically changed the landscape in the Western Conference, and not to the Warriors' benefit.
Up to this week, the West was up for grabs. Even a team with a wobbly purchase on more wins and losses was (and in fact, is) only a winning streak away from contention. The challenge was going to come from the East, especially if Kyrie Irving and Kevin Durant were healthy and sane enough to play together for the Brooklyn Nets.
But the Nets traded away both Irving and Durant, and probably traded themselves out of contention this year. Boston stayed pat and Milwaukee may have improved, so those two teams are still formidable. But now the West may no longer be the easier challenge.
Kyrie went to Dallas, where in theory he complements superstar Jocic. They began bragging that suddenly they are the favorites. That lasted not even a week, before Kevin Durant was traded to Phoenix, and the Suns, with none of their major pieces traded away, become the favorites. Both become significant challenges to a Warriors team that has all that talent and pedigree, but isn't beating even the lesser teams in the conference, like Portland.
There are a lot of caveats here. Durant is expected back from injury after the All-Star break, but there are no guarantees yet on his bouncing back quickly, or the chemistry of the team. Chemistry could be even more of a problem in Dallas over the long run, even this season. But especially in the Phoenix case, that's this year. In the long run it would be strange if they aren't a championship contender in the West.
Similarly, the buzz in Dubland is that Payton is what the doctor ordered, and he may be--not only for his defensive and offensive skills but for chemistry. But he is not likely to be the total answer. He isn't the defensive answer against everybody the Dubs will face--the rest of the team has to find a defensive presence. The other problems the Warriors have, even though they know what they are and keep talking about them, have not consistently improved: turnovers, poor rebounding and too many fouls, and too many dumb fourth quarter plays.
The Warriors are a real mystery. Individually their stars are having great years. But as a team they aren't there. If post-championship run fatigue were to be a factor, where would you expect to see it? How about turnovers, poor rebounding, too many fouls, and lack of defense? And lapses in concentration in the fourth quarter?
Certainly health has been a factor, but it was last year as well, and that team won more games, and didn't give away so many games. The Warriors used to win a lot of games in the third quarter, when their smothering defense and high-octane offense not only ballooned the score, but demoralized opponents who had to drag themselves through the fourth quarter. Not this year. The Warriors have lost so many games in the fourth that every team believes it can win if it pours it on at the end of the game.
Whether the challenge of playing these improved teams will awaken the Warriors to exceed their 2023 selves remains to be seen, but it will be the story of the remainder of this season. With possibly more than this year at stake.
My Latest NFL Rant
I've said this before but it continues to be true: it's getting harder and harder for me to care about NFL football. In fact, though I still follow it to some extent, and I'll watch the highlights of certain games, I certainly don't care about it as much as I used to.
The reason is the institutionalization of unnecessary brutality. Not just the failure to adopt measures to really address the frequency and extent of concussions, but the emphasis in the league and in the media on the most brutal aspects of the game. A textbook case for me was the Eagles and Niners game.
Niners quarterback Brock Purdy was seriously injured with a play that used to be illegal in the NFL--he was hit in the act of throwing. His elbow injury may have been freakish, but he should not have been hit. And why am I the only person I know of who is saying this?
Then his poor substitute gets brutally thrown to the ground and concussed. It will take Purdy from six months to a year to recover, and nobody seems concerned about the other guy and what he may have to go through for the rest of his life. This is how the Eagles won the game. They eliminated the Niners only quarterbacks (and what NFL team goes into a championship game with only two quarterbacks? Especially in this environment.) And this is football? This is a sport? What's next--the right to bear arms on the field?
