The Solidly .500 Warriors

The playoffs? As we said after Steph's warmup heave, that's a long shot

I’ve been hearing that the Warriors are the “most perplexing” team in the NBA. People say they can’t figure this team out. It’s confusing.

This hands me a laugh. (Shoutout to Bang the Drum Slowly.)

This is the least mysterious professional team in America. What you see is exactly what you get.

The Warriors are undersized, over-age and under-manned. Their formula for victory is to ask Steph Curry to summon up another in a series of magical performances. And, as in the recent loss to Portland, that may not be enough.

It is not a path to a championship. More likely it is a perfect recipe for a .500 record, which they currently own and may likely continue to own for the immediate future.

Because it is hard to see what the team is going to do to switch things up.

Although, if you want switching things, you’ve certainly got the right coach for it. Steve Kerr is a future Hall of Fame coach but in the last few years his whirligig roster swapping has become impossible to ignore.

After rolling out his ninth starting lineup in nine games, reporters thought it was a topic worth discussing with Draymond Green.

Green, of course, did the right thing and defended Kerr, but his money quote sounded emotional:

“You ain’t f—-ing winning. You got to change something”

It’s a feature not a bug, at this point. Kerr’s constant tinkering has to play a part in the fact that he has not developed elite young players. He runs them out for some action, then puts them in witness protection for a while. The young guys must be wondering what their role is, or if they have one.

Which runs us headlong into the most urgent problem the Warriors currently have — what to do with Jonathan Kuminga.

At this point it seems a foregone conclusion that he will be traded on Jan. 15, when the swap window opens.

That’s fine as far as it goes. Kuminga is clearly not the player the Warriors hoped he would be.

And maybe he never was.

At one point Kerr floated the idea that Kuminga could be a “Shawn Marion” kind of player.

The first question is: does Kuminga even know who Shawn Marion is? He retired in 2015, when Kuminga was 13.But the other point is that Kuminga doesn’t see himself as a secondary, complimentary player like Marion was.

His agent, Aaron Taylor said that, often and loudly. Kuminga, he says, is a take-over-the-game kinda guy.

But as the clock counts down, Kerr and the Warriors appear to be actively signaling that they don’t think this guy can play. Kuminga hasn’t even gotten off the bench in the last two games.

That’s your trade value, tanking.

Which is especially unfortunate because this is a team that really needs a shot-in-the-arm trade. One that would not only get everyone excited, but would plug the unsightly hole in the Warriors’ lineup.

That is, while Curry has been Herculean, he’s pretty much on his own, while other players swoop and cut to no great effect. Green sets screen after screen for his buddy, but there’s not a solid secondary scorer — a young Klay Thompson.

The narrative last year was that when Butler arrived the problem was solved.

But this year we are reminded that the crux of Butler’s beef with Miami (and before the Heat, Chicago, Minnesota and Philadelphia) mostly came down to money. Miami, most recently, was not willing to pay a $113 million, two year, contract extension.

They clearly didn’t think he was worth it. As usual with Butler, there was an entire melodrama with the heat, with suspensions and bitter words.

But this year, as the team searches for a sidekick for Curry — Butler called himself Robin to Steph’s Batman — it is becoming clear he’s not the consistent 25-30 points a night guy we may have thought.

Kerr’s response when asked about Butler’s modest production was revealing:

“We need to be more particular with getting to some sets where we know we can get him the ball… In the Minnesota game, he went like four straight possessions without touching the ball when Steph was not on the floor.”

Sounds a little like an appeal to Butler to step up.

Because if there isn’t a trade — and at this point the W’s don’t have much to offer — there aren’t a lot of other ways to improve.

They’re small. Militantly and defiantly small. It isn’t an accident. Kerr appears to have no interest in a rangy seven-footer who can run the floor and protect the rim. They won championships with small lineups and they think they can do it again.

But I’d hate to see a highlight mashup of opponents getting second chance, and third chance, rebounds because they are bigger. They surrender points in the paint and struggle to score there because Green, at 6-6, is often the tallest player on the floor.

(Young Quinten Post is a seven-footer and we all have high hopes, but so far he’s no game-changer.)

They’re not just small. They are also old.

Only the Clippers have an older average roster (30.0 to the Dubs 29.6).

The core group is over 35 — Steph 37, Draymond 35, Butler 36. In addition they brought in Buddy Hield 32, Seth Curry 35 and, the capper, Al Horford 39.

It’s not just that the older guys are prone to injury, although Horford has hardly played while battling aches and pains.

It’s that they look old — slow and dated.

When they play young, bouncy teams, it looks like the Warriors are in slow motion. Portland, with a mediocre record, has now beaten Kerr’s team three straight times. After the last one, Sunday, he admitted they were out-gunned and out-run.

“It was just a track meet. That team is way more athletic than we are. And they’ve beaten us all three times because we have not been able to control them in penetration and turnovers and all that stuff. So we’ve got to find a way to get the game under control.”

Good luck with that.

Which leaves us with Curry. He remains a national treasure a Joe Montana-esque legend in the Bay Area. Full respect.

And you know he’s taking the loses hard and doing what he can to win.

But it seems like there’s a tiny part of this that isn’t so bad. The old sports question is: would you rather be the best player on a bad team or an OK player on a good team.

There’s something to be said for the first choice. You get to take all the shots you want, the fans are fully behind you and you can polish your Hall of Fame numbers. As Butler has said, their offense is “Get the ball to Steph and get out of the way.”

Curry candidly admitted it after the lost to Portland.

It is fun. There’s definitely like a flurry in the middle of the game where you start to feel the rhythm and energy of the crowd, whether it’s home or road. I don’t know how to explain it other than that. It’s fun.”

Good to hear someone is having a good time.

Contact C.W. Nevius at cwnevius@gmail.com. Twitter or Threads @cwnevius