Warriors Hot Takes After 1st Month of 2022-23 NBA Season

The Golden State Warriors aren't very good—and have an undeniable chance to be great.

Welcome to the wacky world that is the Dubs' 2022-23 NBA season.

Entering Wednesday, they've dropped eight of their first 14 games and failed to show elite ability at either end. Their starting lineup has also outscored opponents by a whopping 24 points per 100 possessions, per NBA.com, so some reshuffling on the back end of the roster may be all that's needed to turn things around.

It's hard to get a good grasp on Golden State so far, which makes it tricky to analyze. Still, there's enough data from the opening month to throw together three fiery takes about this team.

All of the good happening with Golden State's first five is going down in spite of Klay Thompson.

While the 32-year-old deserves a world of credit for working his way back from a pair of devastating, season-erasing leg injuries, the time off and damage done continues pestering him. That's most obviously seen in his sagging shooting rates, which have never fallen farther (35.1 percent overall, 33.0 from range).

The offensive rating differential for all four of Golden State's other starters sits north of plus-10 points per 100 possessions. For Thompson, that number falls to plus-5.9. So much of his offensive value has always been directly tied to his distance shooting, so it should surprise no one that his impact isn't the same when his accuracy isn't the same.

The Warriors have to consider bringing Thompson off the bench, an idea coach Steve Kerr has so far dismissed. Swapping out Thompson for Jordan Poole, though, would give the starting lineup extra offensive firepower and give the bench group an experienced leader to hopefully help them find their footing.

Stephen Curry's best days should be behind him.

He turned 34 in March. His resume includes a pair of MVP awards—including the first unanimous selection—a Finals MVP, two scoring titles and the best shooting this league has ever seen. At this stage of his career, he should be trying to either squeeze what's left of his prime or do his best to limit the damage of age-related decline.

Instead, he's raising the bar, even by his lofty, Hall of Fame-caliber standards.

"I think given the circumstances with our team kind of in a rut trying to dig our way out of a hole he has just been spectacular," Kerr said, per Anthony Slater of The Athletic. "Never been better. I can say that."

Curry has occasionally had better numbers—his 0.274 win shares per 48 minutes trail the marks of his two best NBA seasons, for instance, per Basketball-Reference—although he does have a few personal-bests, like his 52.3 field-goal percentage or 10.0 turnover percentage. More than anything, though, his ability to summon this kind of effort both at his age and alongside a less-than-stellar supporting cast is arguably more impressive than anything he's done to this point.

The Warriors are seeing firsthand why few teams try—and even fewer succeed—to play for both the present and the future.

Their youth movement was supposed to take a big step forward this season, but the top prospects have instead encountered enough growing pains that Golden State has often opted to play without them. James Wiseman, Jonathan Kuminga and Moses Moody have all been benched at times in favor of older, more established, less-mistake-prone players.

This isn't a viable long-term strategy. Not when Golden State's second unit clearly needs more help than the youngsters can provide—or at least, more than the coaches trust them to. Not to mention, the young players need the floor time to make mistakes and learn from them.

If the Dubs sniff out an interested rebuilder who has some win-now pieces to send back to the Bay, that could be the rare win-win-win trade. The Warriors win by strengthening their supporting cast, the trade partner wins by adding potential building blocks and the prospects win by finding the developmental minutes they've so far been denied.