Warriors' Biggest Surprises To Open 2022-23 NBA Season

The Golden State Warriors entered the 2022-23 season in hot pursuit of their second consecutive NBA title.

Two weeks into the campaign, though, they look more like a lottery participant than a contender.

They've had head-scratching losses and zero head-turning victories. The inexperience of their second unit has shown, but the veterans not named Stephen Curry haven't been razor-sharp either.

For a team playing for June, a little October turbulence is no major cause for concern, but some early-season surprises—not of the pleasant variety—could loom large if not corrected.

Last season, the Dubs had the NBA's second-best defense. Entering Wednesday night, they had tumbled all the way to 25th in the category, per NBA.com.

What happened? Well, Golden State suddenly can't trust of any of its non-starting lineups to get a stop.

The Warriors' first five has an elite 99.5 defensive rating across 93 minutes together, which would be this season's best mark by a mile. As soon as one starter gets swapped out, though, things immediately go awry. Replace Kevon Looney with Jordan Poole, and the number jumps to 123 (would be the worst by a mile). Bring in Poole for Klay Thompson instead, and it spikes to 131.

Golden State took some chances letting both Gary Payton II and Otto Porter Jr. walk in free agency. The Warriors are also unusually heavy on unproven contributors for a defending champion. That youth isn't the only reason this defense is struggling, but this club is clearly missing some chemistry that previous iterations could take for granted.

There were moments last season when it seemed Jonathan Kuminga had jumped to the top of Golden State's youth movement.

Even offseason trade-machine maestros didn't bother including Kuminga in their imagined deals, because he already felt off-limits.

Fast-forward to the start of this season, though, and it's suddenly unclear how prominently he factors into the franchise's plans. He not only failed to command a role expansion from his rookie season, he's actually seeing fewer minutes as a sophomore (10.8 per game). He has twice been benched for entire games and isn't forcing the issue for more floor time with his play.

Then again, a lot of players—particularly young ones—rely on their rhythm, and Kuminga hasn't had a chance to find his. With JaMychal Green and a healthy James Wiseman joining Draymond Green and Kevon Looney in the frontcourt, there aren't enough minutes to go around, and it's costing Kuminga valuable minutes he needs to develop. If this situation doesn't change, he could hear his name at least whispered about in trade talks between now and the deadline.

Stephen Curry is, like always, cooking up some miracles beyond the arc, averaging 4.8 threes on 39.6 percent shooting. Andrew Wiggins, who has clearly paid attention at Golden State University, appears on course for yet another career campaign from distance with his most makes ever (2.4 per game) and second-best splash rate (38.8).

Obviously, the Warriors are dominating the three-point arc, right? Nope. While they rank fifth in average makes (14.5 per game), they're just 19th in accuracy (34.6).

That doesn't feel like it should be possible with how good Curry and Wiggins have been, but this problem isn't with them. Instead, it falls upon the shoulders of the shooting guards who just can't get their shooting on track.

Klay Thompson, who shot a career-worst 38.5 percent from three last season, has suddenly tail-spun to 29.5 percent. Jordan Poole has lost more than four percentage points from the perimeter (from 36.4 to 32.1), while Donte DiVincenzo, who shot 37.9 percent from three in 2020-21, is just 2-of-6 so far (33.3).

There's obviously time to correct this, but it's never been something this core has needed to correct before.