For Golden State, the 2023/2024 season, frankly, is not going well. According to the results of 70 matches, the team occupies tenth place in the Western Conference standings, being half a victory away from relegation from the play-in zone. Hot on the Warriors’ heels is Houston, which is on a nine-game winning streak with just 12 games left in the regular season. It would seem that now the team must fight for every point, every possession. But she doesn’t fight and, judging by what happened in the game against Minnesota (110: 114), she doesn’t even intend to.
Stephen Curry, the team’s longtime leader and one of the best offensive players in the modern NBA, sat on the bench for 11 minutes in the second half. And this was against the best defensive team in the league, where the outcome of the game was ultimately decided by a difference of just four points. Of course, this decision made by coach Steve Kerr raised quite a few questions. And they received a very unconvincing response.
Steph’s achievement:
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Stephen, you are simply irresistible! Curry is having another strong season in terms of shooting from behind the arc.
“We try to give him as much rest as possible. Two days ago he played 35 minutes. So while we held out, we wanted to limit his playing time a little bit. Don’t limit it, but don’t push it too hard either. The last few weeks have been very difficult for him. We have been putting the weight of this franchise on his shoulders for 15 years. We can’t expect him to play 35 minutes. We have five games in a seven-day road series. If you want to say that the difference between 30 and 32 minutes for Steph is the difference between a win and a loss, then I completely disagree with that. “We’re trying to win and we’re also trying to stay fresh,” Kerr said previously.
In fact, Steph played 35 minutes two days before the Minnesota game, a matchup against the Pacers that the Warriors lost by 12 points. At the start of the fourth quarter, they were down -14, so Curry’s presence on the court in the final minutes didn’t play much of a role. But with the Timberwolves it was different. When the point guard left the court in the third quarter, Golden State had a four-point lead. When he returned midway through the fourth quarter, the team was down -8. Stephen was also the game’s leading scorer, scoring 31 points in just under 30 minutes.
Stephen Curry, 2023/2024 season
Photo: Ezra Shaw/Getty Images
“I want to play as many minutes as I can, so I was a little surprised to see the Timberwolves pull away. I played the entire fourth quarter against Indiana, but nothing came of it. Nothing came of it in the game against Minnesota either. We must find balance. Every game matters as we get closer to a place in the standings we never expected to be. No one is going to wave the white flag and give up. If I have to play more minutes, I will be prepared to do it,” Curry said in this regard.
Of course, he himself is not averse to playing as much as is required of him. But apparently Steve Kerr does not share this opinion. Before the All-Star break, Steph averaged 33.5 minutes on the court. After a stellar weekend, that number dropped to 29.9 minutes. And although the defender recently suffered an ankle injury, it turned out not to be serious and only cost him three missed games. So what’s the deal?
Perhaps it is Curry’s weakest performance. If we divide the season again into before and after the All-Star Game, the player’s scoring dropped from 28 to 22.6 points per game. Of course, a similar trend can be observed throughout the league since the beginning of February: due to discrete changes in officiating in the NBA, the number of fouls and, as a result, penalties committed and points scored have decreased. But this is a conversation for a separate article. In Stephen’s case, everything could be due to simple fatigue: he must play more than 70 games in a season for the first time since 2017. He was only 28 years old then and this month he turned 36. Furthermore, in the current regular season, the Warriors They needed their leader more than ever. They found themselves in trouble 41 times, a situation in which five minutes before the siren sounded the teams are separated by five points or less.
Stephen Curry statistics for the 2023/2024 season
Photo: “Championship”/Getty Images
But for a team barely hanging on to the play-in zone, the final 12 games of the regular season are far from the best time to suddenly take over its best player. What’s it for? Without Curry, the Warriors have a real chance of missing out on a starting spot. And if they finish lower than 10th, it would seem Curry’s rest was in vain. And if Golden State somehow miraculously makes the playoffs without him, even with Steph healthy and rested, they won’t be able to seriously hope to advance to the latter stages.
Steve Kerr needs to understand this. If he truly believes his team can compete for a title this year, he wouldn’t give away a crucial victory against Minnesota so easily. Especially considering that the Warriors still have to play against Dallas (twice), Houston and the Lakers: all these teams will fight among themselves for the most advantageous position in the Western Conference play-in.
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So what is Kerr worried about? It’s certainly not about the upcoming playoffs, where Golden State may not qualify at all. He knows what a championship-caliber team should look like. And he also knows that the unfortunate championship window is about to slam shut. The age of the key players is making itself felt, Klay Thompson finds himself in a difficult contractual situation. He, like Chris Paul, could leave Warriors camp next season. And if the management wants to try to win at least one more title with Stephen Curry, the 2024/2025 championship may be his last chance.
What to make of the end of this season? Leave it behind, forget it like it was a bad dream and try again. But simply stopping playing and maintaining the illusion of fighting will not work; In the NBA, this can result in sinking penalties and financial losses. But the league won’t be able to criticize the fact that the team’s leader suddenly plays 30 minutes instead of 35. Especially if his coach says that he’s supposedly saving the star for the sake of a possible playoff berth or something. At the same time, five extra minutes of rest in a tense match will help to more or less reduce the risk of injury.
After all, a serious injury to the exhausted 36-year-old Steph could mean a sad end to the championship era for the franchise, a restructuring, several years at the bottom of the table and other unpleasant consequences. The Warriors need Curry, and they need him healthy and determined to succeed before his imminent retirement. Perhaps Kerr is so concerned about his physical condition precisely because he thinks more about next season than the current one. And he can be understood. Now Golden State is far from a contender, and come mid-April, it’s unlikely anything will change.
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