Andrew Wiggins and Kevon Looney didn't start the second half of the Golden State Warriors' familiar, ugly loss to the shorthanded Phoenix Suns on Tuesday night. When push came to shove in crunch-time, with the Dubs vying to avoid yet another loss in a game they led by double-digits, Klay Thompson joined his fellow longtime starters on the bench, watching Golden State's next generation try to steal a win their awesome first-half effort should've already assured.
Stephen Curry and the young Warriors fell just short of that feat, his game-tying try at a quick catch-and-shoot triple from the left wing with eight seconds left clanging off the side of the rim. After the game, Steve Kerr pointedly avoided providing his thoughts on Draymond Green's flailed right arm to Jusuf Nurkic's face, only stressing his team can't reach its peak without Green being on the floor and available.
But there was no deflecting from the other potentially franchise-altering development stemming from Golden State's sixth straight road loss. Kerr finally admitted last week after a dispiriting home win over the rebuilding, injury-depleted Portland Trail Blazers that he was considering major lineup and rotation changes.
On Tuesday's postgame podium, he indirectly acknowledged what's been obvious to anyone watching his team since 2023-24 tipped off back in late October: The Warriors' young reserves have flat out-played their starting brethren this season, a reality Kerr's measured hesitance to break up the veteran core has only made more obvious.
“I just felt like tonight I had to play the guys who were playing the best,” he said. “I've been really patient trying to get everybody kind of organized into groups, give guys freedom and space. Tonight did not feel like a night to have a lot of patience. We needed some urgency, and that's why I made the moves.”
It's time to break up Warriors' vaunted starting lineup
Brandin Podziemski and Moses Moody have been better than Thompson and Wiggins almost every time they've taken the floor. Jonathan Kuminga's consistency lags behind Podziemski and Moody's, but the two-way flashes he's shown more and more of late represent a fully realized ceiling theirs can't touch.
It's not surprising anymore when Podziemski checks in and immediately helps Golden State create an easy bucket or save one on the other end. When was the last time Thompson or Wiggins jumped a passing lane for a pick-six, let alone fought hard under a screen to draw a charge then held a pick long enough in split action to yield a layup?
Those are the types of heady, committed plays Podziemski has been making seem routine on a nightly basis. The 20-year-old is already an extremely valuable connector on both ends, creating advantages and covering up mistakes in the team construct with elite processing speed and situational awareness.
Those are especially valuable traits playing next to Curry, as evidenced by Green's decade-long ability to mitigate the impact of his glaring offensive deficiencies. Combine them with Podziemski's eyebrow-raising effectiveness as a penetrator and finisher, and the case for him to play a less significant role for Golden State as a rookie just doesn't exist.
A perimeter player roasting Nurkic after a switch shouldn't seem so novel. Podziemski's filthy fake step-back and same-foot, off-hand scoop layup past the Suns big man is another reminder of Thompson and Wiggins' complete inability to make similarly dynamic plays over the first seven weeks of the regular season.
Kuminga wasn't good defensively on Tuesday night. He lacked the edge needed to stay attached to Devin Booker navigating screens and even off the ball, and allowed Phoenix's superstar an uncontested layup after a miscommunication with Curry on a simple back cut, expecting a switch.
All the athletic pop and burgeoning skill Kuminga possesses was on full display regardless. How often this season have Green and Looney gotten system buckets at the rim? Kuminga managed two in the first half against the Suns, on an empty side pick-and-roll with Chris Paul then a towering alley-oop dunk from the Point God after slipping out of a wide screen for Thompson.
Green and Looney, in particular, are pretty much incapable of turning wasted possessions into fruitful ones. The same largely goes for Thompson and Wiggins, at least based on their play this season.
Kuminga has more juice in that respect than anyone on the roster save Curry. The Dubs' “beautiful game” won't always run smoothly. Defenses are more comfortable sussing through split actions, dribble hand-offs, staggered screens, twirls and back cuts than ever—not just because Golden State doesn't have the star power, quality depth and athleticism it did during the dynasty's heyday, but because so many teams have taken pages from Kerr's offensive playbook.
The Warriors have never needed more strong finishers and broken-play bucket-getters, descriptions that increasingly apply to Kuminga as his game continues to grow.
What should Golden State's new starting lineup look like?
The eye test isn't even a prerequisite to supporting the notion Golden State's once-vaunted starting five has run its course. Less than a year after leading all high-usage units in basketball with a +22.1 net rating, the Curry-Thompson-Wiggins-Green-Looney lineup currently sports a -8.0 net rating, per Cleaning the Glass. That mark is in the bottom quarter of the approximately 80 lineups league-wide that have notched at least 100 possessions this season.
Outlier shooting at least partially accounts for the starters' porous 119.1 defensive rating. Opponents won't shoot 43.2% from deep against them all season long. It's undeniable that group has lost its sharp defensive teeth from years past, though, the result of aging, physical wear and tear and a palpable lack of tenacity and connectivity.
Thompson is still solid checking big wings and forwards, but is a liability by now fighting through screens and sticking with quick guards off the bounce. He's also been as big a culprit for off-ball and help defense breakdowns as anyone on the roster.
The Warriors began Tuesday's game by soft switching everyone but Looney onto Booker in ball-screen situations. Instead of simply siccing Wiggins on him and hedging and recovering in pick-and-roll after Booker easily exploited Curry, they felt relegated to running high traps at Booker the moment he crossed halfcourt—a damning indictment of Wiggins' lagging on-ball defense.
Wiggins has been able to flip his defensive switch for isolated possessions and random spurts, containing stars off the bounce and contesting shots with the vigor he did while helping the Dubs to their latest title. But those instances have been far more fleeting than frequent, and he's taken a massive step back impacting the game as a help defender.
There's just no reason why Chimezie Metu should blow by Wiggins on a close-out one pass away.
Both Looney and Kerr maintain he's been his typically stalwart self defensively so far. Maybe that can be argued while allowing for the half step he lost in 2022-23, when Golden State began veering from the switch-heavy defense that was its calling card dating back to Kerr's arrival.
Looney has switched onto guards and wings even less over these first 23 games, his slowing lateral mobility and overall foot speed also rearing its head meeting ball handlers just below the level of screens.
Ignore Green's indefinite suspension for now. It's high time Golden State admits its present circumstances, acknowledging that Thompson, Wiggins and Looney are highly unlikely to hit the peaks they did a year and-a-half ago. That leaves Curry and Green as the only sacred cow starters, with three spots left to fill.
Earmark one of them for Thompson. He still draws two defenders and extra defensive attention sprinting around screens or dribble hand-offs more easily than anyone in the league but Curry, an automatic pressure point easily taken for granted when he's not splashing jumpers like the second Splash Brother.
The Warriors have survived offensively for years playing two non-shooters precisely because their best lineup features two of the four or five greatest marksmen ever. It's too early to punt on that identity entirely, especially considering Thompson remains a solid one-on-one defender in the right matchups. His psyche amid career-worst labors and stalled extension talks, unfortunately, factors in here, too.
It's no stretch to submit Wiggins is playing like one of the most damaging full-time starters in the league. He's not reliably bringing anything positive to the table right now, taking much more off it with every clanked three, missed bunny, lost dribble and half-hearted defensive possession. Maybe a move to the bench for the first time in his career lights the fire under him needed to spark a badly, badly needed turnaround. Wiggins' play doesn't leave Kerr with much of a choice.
Looney's shift to a full-time bench role is easiest. He's already been a reserve multiple times this season and is annually taken out of the starting lineup when the Dubs' going gets tough in the playoffs. There's no better ambassador of the all-for-one ethos this team has lost in the locker room than Looney, either. His individual labors—some of which are tied directly to poor play of Thompson and Wiggins, it bears stressing—only makes his demotion more straightforward.
You've probably anticipated where this is going by now: A new starting five of Golden State's iconic trio with Podziemski and Kuminga next to them, the same lineup that opened the second half in the desert on Tuesday. No other five-man unit Kerr can roll out matches that group's on-paper blend of spacing, playmaking and defense.
Podziemski can ably handle secondary playmaker duties with Curry off the ball. Kuminga can take Wiggins' place as designated stopper of high-usage guards and perimeter stars, keeping Thompson on less threatening scorers and leaving Green in his best role as back-line quarterback and defensive roamer. Shooting is still a question mark of varying degrees for Podziemski (volume) and Kuminga (accuracy and shot selection), but both have taken strides from deep of late.
The problem? It's hard to imagine that starting five reaching the heights the Warriors' championship group did in 2022 or even just last season barring significant growth from Kuminga and an about-face from Thompson. It would still be among the league's smallest, least athletic opening units. Golden State's dire current straits call for different priorities, though.
Wins are what this team needs most for the foreseeable future, not hopeful glimpses of its ultimate potential. The main reason Kerr held onto his traditional starters so long is their established championship pedigree. It's extremely telling they've barely flashed that level of play over a quarter of the way through the 82-game grind.
“I watched this same group win a championship a year and-a-half ago. They’re champions,” Kerr said last Friday after another frustrating, heartbreaking loss to the Oklahoma City Thunder. “But they’re not playing like it and I’m not coaching like it. We’ve gotta figure this out.”
Figuring it out will be much, much more difficult while Green is suspended indefinitely. Realistically, his latest transgression probably doomed Golden State's already fading chances to be the last team standing this season. The less time the Warriors' new lineups and rotation have to build up continuity and cohesion, the less likely it is they'll even come close to playing title-worthy basketball come spring.
Whenever Green returns, he'll surely be coming back to a team that looks much, much different, no matter what form it takes. Given the untenable nature of the Dubs' status quo, at least that's a step in the right direction.
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