The defending champion Golden State Warriors entered the 2022-23 campaign widely perceived as the favorites to represent the Western Conference in the NBA Finals once again. However, nearly 60 games through the season, it's safe to say that the Warriors have fallen flat of their preseason expectations. At 29-29, the Warriors own just the ninth-best record in the West and are behind inexperienced teams like the Minnesota Timberwolves and New Orleans Pelicans in the standings.
But with two all-time great shooters in Stephen Curry and Klay Thompson, it's certainly not the offensive side of the ball that's hurting the Warriors. After all, the team ranks second in the NBA in points per game (118.6) and first in three-pointers made (16.6). Both of these numbers are even improvements from last season — believe it or not — when the Dubs won the title.
Rather, the Warriors' defense, or lack thereof, has them at the .500 mark at the All-Star break. Remember, it's defense that won the Warriors the 2022 title, as in all four of their Finals wins, they held the Boston Celtics to under 100 points. Andrew Wiggins did a spectacular job defending Jayson Tatum and locked him up for most of the series.
But that defensive intensity that the Warriors played with back in June is not much more than a distant memory right now, as the Warriors are really struggling to get stops in 2022-23. And there's one defensive stat that the Dubs are faring particularly poorly in that they need to fix should they want to re-solidify themselves as a legitimate title contender.
1 fatal flaw Dubs must fix: opponent free throws allowed per game
Free throws are arguably the easiest points to give up in basketball, besides maybe fast break points. A key to preventing the opponent from constantly getting to the charity stripe is guarding the point of attack well. That means not letting your man blow by you to get to the paint.
And, unfortunately for Dubs fans, the Warriors haven't been able to keep their man in front of them nearly consistently enough to win at a high level, as they're allowing 26 opponent free-throw attempts per contest, tied for the most of any team in the league with the Timberwolves.
For comparison, the Warriors themselves are attempting 20.3 free throws per contest this season. The fact that teams are, on average, shooting six more free throws than the Dubs has no doubt cost the Warriors wins in a sport where just a few measly points decide many games.
But with all that said, the Warriors made a trade before the deadline that could certainly help lower the number of free throw attempts they give up. The Warriors completed a four-team trade in which they sent big man James Wiseman to the Detroit Pistons in exchange for Gary Payton II.
Gary Payton II, an elite perimeter defender, was a huge part of the Warriors' championship run a year ago. He averaged 1.4 steals in just 17.6 minutes per game with the Dubs back in 2021-22, or 2.8 per 36 minutes, and had a legitimate shot at his first career All-Defensive team appearance.
The Payton II acquisition was a great move on paper, but Warriors fans will have to wait a while before he can play. Payton II is dealing with an abdomen injury and is expected to be out for a while, as head coach Steve Kerr said the hope is that the Warriors will have Payton II out on the floor by the end of the year.
Make no mistake, the Warriors still have time to salvage their season and fix their free-throw problem, but the clock is ticking. With only around 20 regular season games remaining before the playoffs start, the Dubs need to string together a winning streak sooner rather than later. If they don't and continue to tread water in the Western Conference standings and end up in the play-in game, the Warriors almost certainly won't repeat as 2023 champions.
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