Golden State Warriors being cautious with Stephen Curry

The Golden State Warriors have made one thing clear this season: they are okay with losing games if it means not overworking Stephen Curry. Their primary goal is to be fresh for next season – not win games this year. And, that’s okay.

It’s completely understandable why the Dubs are being cautious with Curry. I think everyone around the franchise is still suffering from injury PTSD due to the 2019 NBA Finals and every disastrous event that has happened since. With Klay Thompson out for the season, there seems to be no sense in putting all of the weight on Curry and expecting him to risk injury by carrying them to the top again.

This hasn’t stopped Curry from putting up fantastic numbers, though. Curry is still averaging roughly 30 points per game on borderline 50/40/90 shooting splits. He’s already recorded three 40+ point games and is sure to rack up more as the season progresses – even if he isn’t playing heavy minutes.

The Golden State Warriors are taking an overly cautious approach to keep Stephen Curry fresh for next season’s title run.

Steve Kerr hasn’t been secretive with his gameplan. In a recent interview, Kerr told reporters this:

"“I’m into the long game… For me, for our organization, we’re not throwing Steph out there for 40 minutes to chase wins.”"

He isn’t just saying this for fun, Curry really isn’t playing heavy minutes. He’s not even cracking the 35-minute threshold on a nightly basis – meaning he’s resting more than an entire quarter’s worth of minutes each game. This falls below interesting names such as Isaac Okoro, the rookie forward in Cleveland.

Overall, this is the sixth-fewest minutes Curry has played in his career and it’s likely this continues to drop as the Warriors grow content with wherever they land in the standings. If Kerr hasn’t pushed Kerr to play in some of the key games they’ve had already – there isn’t much reason to believe he will begin doing it later in the season when the outcome of games could mean the difference between reaching the playoffs or earning a lottery pick.

In actuality, the Dubs have plenty of incentive to miss the postseason and secure NBA Draft position. They hold onto their 2021 First Round selection if it remains in the top-20 (The pick would go to OKC if it falls outside the top-20). Add this to the Minnesota pick which has about a 50/50 chance of giving the Dubs a top 4-5 pick and this would allow the franchise to draft two potentially game-changing prospects in the same year.

And, of course, missing the playoffs gives Curry even more of a chance to rest – something that is obviously on the Warriors’ minds. It only makes sense to punt this season and go all-in when Thompson is back. Unless something drastic happens, we would expect the Dubs to continue being cautious with Curry.