The topsy turvy season for the Golden State Warriors has continued after a brutal loss to the Houston Rockets on Wednesday night that also saw the team lose star point guard Stephen Curry for at least a week due to an injury.
Now, the Warriors sit at 10-10 and it is still not altogether clear what this team's identity is or what its fate shall be. There's obviously a long way to go over the course of the season, and last campaign proved how Golden State can get off to a middling start before turning things around after the acquisition of Jimmy Butler in February.
Warriors stars seem to be out of step with head coach Steve Kerr
It remains to be seen if this season will be a repeat of last season, but the Warriors are going to have to figure things out sooner or later if they want to make the playoffs and make another run at a championship.
One problem that could complicate this is that there seems to be a disconnect between two of the stars on the team, Butler and Draymond Green, and head coach Steve Kerr. After the loss against Houston, Green reiterated his belief that Golden State's defense has been subpar using some colorful language.
In the cleaner part of Green's comments, he said, "defense is about demeanor. So if there’s letdown after letdown and it kills your demeanor, it kills your bravado, then you’re just a soft team."
Butler seems to believe the same thing, saying, "You got to box out. You got to guard, all of these things that we say we’re gonna do that we do sometimes, but most of the time we don’t.”
Meanwhile, Kerr has contended that the offense is where he sees the most issues, saying, "I’m not worried about our defense. I’m more worried about our offense right now. Not a whole lot of rhythm. Not a lot of flow.”
Maybe since Butler and Green take such pride in their defense they are more likely to point that out as a flaw while Kerr, perhaps being a bit more offense-minded, is going to see the flaws on that end more.
Either way, the Warriors are clearly not cutting it at either end of the floor. Both Kerr and his two star players are right that things need to improve, and the sooner everyone can get on the same page with what exactly the biggest issue is, the sooner the Warriors can get back to playing the sort of basketball we know they're capable of.