The Golden State Warriors offense has gone from bad to worse over recent weeks, even despite the front office's attempts to salvage the situation by trading for veteran point guard Dennis Schroder.
The Warriors simply couldn't hit water if they fell out a boat in December, having ranked 25th in offensive rating and dead last in field-goal percentage which led to a 4-9 record during the month.
Extraordinary numbers behind the Warriors offensive issues
It's hard to understate just how bad a month that Golden State had offensively, having closed it with a 113-95 defeat to the Cleveland Cavaliers in which they shot 33.3% from the field and 23.7% from beyond the arc.
They're the sort of issues that could have been expected had Stephen Curry suffered a medium to long-term injury, but the 2x MVP only missed two games and was part of the problem in only shooting 40% from the floor and 36.2% from beyond the arc.
Yet it's not just the December period where the Warriors have struggled, with the franchise now ranked 20th in offensive rating and 28th in field-goal percentage for the season. Nothing signifies Golden State's issues as a team more than the incredible individual numbers that sees not one current player with a better field-goal percentage than last season.
Player | 2023-24 FG % | 2024-25 FG % |
|---|---|---|
Stephen Curry | 45% | 43.7% |
Jonathan Kuminga | 52.9% | 44.8% |
Andrew Wiggins | 45.3% | 44.6% |
Buddy Hield | 43.6% | 42.9% |
Dennis Schroder | 43.5% | 29.7% (with Warriors) |
Trayce Jackson-Davis | 70.2% | 60.6% |
Draymond Green | 49.7% | 41.1% |
Brandin Podziemski | 45.4% | 40.4% |
Moses Moody | 46.2% | 43.5% |
Lindy Waters III | 47.1% | 34.8% |
Kyle Anderson | 46% | 41.5% |
Kevon Looney | 59.7% | 52.7% |
Gary Payton II | 56.3% | 54.7% |
Gui Santos | 50.9% | 28.6% |
To have all 14 players on a roster shooting worse than last season has to be some kind of NBA record. Most fans would acknowledge that starting small forward Andrew Wiggins is having a far improved season to that of last year, yet even he has a worse field goal percentage than 2023-24.
Some like Wiggins, Curry, Buddy Hield, Moses Moody and Gary Payton II aren't too far away from last season's percentages, but others like Jonathan Kuminga, Dennis Schroder, Trayce Jackson-Davis, Draymond Green, Lindy Waters III and Gui Santos are all at least 8% percentage worse.
If you want to take the glass half full approach, it's the idea that this couldn't possibly remain for the rest of the season. At least two or three players are sure to see an uptick either above or closer to last season's percentages, which should automatically create a more efficient Golden State offense.
These extraordinary percentages also indicate that things couldn't get much worse, and that the only way is up from here. If someone said in preseason that every player on the roster was shooting worse than they did last season through the first 32 games, you would have expected a far worse record than 16-16.
In that respect there might be reasons for optimism, but these numbers certainly lay bare the Warriors biggest issue which has become all the more apparent over recent weeks.