Why Warriors’ second-unit puzzle will be difficult to solve

Why Warriors’ second-unit puzzle will be difficult to solve originally appeared on NBC Sports Bay Area

The Warriors have reached the team-meeting stage, so the rhythmic reggae sounds that carried them deep into November have been replaced by horns, alarms and piercing sirens. They’re at cliff’s edge, and that didn’t happen in a day. Or even a week.

It took them a full month to stumble so far down the rugged Western Conference mountain, and the factors are many, with two above the others.

One is defense. When the Warriors were 12-3 and atop the conference standings, their 105.8 defensive rating ranked fourth in the NBA. Over the last 14 games, 11 of which were losses, their 114.9 defensive rating ranks 21st in the league.

In Golden State’s latest loss, 115-113 to the Los Angeles Lakers on Christmas Day, there were too many stretches – including the final seconds, when Austin Reaves slipped past Andrew Wiggins and Jonathan Kuminga rotating late, for the game-winning layup – when the defense was too soft or not attentive enough.

“We felt like we should have been able to do a better job defensively tonight,” coach Steve Kerr said. “I just I didn’t think they ever really felt us. They had 9 turnovers for the game. We have prided ourselves on being a feisty defensive-minded team.”

The Warriors have proved capable of getting multiple stops in succession, so this should be fixable.

The second and more vexing factor is their rotations. There are times when it seems Kerr is resorting to pulling names and lineups from a hat held by general manager Mike Dunleavy. The value of the bench has dropped from gold to junkyard scrap metal.

This has no simple fix.

“In fairness to our guys,” Kerr conceded, “we’ve been all over the map this year rotation-wise. I’ve had a million different starting lineups. Guys are in and out of certain roles, rotations. I’m well aware of that. And that’s hard as a player, to not know how many minutes you’re going to get, what minutes you’re going to get.”

This has been the way of the Warriors. Kyle Anderson, a summer acquisition hired to be a solid interior defender and second-unit playmaker, never left the bench on Christmas. Neither did Moses Moody, who rarely makes the loud mistake but always seems stuck on the fringe of the rotation. Neither did Lindy Waters III, who was out of the rotation before starting seven games in a row during Kerr’s initial experiment to replace the injured De’Anthony Melton.

The crucial role of joining Stephen Curry in the starting backcourt has been passed from Waters to Brandin Podziemski to Buddy Hield. None of the three thrived, and the movement sent the bench into a tailspin.

Which is why Dunleavy swapped Melton, who is lost for the season, for Dennis Schröder a couple weeks ago. The goal is to stabilize the second unit while also making life easier for the acutely defended Curry, but Schröder is seeking his best self in real-time. In four starts, he’s averaging 8.5 points on 11-of-39 (28.2 percent) shooting from the field, including 4-of-17 (23.5 percent) from deep. His assist-to-turnover ratio is 2-to-1 and trending up.

Schröder is the leader of the second unit, but it’s going take a few more games to develop visible chemistry. It will take all season if he is consistently surrounded by different groups.

It comes back to the makeup of the roster. Golden State has offensive players and defensive players, but too few on the bench are effective at both. It is deep but flawed.

“I don’t feel like this is a roster where you just say, ‘All right, here are our top eight guys or top nine guys, we’ll just play those guys,’ ” Kerr said. “Our roster is really deep, and we’ve got a lot of guys who can play and every game calls for something different. That’s the issue. There’s certain games we need more shooting. There’s certain games we need more defense.”

Kuminga leads the team in role changes, shuttling from starter to reserve to starter and back to reserve. Regardless of role, there are nights when he looks like a star and there are nights when he is lost on defense and myopic on offense. He’s a conundrum in search of a solution, and that is an inherent problem.

Yet Kuminga and Hield are the team’s most reliable bench scorers. Hield was tremendous in the first month but has lost much of the heat he brought in the first 15 games. He scored in double figures in 11 of the first 15 games, averaging 16.2 points, but only seven of the last 14, averaging 11.3.

Golden State’s bench averaged a league-high 54.2 points per game through the first 15 games. It averaged 38.9 (sixth) over the last 14.

The Warriors won’t look like a playoff team unless the defense recovers and the bench becomes more consistent. Second-unit minutes should be available and remain so if this slide continues – or until Dunleavy makes another deal that leads to clarity.

If it comes after another team meeting, it will be too late.

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