There are calls for the Warriors to make lineup changes or rotation adjustments. Calls for players to be benched. Calls for more Jonathan Kuminga, less James Wiseman, a veteran big man and the return of Mike Brown.
Coming soon, calls for Steve Kerr’s job.
As the Warriors sit uncomfortably on a 3-5 record, there is panic in the streets of Dub Nation.
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All this, two weeks into a six-month regular season.
There aren’t many calls for patience, though, unless you look around the NBA and listen to those in the battle.
“A step in the right direction, through a loss,” Stephen Curry told reporters in Miami Tuesday night, after a 116-109 loss to the Heat. “But the big picture is still we are capable of being a team that’s contending for a championship. We have to talent to do it. We just have to have a little bit of patience -- but a sense of urgency at the same time.
“It’s a weird concept to try to explain. But having gone through this a couple times, we know what to do.”
Golden State Warriors
It’s not that weird, really. These Warriors were not built to dominate the first month of the season. Klay Thompson opened the season on a minutes restriction. James Wiseman had not played in 18 months. The front office is more committed to dual timelines – riding the decorated veterans while cultivating the six-man 23-and-under crowd – this season than they were last season. Aside from the growing presence of Moses Moody, the only member of the second unit that was active last season is Jordan Poole.
Expectations were inflated with all the preseason talk of depth, when in actuality the non-starters were mostly untested or new to the team and, therefore, prone to occasional mistakes while trying to decipher an offense that took Kevin Durant nearly half a season to master.
There was, against the Heat, discernible improvement upon the previous two games, losses at Charlotte and Detroit. The Warriors shot better, rebounded better and defended better. They earned a 94-86 lead after three quarters and looked a lot like the team they claim to be, defending champions on a mission to repeat.
Well, except for the one aspect of basketball the Warriors often struggle with in the best of times: Turnovers. They committed 14 through three quarters, denying themselves a chance to take a double-digit lead into the fourth quarter. They committed six more in the fourth which, along with their offense being suffocated by Miami’s zone, ensured defeat.
“We got their best punch in that fourth quarter,” Kerr said. “We just couldn’t quite close the deal.
“I’m really happy with our progress as a team. The bench stuff, the young guys, that’ll all play itself out and we’ll be OK.”
The Golden State gifts, 20 turnovers, amounted to 28 Miami points. The Warriors through eight games have given away 158 points off 132 turnovers, an average of 19.8 per game, sixth-highest total in the league.
And you know what? There will be more of this is the coming day and weeks. If it extends past Thanksgiving, Curry, Thompson and Draymond Green almost certainly will be looking at their worst 20-game start ever.
But that’s what it is after two weeks – a start. Uglier than they’ve become accustomed to, but eight games still amount to less than 10 percent of a season.
“It’s frustrating because we have a standard,” Curry said. “There’s a little uneasiness probably. That uneasiness puts you in a position where you have to be able to figure it out, and everybody being committed to what that means. In the first three quarters, we really demonstrated that. We didn’t get the job done.
“So, it reinforces those feelings of, ‘How do we get ourselves out of this hole? How do we create an identity where we expect to win every single night?’ And not just say it, but we have to be able to go out and do it. I hope everybody is frustrated with the results. But the process is pretty solid.”
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The Warriors’ path to the 2022 postseason including one stretch during which they lost five of eight, another in which they lost nine of 11 and another in which they lost seven of eight. There was, you may recall, panic in the streets of Dub Nation.
The Warriors, surrounded by doubt, never stopped believing. They made no major changes. They got healthy and performed better in May and June than they had in January, February and March.
Starting a five-game road trip by losing the first three digs quite the hole, but the Warriors have earned the right to climb out. And 74 games is plenty of time.