Who will step up for Warriors in Stephen Curry's absence?
This is the crisis moment.
The first round of the playoffs, starting next Saturday. The Warriors won't have Stephen Curry - he's out with a Grade 2 MCL sprain in his left knee. He could return for Round 2.
They have to survive until then.
“We're an outstanding team without Curry,” Warriors assistant coach Ron Adams said over the phone. “But we can't be who we are without him. Steph has a certain kind of flare, a certain kind of confidence that our team feeds off and our crowd feeds off. He makes the game easier for other guys on our team, simply because defenses have to pay so much attention to him.”
Here's the proof: When Curry is on the court this season, the Warriors shoot 42.5 percent from behind the 3-point line, and their offensive rating is 120.4. When Curry is not on the court, the Warriors' 3-point shooting percentage drops to 35.3 percent, and their offensive rating to 106.3.
“We've got all the facts. Curry makes the team go,” said Jim Barnett, the Warriors' television analyst who played for Golden State from 1971 to 1974.
Here's one more voice on how the offense changes without Curry. “They're such a pace-and-space team. The Warriors play with flow and rhythm, and that happens because of Curry, just him quarterbacking the whole thing,” Garry St. Jean said. He's the television analyst for NBC Sports Bay Area, and was the Warriors general manager from 1997 to 2004, plus their head coach in the 1999-2000 season.
“When Curry's out, Kevin Durant and Klay Thompson will hunt for more shots,” St. Jean said. “That's not bad, because they're both great scorers. But it is a change.”
In other words, open shots won't present themselves as frequently.
“You don't replace Steph,” said Adams. “We will rely on other people. Kevin steps up a bit, and Draymond and Klay. And the guys on the bench and the guys taking Steph's minutes, they're on alert. Everyone steps up.”
But, who will take the biggest steps? Who will become the most important person on the Warriors when Curry is out?
Let's meet the contestants.
CONTESTANT NO. 1: QUINN COOK
Cook began the season in the G League, and took over as the Warriors' starting point guard when Curry sprained his right ankle on March 8. Since then, Cook has averaged 14.9 points and 4.1 assists, and shot 43.5 percent from 3-point range.
“He's one of the terrific shooters in the league right now,” Barnett said. “Teams can't lay off him. He keeps defenses occupied. That frees up Klay and Durant.
“I wouldn't say Cook is lightning quick, but he's deceptively quick and he's smart. He went to Duke for four years. He knows how to use a screen, knows how to get his shot, and he doesn't try to take over a game. I wish he would shoot a little bit more. When he is open, there's a better than 50 percent chance that ball is going to go in.”
Cook has averaged 11.8 shot attempts since March 8 - third most on the team behind Durant and Thompson. “Cook is very important,” Adams said. “He understands what we're doing. He distributes the ball well. He has played really good basketball for us. He's a young player, but he's precocious. His knowledge of the game and, more than anything else, his poise in the game, will serve us well.”
Will he be the Warriors' most important player in Round 1?
St. Jean doesn't think so.
“He's going to be off the ball in a secondary role. They can run point forward with three different guys - Durant, Draymond Green and Andre Iguodala. That's a luxury that the Warriors have to overcome the loss of Curry. The regular, old-fashioned way is to tell Cook, ‘You're going to do it.' But they've got a lot of ways to take the heat off him.”
Quinn is not the most important player.
CONTESTANT NO. 2: KLAY THOMPSON
Thompson is a shooting guard, and Curry is a point guard. The two supposedly play different positions.
Adams disagrees.
“Steph is really the new kind of guard in the league. He's a scorer who can distribute some. We have a number of guys who see the floor well and can make plays. I see an improvement, for an example, in Klay's playmaking. Klay has been very alert at times at making teammates better. I think his all-around game is really coming along.”
Adams considers both Curry and Thompson “scorers who can distribute some.” Fair enough. But Curry is much better at scoring and distributing than Thompson.
“If Curry's on the floor, everybody is better, especially Thompson,” Barnett said. “Thompson is the biggest recipient of Curry's teamwork. Thompson's percentages are precipitously higher, and he gets better shots.”
When Curry is on the floor, Thompson shoots 49.4 percent from 3-point range this season. When Curry isn't on the floor, Thompson shoots only 38.9 percent from 3-point range - a drop of 10.5 percent.
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