The Warriors had the SAME team last year which won the Championship

[bdonovan]

This same personnel won a ring a year ago. Now with the same team, and no major new injuries that would change the quality of the team, they look they're getting ousted in the 2nd round.

Professional sports is unpredictable. Of course if you saw the regular season, GSW performance in the playoffs is not surprising but I'm talking about overall dropoff from last year.

Every once in a while, someone, usually old and out of it, will say something like "Chemistry doesn't matter; teams can win while hating each other". If such a view should ever be dismissed, its now.

Same team, same players, totally different outcome. Yeah Draymond might be a step slow and same with Klay, but enough to warrant going from championship tier to 2nd round ouster in one year.

Ever since Draymond decked Poole, Draymond has lost his authority with the other players. He used to get on other player's cases about their lousy D, especially Klay. He doesn't do that anymore and they probably told him to stop. The result: low quality defense from the Warriors. I've been amazed how many mistakes Klay made without Dray yelling at him all the time.

Klay, Poole, Wiggins and some of the others seem to be competing against one another for who's the best 2nd player rather than making each other better. There's no natural, unselfish ball movement anymore. There's less off-the-ball movement to get open or create distractions for the ball-handler. There's fewer screens for each other.

What could have made things different? Draymond serving a longer suspension, Draymond apologizing to the team, Poole being taken to task by Kerr for calling Draymond "triple single" and told to mature or else; with Draymond serving a long suspension and apologizing, his role as defensive captain should be re-instated and his directing D including barking at other teammates should be restored.

Instead the Warriors did perhaps the worst thing by not punishing Draymond enough because they thought that would teach an arrogant Poole not to taunt his elders; the result was actually destructive to both Draymond's authority as defensive captain, and Poole's mental health; all year long, the team played as adversaries and competitors, not teammates.

The underlying issues that led to the fight were never resolved. They thought they had a clever solution to the fight, but it created turmoil for the season and destroyed team chemistry.

[ArbitraryWater]

Well, theyre playing a better team than they ever did through these 2 years. This isnt unexpected.

The post-trade Lakers are a better team than the Warriors were even last year.

[ArbitraryWater]

I explained this sentiment to tontoz who didnt have the deduction/grasp to realize it:
http://www.insidehoops.com/forum/sho...ast-year/page4

[GimmeThat]

you've got to be illiterate to be telling me the guy who won multiple kids choice award is the captain of a team with bad chemistry

[John8204]

Or maybe the nonsense about the bubble ring was just nonsense and the Lakers make the finals again.

[Foster5k]

Besides the Lakers just being overall a better team, Poole and Klay not playing up to par, especially Poole.

Warriors have a tough road ahead. Poole isn't worth his contract. Klay want the max. Dray wants a multi-year deal.

Not looking good.

[warriorfan]

Poole went from being a major contributor to a huge negative.

GPII isn’t the same. He’s coming back from injury and still doesn’t look right. He hasn’t been awful but he was a lot better last year too

Wiggins isnt playing as well. He isn’t going hard on the boards anymore and his defense has slipped. Whenever there has been a need for a big bucket he hasn’t delivered.

Missing Otto Porter. He wasn’t giving that many minutes but he would be able to give you some solid playing time with good defense and knock down a 3 or 2. He had some big shots last year.


With no reliable second option or contribution from role players it’s put tremendous pressure on Steph who already had to do a lot of carrying to win last year.

Being realistic, this team in its current form just isn’t good enough.

[bdonovan]

Poole went from being a major contributor to a huge negative.

GPII isn’t the same. He’s coming back from injury and still doesn’t look right. He hasn’t been awful but he was a lot better last year too

Wiggins isnt playing as well. He isn’t going hard on the boards anymore and his defense has slipped. Whenever there has been a need for a big bucket he hasn’t delivered.

Missing Otto Porter. He wasn’t giving that many minutes but he would be able to give you some solid playing time with good defense and knock down a 3 or 2. He had some big shots last year.


With no reliable second option or contribution from role players it’s put tremendous pressure on Steph who already had to do a lot of carrying to win last year.

Being realistic, this team in its current form just isn’t good enough.

Agree with everything here except Porter.

I also think that in addition to the "sum of their parts" analysis involving the decline of certain players there's also a team cohesion issue that even if the players were at the same level, they would still lose because they're not playing as a team.

[bdonovan]

I explained this sentiment to tontoz who didnt have the deduction/grasp to realize it:
http://www.insidehoops.com/forum/sho...ast-year/page4

They surprised me at least. The perceptions of the Lakers were that they were a retirement home for aging or injured all-stars.

Lebron: over the hill
Davis: injury-prone
Reaves: a starter??
D'Angelo Russell: inconsistent, underperformer
Vanderbilt: who?
Schroeder: ditched him earlier, came back crawling to the Lakers with a weaker contract

They're in a decent position because I think teams will keep underrating them.

[RRR3]

They surprised me at least. The perceptions of the Lakers were that they were a retirement home for aging or injured all-stars.

Lebron: over the hill
Davis: injury-prone
Reaves: a starter??
D'Angelo Russell: inconsistent, underperformer
Vanderbilt: who?
Schroeder: ditched him earlier, came back crawling to the Lakers with a weaker contract

They're in a decent position because I think teams will keep underrating them.

All of what you said is true, with the exception of Reaves who's cemented himself as a starter. But Hachimura has been huge.

[L.Kizzle]

Only the greatness of Stephen can save them. Everyone else is playing subpar besides Loney and he's been sick since game 2.

[Axe]

The same team? Nah, you guys lost porter last year.

[Axe]

I explained this sentiment to tontoz who didnt have the deduction/grasp to realize it:
http://www.insidehoops.com/forum/sho...ast-year/page4

Uncle t will always go to great measures just to protect his boi curry.

[tpols]

Poole, Wiggins and Klay are down across the board.

Pooles implosion in particular is what has killed them. He was 0-4 with 2 ugly TOVs last night and the Dubs lost by 1 possession.

Pooles play has literally been the difference between them winning and losing. If he did this last year they would have lost too. Any player making 100+ million that plays like this is single handedly sinking the teams ship.

[Im Still Ballin]

There's a fine line between winning and losing. Game 4 game came down to a couple of possessions. LA is better than any Western Conference team they faced last season. Consider that, plus what has been mentioned in this thread.