Why Warriors were smart to ride with surging core at trade deadline

Steve Kerr’s words have been streaming into the ears of Mike Dunleavy for weeks, the coach insisting he believes in these Warriors and the general manager saying he does, too, while yearning for results.

As this season's NBA trade deadline crept closer, both conceded that, no matter what, significant improvement on defense was essential to getting back into the playoff race.

Dunleavy, appearing Jan. 25 on NBC Sports Bay Area’s "Warriors Pregame Live," said: "I think it's got to come from within. And that comes from everybody. That's coaches, that's players, that's the whole deal of we've got to tighten this thing up and find a way to be better defensively because, frankly, offensively, we've been great."

Kerr, following a win over the Philadelphia 76ers six days later: “Draymond [Green] really changed things with his return because he connects [Andrew Wiggins and Jonathan Kuminga] at both ends of the floor just with his communication defensively, and then the way he helps get us organized offensively.”

The trade deadline passed at noon Thursday, and Golden State’s only move was trading fourth-string point guard Cory Joseph and cash to Indiana for a second-round draft pick, which shaved about $11 million off the luxury tax bill and cleared a roster spot.

The Warriors played it safe, yes, but also wise, considering the available options.

“We feel like we're getting better,” Dunleavy said during a Zoom news conference Thursday. “And we didn't want to do anything that we felt would be any rash or an overreaction to anything.”

The urgency to make a more substantial move, so transparent a month ago, began diminishing in mid-January and was all but gone by early February. Why? Because, as Kerr believed and Dunleavy hoped, the current roster has made appreciable improvement, mostly where it was desperately needed.

On defense.

“Our defense has picked up,” Kerr told reporters Thursday in Indianapolis. “You can see we’re a little bouncier, a little more athletic and we're able to get out in transition off misses and create some offense. A lot of guys are playing at a high level now, and that's the key. We've got multiple people who are stepping up and finding rhythm at the same time. When you do that, you have a good chance to win.”

In the three weeks prior to Jan. 18, the Warriors’ defensive rating was 127.0 (last in the NBA). In the three weeks since, it is at 112.3, ranking seventh in the league and third in the Western Conference.

Golden State’s offense during that span ranks fourth overall and third in the West, with a 121.5 rating. It’s 9.3 net rating is No. 1 in the West and third overall.

Though the Warriors remain outside the top 10 in the West, their recent performance exceeds those of most of the teams above them. A big part of their surge is indeed related to Green’s mid-January return, as well as a full month of mostly effective play from Kuminga.

It’s Wiggins, however, who has made the biggest leap lately. He is playing at a level that feels almost like a new acquisition. He has climbed from a sub-mediocre quagmire to reclaim his status as an impact player on both ends.

“I don't know about any specific point,” Dunleavy said. “But being the talented player that Andrew is, you’ve got to figure at some point he was going to get to the level that he expects to play and that we expect him to play at. He's starting to get there and it's great to see.”

Wiggins, whose name was floated in several trade scenarios, is giving the Warriors kind of boost they would have wanted from a new acquisition. His scoring production and efficiency are up, and he is doing a solid job of defending the opponent’s best perimeter threat.

The cold truth for the Warriors is that the players who would have made the greatest impact – Toronto forwards OG Anunoby and Pascal Siakam – landed elsewhere. Anunoby was sent to the New York Knicks on Dec. 30, and they flourished the moment he arrived. The Indiana Pacers, by contrast, have been ordinary due to several injuries, including leader Tyrese Haliburton.

The Warriors will ride with what they have, as they should. They’ll need to fill a roster spot, with a big man or another wing. They also need to break the tendency of losing so many close games, as it’s necessary for them to recover from their underachievement in the first half.

“We don't have a championship record at this point,” Dunleavy said. “So, that's the challenge, to get ourselves into the mix and get ourselves to the play-in or into the tournament.

“The most important thing we have [is] championship experience. We have guys that have been there and can do it.”

“Championship experience” was Golden State’s edge in the 2022 NBA Finals. It the edge in the first round of the 2023 playoffs. It probably won’t get them far in the ’24 playoffs, but the youngsters, led by Kuminga, have altered the overall dynamic.

The Warriors have enough to make a nice playoff run – assuming they get there. That will require much more consistent winning over the next nine weeks.

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