The Dub-less Dubs: What Now?

The Warriors have found themselves in quite an interesting situation with the temporary absence of a superstar. The lanky Durant has been couch-locked with a broken leg, and since then the Warriors have been deadlocked in a losing slump. There are two sides to this recent conundrum, and both are very interesting perspectives. On one hand, there is the fact that the Warriors just aren’t powerful without KD. They gave up quite a bit to get him, relinquishing what was a B-squad that could take on any other team’s starting 5. And now, in his absence there is a plain and simple lack of depth. However, Pachulia’s tumble into Durant’s leg couldn’t have come at a worse time. On the brink of the hardest 12 day stretch any team has seen this season, you have to wonder how their resilience would have been with an entirely healthy squad. 

Following up with some of the sentiment expressed in my previous post on Durant, I feel even more strongly that Durant may not have been the way to go for the Warriors. If you take a trip down memory lane with me, we’ll find that Durant likes to injure his legs. Well, that’s a funny way to put it, but nonetheless they find themselves injured quite a bit. In the early years there wasn’t anything serious: a couple sprained ankles here and there, but fast forward to last year and we see that he was out for two long spans with a major foot injury. And sure enough, here we are at present day with a leg-injured Durant out for at least a month. That’s not a great progression. As with any acquisition, you hope as an owner that the player stays healthy. But for Joe Lacob, that hope turned into a prayer. Well, good thing he got some practice because now those prayers are in dire need. Where was his plan B?

We know one thing, it wasn’t his B-squad. The talent given up to get Durant was overshadowed by his own talent throughout the season, but his absence has exposed holes in the Warriors’ bench. A disrupted dynamic coupled with a bench that is lacking confidence equates to a side of the Warriors we haven’t seen recently. They are used to winning, and winning a lot. They also had energy. Not physical energy, but intangible energy in the likes of Barbosa and Speights. They had players that would electrify the crowd and keep momentum going. Earlier this season, they could still do that by rotating Durant, Thompson, and Curry in ways where they weren’t always on the floor together. But now, there aren’t any bench players that can keep momentum going. We don’t have a “Brazilian Blur” to make like the road-runner, turn on the afterburners, and get to the rim — meep meep. In other words we’re lacking energy, which brings me to the other hand.

11,000 miles and 8 games in 12 days. That was the length of the Warriors’ most recent travel schedule. Talk about a tough road trip, any team in their shoes would have been asking, “Are we there yet?” Fatigue unquestionably has played a part in their recent performance. Playing and traveling that much inevitably leads to shooting slumps, and there is justifiably a bone to pick with the league for such absurd scheduling. But these things happen. And even with Durant healthy, they may have found themselves below .500 on this trip. However, this unfortunately furthers the thought that trading depth for individual talent may not have been the right barter. But, who really cares if they end up winning the championship? There is the regular season, and then there are the playoffs. April can’t come soon enough. Are we there yet?

P.s. That picture above is the exact moment of the injury. Warrior into Warrior...bummer. At least KD's shoes are looking good. A player exclusive (or PE as it's commonly called) of the KD 9 with a nice transitional flyknit upper in Warriors colors. Come back soon Durant so we can see some more!