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On January 3, the Golden State Warriors beat the Miami Heat to move to 29-7 of the season. Coming into the season, nobody saw the Dubs contending for the top seed in the conference, especially with how the team failed to make the playoffs last season and the absence of Klay Thompson.
Since then, the Dubs are 14-15, and fighting the Grizzles neck for neck for the two-seed. With the team struggling, head coach Steve Kerr has been juggling different lineups to see what could work. Fans have been increasingly upset, even calling for Kerr’s job and pondering aloud when the team will start winning games again.
Over the dominant years between 2015-19, Curry’s substation pattern was black and white. 12 minutes to start the game, six minutes to start the second quarter, and then the last six minutes Curry would play until halftime. Rinse and repeat. However, Kerr decided to change it up earlier this season in order to save Curry’s mileage for the season.
To the delight of many Warrior fans, Steve Kerr told reporters on March 6, that the team plans to revert back to the old rotation minutes for Curry.
“It’s going to be basically one rest [per half] instead of two. We’ll probably bridge the first and second [quarters], third and fourth. It kind of depends on how he’s going in the first and third quarters. Now that we have Klay back, and now that we are in a situation where we’re heading for the stretch run, it feels important to get Steph into that rotation pattern.”
Kerr thinks this move back to his old rotation will help keep Curry’s minutes around 36. With how bad the team has been struggling as of late, the Warriors have had to exhaust Curry, and play him for the entire fourth quarter on several occasions.
So, how exactly did Curry take this latest update?
Steph Curry Was All Smiles
After the Lakers loss on March 5, Steph Curry spent a majority of his time emphasizing to reporters how they were getting into too many losing habits.
“We’re not that team and I’m not going to let us be that team,” Curry said. “… We cannot give in to this losing spirit of just finding different ways to lose basketball games.”
However, after his postgame interview concluded, he spent a couple more minutes talking to reporters and conveyed a silver lining. Marcus Thompson of the Athletic revealed exactly what transpired when Curry talked about the old substitution pattern the Warriors were returning to.
But he broke out into a big smile when asked about what was clearly a silver lining of their latest debacle. In the weeds of their 124-116 loss to the underwhelming Lakers in the NBA’s Saturday night showcase game was the Warriors stumbling into something of Curry’s old substitution pattern. And he loved it.
To that end, he said, the experimentation with his minutes is over. He’s going back to the rotation pattern he’s used for years — playing all of the first and third quarters and resting to start the second and fourth. He’s sacrificed long enough.
“Something good came out of this game,” Curry said, smiling as he disappeared into the locker room.
Obviously, it looks like Curry has been waiting for this to happen. Over the years that Curry progressed towards stardom, his original rotational pattern had always been used. The altered rotational changes this year seems to have messed with Curry’s rhythm on the floor, and his numbers clearly show.
Steve Kerr’s Rotational Change Has Not Worked Out
After a November 16 win against the Brooklyn Nets, Kerr told reporters how they were going to change up the rotation in regards to Curry’s substitution patterns.
“Basically, we are going to take Steph out in the middle of every quarter for a few minutes. He always liked to play the first and the third and then sit the first six minutes of the second and fourth, that’s what we’ve done for years. We asked him to think about changing that this year, and of course Steph is always open to anything, so accommodating as a player, even though it probably took him out of his rhythm the first few games.”
While the change did not affect much of the early season success for the Warriors, it has been magnified—especially for fans—throughout their struggles the past couple months. The constant stoppages in between quarters have thrown Curry’s tempo off, and he has not been able to carry the offense, especially with pressure mounting without Draymond Green.
Curry is on pace to shoot a career worse in his scoring average (25.8), field goal (43.2%), and three pointers (37.9%). This would be the first time in his career he finished a season with over 50 games players that he has shot under 40% from the perimeter.
Hopefully, the adjustment back to his old substitution pattern for Curry will help him turn his season around. Fans can only hope…
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