Warriors are being urged to buy out a three-time All-Star player

There are many things that need to happen for this to be possible…

To start the season, the Golden State Warriors have a very deep team, and they also can’t sign a free agent right now because they are just below the first tax apron.

It’s not necessary. The Warriors lost to the L.A. Clippers at Chase Center on Sunday, giving Steve Kerr more problems than he already has with his 12-man rotation through three games. The Warriors are now 2-1.

If they can get another star player to go with Stephen Curry, Golden State could still look at 3-for-1 or even 4-for-1 moves as the season goes on. In this case, Mike Dunleavy Jr. and the front office might have to bring in free agents to fill out the rest of the team’s squad.

Three-time All-Star Ben Simmons has been suggested as a possible buyout choice for the Warriors.

If the Warriors need to make a deal after the midseason trade deadline, they might be able to find a former first-round pick and three-time All-Star on the buyout market. Next to Draymond Green, Bill Simmons of The Ringer said last week that Brooklyn Nets guard/forward Ben Simmons could be a good choice for Golden State.

“I believe Simmons could become one of the most interesting February buyout guys in a few years, as he seems like he could be the center of New Orleans.” Simmons said, “He could be a crazy Draymond Green back-up at Golden State.”

Simmons’s play has taken a big hit since he was one of the league’s brightest young stars in Philadelphia. The 28-year-old even got votes for MVP in 2020–21, but he has only played in 50 of the 249 regular season games that were possible since then.

Simmons has looked like a shell of himself on the court—nowhere near the player who is now in the last year of a $177.2 million deal. The Australian has had a good start to the season. In the first three games, he has averaged five points, seven boards, and seven assists per 24 minutes.

Because the Nets are rebuilding, it’s very likely that Simmons will be bought out if they can’t make a deal by the deadline. Golden State might be interested. Only if the squad changes a lot. Kerr’s focus on three-point shooting doesn’t leave much room for a player like Simmons who doesn’t score at all.

He could be a good backup in a job similar to Green’s, but the Warriors already have a more reliable player in that role in Kyle Anderson, who is having trouble getting minutes after being taken out of the game on Sunday.

After a controversial move, Kerr makes the first big cut to the Warriors’ rotation.

There was no way that the 12-man shift could last for long.

Steve Kerr’s controversial 12-man rotation has been a big topic of conversation in the NBA so far this season. However, it didn’t really get tested until Sunday, when the Golden State Warriors played their home opener against the Los Angeles Clippers.

The Warriors won their first two games by a total score of 77 points, which set an NBA record. This gave Kerr the chance to balance the minutes between the 12 players. In Sunday’s game, things were very different. The Clippers made Kerr make much more thoughtful decisions about his rotation.

Kyle Anderson stood out when the Warriors lost to the Clippers.

In the first half, the head coach still used a 12-man rotation, but in the last 24 minutes, he cut it down to 11. Golden State lost their first game of the season, 112-104. Kyle Anderson was Kerr’s odd man out. The experienced forward played less than four minutes in the first half and then nothing at all after that.

Putting Anderson on the bench must not have been easy, given how experienced and useful he is. The 31-year-old has played at least 19.9 minutes per game for each of the last seven seasons, but Kerr praised how he handled the situation.

Kerr said after the loss, “He (Anderson) was great in the second half on the bench, leading everyone and talking to guys.””You need that if you want to play a lot of people. Everyone has to be on board.” Kyle’s professionalism really amazed me.

What’s even stranger about Anderson’s benching is that a more famous experienced forward was sitting next to him in the last few seconds. Kerr didn’t go back to Draymond Green in the last eight minutes of the game because Stephen Curry had already left the game because he hurt his ankle.

Kerr chose center Kevon Looney over Green, Anderson, or Trayce Jackson-Davis to finish the game. It was the right choice because the three-time champion’s energy and hard work got Golden State back into the game for a short time. Looney had a double-double with 10 points and 11 rebounds in 20 minutes off the bench. He also had three assists and three steals.

That doesn’t mean that putting Anderson on the bench for the whole second half was the right move, but you could see why Kerr did it—he was desperately trying to find space and offense in the second half.

The other thing is that Anderson just signed a $27 million, three-year deal with the Warriors. That means they see him as a long-term member of the team, and the fact that he and Looney are the only two bench players taller than 6’6″ makes it look like his firing in the second half is only temporary.

Draymond Green finds a small problem with the Warriors’ main worry right now

Even though the Warriors have won two very good games, there are still questions about them.

So far, the Golden State Warriors have been very good in almost every way. They beat the Portland Trail Blazers and the Utah Jazz by a record-setting 77 points each, winning both games by a large margin.

Because the Warriors have been so good, it’s easy to forget that they fell behind in the first two games. But their depth and quality of their bench quickly took over against weaker teams.

The Warriors are most worried about their starting group right now.

There are a lot of worries about Golden State after two games, but it’s still not clear how well the starting group will work. Steve Kerr, the head coach, has been playing Stephen Curry, Andrew Wiggins, Jonathan Kuminga, Draymond Green, and Trayce Jackson-Davis. This group only came together in the last two games of the preseason.

Green said after Friday’s 127–86 win over the Jazz that he thinks the starting group isn’t working well because they’re trying too hard to make it work.

Green said, “We really want that lineup to do well, so everyone is setting the bar high.””Then once we settle down, that lineup you know takes over — our size, our athleticism, we’re getting out and running, we’re attacking the rim, getting kick out threes.”

Draymond Green on the big starting group with him, TJD, Kuminga and Wiggins: “We want that lineup to do well so bad that everyone is coming out pressing. Once we settle down, that lineup takes over.” pic.twitter.com/FzZ1AU5M4Y

— Anthony Slater (@anthonyVslater) October 26, 2024

The starters didn’t score a field goal for more than five minutes against the Trail Blazers on Wednesday, and they were then outscored 13–6 to start the game against the Jazz. They’ve only played together for 10 minutes, but their first-half scores are terrible: an offensive rating of 55, a defensive rating of 119, and a net rating of -64…

As Green hinted, the starting group is much calmer and more at ease to begin the third quarter. They have an amazing 148.1 rating on offense, 85.2 rating on defense, and a 63 overall net rating after 11 minutes of the second half.

Kuminga is the biggest worry because he didn’t really play well in either game, even though both were blown out. That could also be seen as a good thing, since Curry’s below-average shooting splits and his own form show that there’s still a lot of room for improvement.

The numbers from the second half also give us reason to think it can work going forward. As easy as the Warriors’ first two games were, there is still time and room for mistakes to give the starting group more chances to see if they can really click.

One Warriors unit that you might not expect is beating opponents in two games.

It looked like two of the guys would not be in the lineup at all…

With wins over the Portland Trail Blazers and Utah Jazz, the Golden State Warriors have the biggest total winning margin in NBA history through the first two games of a season. Few people expected them to do so.

The league as a whole has been talking a lot about Steve Kerr’s 12-man rotation. So far, so good, as the head coach keeps trying different groups and combinations to find the best ones.

The other team is being ripped apart by a Warriors five-man group.

The Warriors have only played more than eight minutes together as a unit once, and that was with their somewhat controversial starting lineup, which has caused some ongoing worries despite the team’s strong start to the season.

Stephen Curry, Andrew Wiggins, Jonathan Kuminga, Draymond Green, and Trayce Jackson-Davis have an 8.5 net rating after 22 minutes. It’s still not clear if they will be able to work well together going forward.

But Kerr’s third-most-used group is the one that’s really hurting the other teams the most. It’s also a pretty odd one, since Stephen Curry, Brandin Podziemski, Buddy Hield, Gary Payton II, and Kevon Looney have only played eight minutes together in the first two games.

If you had told fans before the season that that group might play together, most of them would have thought it was crazy that Kerr was going to a four-guard lineup with Jackson-Davis and Green, who are probably the team’s third-best big men.

Even though they only played five minutes against the Jazz and three against the Trail Blazers, that group of five players has an absurd 170 offensive rating and a 57.1 defensive rating, for a net rating of 112.9.

Not only does Golden State’s group of four guards make it hard to see them winning their first two games, but many people, including this writer, thought that Looney and Payton would not play at all.

Without a doubt, this is the best team in the league that has played more than four minutes so far. Also, it goes without saying that those numbers won’t last, and it helps that Hield is only making 75% of his 16 three-point shots so far.

Due to the small sample size, looking at numbers for specific teams isn’t very helpful yet, but you can bet that Kerr will be looking at the data to see what’s really working for him in the first two games.

Warriors had a rough home start and are worried about major injuries.

The Warriors might have a lot of trouble with this.

For the Golden State Warriors, a bad home opener was made worse by a big injury concern: superstar guard Stephen Curry left the game after turning his left ankle twice in the second half.

After a rough start to the second quarter, the Warriors never led. From that point on, they had to work hard and lost 112-104. Curry hurt his hip and couldn’t play in the last 15 minutes, which made the job even harder.

Stephen Curry hurt his ankle, and the Warriors will be paying close attention to it.

The two-time MVP hurt his ankle late in the third quarter and could only play for five seconds when he tried to come back in the fourth. Golden State will be upset about the loss, but Curry’s injury is a much bigger worry at this point in the season.

Following two games with 139 and 127 points, the Warriors had a much tougher time against the Clippers, whose defense was ranked fourth in the league to begin the season. It didn’t help that they made some careless and just plain stupid passes, which led to 21 mistakes that decided the game.

Even though Curry wasn’t there, Golden State came back from a 10-0 deficit to tie the game with just minutes left. The main person who started the play was Andrew Wiggins, who scored 29 points for the Warriors on 11 of 15 shots, including 5 of 8 from three-point range.

ANOTHER Wiggins three caps a 10-0 run 👌 pic.twitter.com/81VE9xpK6z

— Warriors on NBCS (@NBCSWarriors) October 28, 2024

But the Clippers won the whole game because they played slowly in the half-court, which helped their defense and James Harden and Ivica Zubac’s pick-and-roll playing style. With 23 points, 17 rebounds, and six assists in 38 minutes, Zubac once again proved to be the most important player. He had averaged 22.5 points and 12 rebounds in the first two games.

Harden only scored 23 points by making 6 of 19 shots and 2 of 12 three-point shots against the Warriors. However, he did have 11 passes to help keep the home team at bay. Norman Powell scored 37 points against the Denver Nuggets on Saturday. In the first half, he didn’t do much, scoring only two points. But he scored 13 points in the third quarter and 18 points in the second half.

Buddy Hield couldn’t bring his powerful play from the first two games back to his home court. He only scored eight points, making three of fourteen shots and one of nine attempts from three-point range. Only four Warriors players scored 10 or more points: Wiggins (18), Curry (18), Jonathan Kuminga (12), and Kevon Looney (10).

Golden State also had a good game from Looney, who scored 10 points in 20 minutes off the bench and grabbed 11 boards, had three assists, and stole three balls. The Warriors didn’t have many other good things happen. Now, everyone will be looking at Curry’s ankle, which could be the most important injury report of the season.