Why 2022-23 Warriors couldn’t measure up to championship expectations

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Why these Warriors couldn’t measure up to ’22 champions originally appeared on NBC Sports Bayarea

SAN FRANCISCO – When talent and measurement and age are similar, disposition tends to separate the satisfactory sports team from the good and the good from the excellent. Consider, please, the Warriors of the last two seasons.

They won the 2022 NBA Finals with a splendid blend of established stars and hungry grunts with varied experiences. The grunts – Nemanja Bjelica, Damion Lee, Gary Payton II, Otto Porter Jr., Juan Toscano-Anderson, all in the late-20s or older – consistently scratched and scrambled to prove they belong in the NBA.

They knew and embraced supporting roles. It was a flawed roster, but ideal dispositions helped Golden State exceed expectations.

“Last year’s team was a lot older with Beli and obviously GP2 coming back, Juan, D-Lee, Otto,” Moses Moody recalled Saturday. “Those guys have been in the league for a while, and they approach the game with a different … they have been here before. They have done it so much. Yeah, you can just kind of feel that.”

Porter and Bjelica were veterans in comeback mode. Payton, Lee and Toscano-Anderson had worn out roads, some internationally, in their quest for a job in the league and were desperate to make good of the first hint of NBA security they’d ever known. Through grit and grind, they earned rings.

Eleven months after the championship parade, the Warriors were ousted by the Los Angeles Lakers on Friday in the Western Conference semifinals. This was another flawed roster, but one with a very different disposition.

The hungry grunts had been replaced mostly by young players who didn’t have the same fire in the gut. Lottery picks, eager to make a splash in the NBA, generally are not fond of supporting roles and fluctuating playing time.

This season’s supporting cast had more personal agendas, which breeds discontent with roles and playing time.

Which is bound to influence overall team chemistry as well as lead to uneven individual performance.

Kevon Looney, the hungry grunt in the starting lineup, has seen the Warriors win championships with a…

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Author : NBC Sports BayArea

Publish date : 2023-05-13 21:42:20

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