Golden State Warriors: Grading every player after first month of season

The Golden State Warriors have had an up-and-down first month of the season. Opening week was a disaster, with two blowout losses on national television. Media talking heads were discussing how Stephen Curry couldn’t carry a team, how Steve Kerr simply rode the coattails of his stars, and how the Warriors should tank for another top pick.

Then the team settled into form, winning six of eight to right the ship. Just this past week they came back to beat the Los Angeles Lakers, had a blowout win over the San Antonio Spurs and then a blowout loss to the New York Knicks. This team is inconsistent, with moments of brilliance and periods of ineptitude.

Player grades for the Golden State Warriors at the one-month mark

That makes grading the players more complicated. It’s good to step back and evaluate each player’s performance periodically, as you would a student in a class you taught. Yet what if that student aced some tests and flunked others? That’s what the Warriors roster is doing thus far.

The hope is that as the season progresses, a team made up of very different parts will continue to catch its stride, gaining chemistry together. The young players can grow in experience, the veterans can round into form, and the Golden State Warriors can challenge for a top-six seed to avoid the play-in game.

For that to happen, the entire roster top-to-bottom will need to play better and with more consistency. For now, we will grade each member of the roster according to their play thus far, relative to expectations and role. That means a star playing poorly may earn a lower grade than a back-end rotation player balling out, even if the star is still playing at a higher level than the bench player.

We begin with the team’s superstar, who looks like both an MVP candidate and a soldier trying to fight an army alone.

Stephen Curry, Starting PG – Grade: A-

At times Stephen Curry looks the part of a two-time MVP, hitting ridiculous 30-foot shots and slipping smoothly to the rim around taller defenders. He is hitting open teammates, deftly maneuvering screens and scaring opposing defenders with his ability to hit shots from anywhere.

He is also averaging 3.5 turnovers per game, fourteenth overall in the league. He is shooting just 37.1 percent from 3-point range, which is both above league average and frigidly lower than his career average of 43.3 percent. Toss out last season’s small 5-game sample size, he has never shot lower than 41.1 percent from deep in any season of his career. That dip has cost him 10 made 3-pointers given his volume of shots thus far.

The difference can be felt as this iteration of the Warriors struggles to string together wins. Whether it is the absence of his wingman Klay Thompson, or of playmakers not-named Draymond Green to get him the ball, Curry is laboring under a tremendous load without the help he is accustomed to. Any player would struggle to some extent. With teams throwing double teams and other creative defenses at him solely to stop him at all costs, it is no wonder Curry’s efficiency is down.

Can he find the help or the inner fire to overcome it? That answer is likely also the answer to whether this team can make a run over the rest of the season.