Things Seem Great In Golden State After Both Jimmy Butler And Draymond Green Decide To Take Some Direct Shots At Their Own Teammates

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In a battle of the NBA title favorite (OKC) and a team that many heading into the season expected to challenge OKC in the West (GS), let's just say their first meeting of the season didn't really give us that impression. The Thunder whooped that ass like they have been all season to the tune of a 126-102 final score, but this game was over in the 3rd quarter after the Thunder put up 44 points to go up 30+.

That win moved them to 11-1 on the year, all without Jalen Williams playing a single second. Not bad! 

The Warriors? A tough 6-6 start (1-6 on the road) and firmly in the Play In grouping. Not exactly where a lot of people had them entering the season, especially after adding Al Horford and an offseason/training camp with Jimmy Butler. And while it's still early, we're starting to see some cracks and things bubble up to the surface that are way more problematic than an early November loss to the defending champ.

When the best players on the team and veteran leaders start pointing fingers and calling out their teammates for "having an agenda" and that they aren't "sacrificing", in the NBA we generally know how this plays out. Coming out of this loss, that's exactly what both Jimmy Butler and Draymond Green decided to do

Yikes. Where's the accountability? Where's the ownership by the best players and leaders on the team? In my opinion, this is the exact opposite of how your veterans should be talking/operating after a loss like this, especially when you are also responsible! The Warriors are giving up 120+ points in all of these losses, where's Draymond's accountability for that? His whole thing is defense right?

With Butler, this feels no different than the stuff he was doing in MIN/MIA when they were losing and he was unhappy. It becomes an everyone else thing. Mind you, in this loss to OKC, Jimmy Butler took just 3 FGA and was a -15 in his minutes. 

As it so often does in the NBA when teams underachieve and losses start to pile up, we begin to get leaks around drama, narratives etc. The Warriors are no different

“Podziemski made a number of comments in the lead-up to the season about his long-term career ambitions, including a news conference answer to a question about whether he wanted to be as great as Steph Curry. Podziemski said he ‘wants to be better than him,’ an answer that elicited some eyerolls and continued references from several within the organization. Podziemski's numbers (12.0 points, 4.7 rebounds, 3.1 assists) are relatively stable from a season ago.”

I'm sorry, but this is not why the Warriors are having issues right now. They are having issues because they have a roster that is old as shit. They have the 21st ranked offense in the NBA, and this is with Steph Curry still being Steph Curry. Yeah they may have fumbled the Kuminga situation and probably should have just traded him, but they are not losing these games because of the youth on the roster. It's the aging veterans (not Horford/Steph) that have been much more of an issue. You have Jimmy Butler taking regular season games off while out the same time calling out his younger teammates. Call me crazy, but stuff like that seems like a much bigger factor in what's going on here than young players' production.

I think it's also important to remember where we are in terms of the Jimmy Butler cycle. Things were great when he got his extension. Now, he's getting closer to his next extension eligibility, and guess what's popping up again? Malcontent Jimmy! He's basically using the same playbook we just saw him execute in MIA. 

Now, to be fair, it's not like Jonathan Kuminga/Podz have been all that great to start the season. This isn't to say they are above criticism. But in this loss, Kuminga was 6-9 and Podz was 3-6. Draymond and Butler were a combined -35 (Steph a -23). That just feels like a weird time to basically be calling out your younger teammates, but what do I know?

What I do know is that the Western Conference is brutal. Things are most definitely not going to get any easier, and with how close all the teams are, any sort of slip up can have you locked in to the Play In or miss the playoffs entirely. We just saw a pai of 48 win teams last year not even finish in the top 6. Usually, when you start getting these types of losses/quotes from a team that's struggling, it doesn't exactly translate to the best season. 

For a team that many expected to be a Finals contender, the Warriors up until this point have looked like anything but. A barely positive scoring differential (+0.1), under .500 against good teams, can't win on the road etc. But you know, if you listen to Butler and Draymond, that's all the young guys' fault. Whatever you say!