Are the Golden State Warriors Championship Hopes Crushed?

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A sight Golden State Warriors fans are going to have to get used to… again

Everything looked bright for the championship hopeful, Golden State Warriors heading into the 2013-14 NBA season. Why? For starters, Harrison Barnes had a coming out party in the 2013 NBA playoffs, averaging 16 points and 6 rebounds per game in 12 games against the Nuggets and Spurs. Also, the Warriors had one of the biggest free-agent signings in the offseason, signing Andre Igoudala to a 4 year, $48 million contract. The obvious factor was that the team consisted of a collection of young players so it was just to expect them to improve over the previous season. Oh, how could I forget? Andrew Bogut is completely healthy for the first time in a long while.

Every single one of those factors was apart of the reason why the Warriors were looked upon as one of the serious threats to win it all in the 2014 NBA Playoffs. However, that was up until April 13th when Andrew Bogut took a shot to midsection, aggravating an injury that he apparently suffered on Thursday against the Denver Nuggets. Bogut wanted to play through the injury but was advised not to as Doctors told him that the rib fracture was too close to his lung and could possibly cause a punctured lung if he played through the pain.

The loss of Andrew Bogut for the foreseeable future, meaning playoffs, drastically affects the Warriors’ chances in this year’s playoffs. When Bogut was acquired by Golden State in the 2011-12 season, he didn’t play until the next season because of a pre-existing ankle injury. However, when he did play, he pushed the team into becoming contenders. The Aussie gave the team the sort of toughness and grit that they had not had in years. If you’re a team in the Western Conference and you don’t have either one of those qualities, you have no chance of advancing in the playoffs as the West typically has the best big men in the NBA.

Bogut has the mentality and mind set needed to play the Center position in the West. The will to battle if necessary is quintessential and this scuffle only proves that. Without him there, who’s going to bring this toughness? Jermaine O’Neal?

The addition of Andre Igoudala only bolstered the Warriors defense as the two paired up to be defensive showstoppers in the inside (Bogut) and outside (Igoudala). Now that Bogut is out for the playoffs, Golden State still retains retains somewhat of its defensive identity because of Igoudala. The question is, who is going to replace Andrew Bogut’s defense? His 1.7 BPG and 0.7 SPG are raised to 2.5 BPG and 1 SPG when he plays 36 minutes and that was approximately the amount of time Bogut was going to play in the 2014 NBA playoffs. The Warriors have no one who can replace that kind of defensive production. The team also has a defensive rating of 100.7 (would’ve been higher had Andre Igoudala not missed 19 games this season) when he’s on the court and a rating of 103.8 when he’s off. To you, that may not be that significant of a difference but in the NBA playoffs, that could and will be the difference between winning a Game 7 and losing one.

There are two possible options for the Golden State Warriors now that Andrew Bogut is out for the playoffs; play small ball, a tactic more effective in the Eastern Conference and less in the Western Conference because of the size of front courts for other playoff teams, or give Jermaine O’Neal 30+ minutes a night.

Apart from Bogut, O’Neal is the only Center on the roster that can contribute in the playoffs as Hilton Armstrong and Ognjen Kuzmic won’t cut it and Festus Ezeli is already out for the season, including the playoffs. At age 35, defense is not Jermaine O’Neal’s forte. The veteran has a defensive rating of 104.9 on the season that increases to 106 when he starts and 112 when he plays 30-39 minutes per game.

Oh, boy.

The 1st round match up for the Warriors is the Clippers and they have Blake Griffin, DeAndre Jordan and Glen “Big Baby” Davis. Jermaine O’Neal is going to get challenged in a big way by them, even by Jordan and Davis.

The other option the Golden State Warriors have is playing small ball, which shifts Harrison Barnes to Power Forward and David Lee and Marreese Speights to Center. If this happens, the Warriors are likely to get out rebounded by the Clippers and that is not an ideal thing to let happen. The purpose of small ball is to outscore the opponent. However, that is going to difficult to do against a Clipper team that is 33-1when they score 110 or more points, with the only loss coming against the Portland Trail Blazers. The Clippers are amazing at winning high scoring games, which is what the Warriors will try to do if they do play small ball.

Either way, it doesn’t look as if the Golden State Warriors have a chance to win the NBA Championship in 2014. The Bay Area will have to wait yet another year for the NBA Championship to return to there. Maybe next year, just maybe, Andrew Bogut will stay healthy.