Coming off back-to-back losses for the first time all year, the Warriors have begun to show signs of some potentially back-breaking flaws. While the Warriors have undoubtedly been one of the more pleasant surprises of the 2024-2025 NBA season, they’re still clearly not talented enough to get away with some of the things other Western Conference heavy-weights can. The Warriors’ margin for error is smaller than it has been in years past, and that’s been on full display during their two most recent losses.
The Warriors’ revamped bench unit is clearly a strength. And Steph Curry is clearly still Steph Curry—capable of putting his team entirely on his back on any given night. But in order for them to halt their tumble from atop the Western Conference standings, and fully maximize their potential, there are some areas of concern that demand attention and addressing.
Back-to-Back Losses Expose Potential Areas of Concern for Warriors
The Warriors’ Free Throw Shooting
The Warriors, who are home to the single greatest free-throw shooter in NBA history (Steph Curry), are somehow dead last in free-throw percentage to start the season. Despite Curry shooting a career-best 95.8% (!) from the charity stripe, and Buddy Hield doing his part by canning 89.5% of his looks, the Warriors as a whole are somehow still shooting just 69.5%.
The Warriors’ lack of success from the free-throw line is sort of hard to comprehend. On the one hand, the Warriors’ rotation is chock-full of guys like Draymond Green, Kevon Looney, and Jonathan Kuminga who cumulatively leave a bit to be desired at the free-throw line. On the other hand, those guys have been mainstays in the Warriors’ rotation for many years, and it’s never been as big of an issue as it currently is. In all likelihood, the Warriors’ free-throw struggles are more of an early-season abnormality, and eventually players’ percentages will regress more closely to the mean. If they don’t however, they will continue squandering winnable games. During the Warriors’ wins this season they’ve shot 71.4% from the line, during their losses they’ve shot just 61.1%.
Turnovers
Perhaps a less surprising but equally damaging concern for the Warriors is their continued inability to limit turnovers. At the time of this writing, the Warriors currently rank 16th in the league in turnovers, with 14.5 per game. While a middle-of-the-pack turnover rate may be manageable for some, the Warriors do not have the necessary offensive weaponry to get away with giving up offensive possessions.
The Warriors have long played a loose and at times erratic brand of basketball. Steph Curry for all his offensive wizardry, is not immune to bouts of careless turnovers, and the same can be said for Green. With that said, the 5.7 combined turnovers committed by the Warriors’ two main ball-handlers, Curry and Green, are not insurmountable. If they can scale back ever so slightly, however, it could go a long way in improving the Warriors’ overall chances.
As previously mentioned, turnovers have long plagued the Warriors. Even during their last championship run in 2022, they averaged 14.8 turnovers per game—good for second worst rate in the league. However even as that team was less star-studded than previous iterations of the Warriors’ dynasty, it still had more leeway for error than this year’s team. The 2024-2025 Warriors simply must cut down on their giveaways; their path toward contention depends upon it.
Playing With Their Food
The Warriors have had little struggles playing against top-tier competition this year. Generally speaking, when they’ve been faced with a challenging opponent they’ve risen up and played to the best of their ability. As a result, the Warriors have already taken down the Celtics, the Thunder, the Mavericks, the Rockets, and the Grizzlies—all in the first month of the season. Where the Warriors have struggled, however, has been with lesser competition.
Four of the Warriors’ five losses during the early season have come from teams more than likely to miss the playoffs. The Clippers are definitely pesky and well-coached, but no one honestly expects them to play much of a factor in the West. There’s no excuse for the Warriors to already owe two of their losses to a Kawhi Leonard-less Clippers team. The Spurs are capable of beating just about anyone on any given night, just because they’re home to a literal alien in Victor Wembanyama. But still, much like the Clippers, the Spurs aren’t thought of by many as anything more than a team that would consider themselves lucky to be playing in the play-in tournament come April. Worse even still than the Warriors’ losses to the Clippers and Spurs, however, was their most recent loss to the Brooklyn Nets—at home no less.
A common theme is beginning to reveal itself for the Warriors during the first month and change of the NBA season. Their margin for error is small. They simply cannot afford to play down to the level of their competition. And if the Warriors do not adjust their mentality, winnable games will continue to slip through their fingers. The Warriors’ place amongst the other Western Conference elites will simply not last if they don’t clean up some things.
