SAN FRANCISCO — Steph Curry was in unfamiliar territory. He’d won four championships. He’d missed the playoffs entirely. But the Warriors’ West semifinal elimination last year marked the first time since 2014 that Curry had been kicked from the playoffs to his couch before the Finals.
Those extra four weeks of silence made Curry even more aware of the ticking clock on this contention window he swung open in 2015. He’s 35 going on 36, and his fellow core players aren’t getting younger, either. Curry didn’t panic this offseason, but came away from his extra month off with urgency to get team chemistry back.
“It’s an easy way to get motivated, because you’re not the last team standing,” Curry said. “We’ve had four opportunities to understand what it’s like to be the defending champs and try to run it back. But when you lose, it’s an easy motivator if you care about winning and investing in what it takes to get back.”
At media day earlier this month, Draymond Green put it bluntly:
“Anytime you’re coming off a championship, your sense of urgency won’t be what it will be when you’re not coming off a championship,” he said. “You work so hard to reach the mountaintop, and when you reach the mountaintop, you appreciate that. The time you spend appreciating that, is time you don’t spend getting better… Sometimes you have to lose to win and last year we lost and I think it’s put us in better position to win this year.”
Post-championship malaise dulled the Warriors’ drive last year. Then they lost their identity before the season even began when Green punched Jordan Poole in training camp. Green lost his voice in the locker room and the team walked through the season on eggshells, losing most of their road games and barely escaping the play-in as a sixth seed. Poole was traded to Washington for longtime rival Chris Paul — the front office’s fear of lingering chemistry issues was part of the reason. That lost identity could be found again.
“It’s just about putting everything you have into making sure all the energy is focused on trying to get out to a good start this year,” Curry said. “Because if you look back at how the last 82 went, we had some off-court stuff, it was reflected in us not being able to form an identity earlier in the season and we had to chase.”
Curry, Green, Klay Thompson and Paul didn’t waste any time getting everyone on the same page. Throughout August and September, they called everyone together for unofficial offseason minicamps in Los Angeles, Las Vegas and San Francisco. Nearly every player showed up for each camp.
Those workouts weren’t just about getting familiar on the court, but off it, too. They had team dinners and hung out together. Paul, a longtime Warriors rival, made sure to be there and even took a 6 a.m. Southwest flight from Los Angeles to join his teammates in San Francisco. Thompson took some of the rookies on the boat he rides to and from Chase Center.
“It was just a big part of the veteran teams, with the young guys we have, it’s just about getting everybody together so that we can create chemistry and camaraderie,” Curry said. “We fought that a lot last year. It’s kind of a process of having been together for so long. You don’t want to take that for granted.”
Head coach Steve Kerr had his own personal disappointments last season, saying during the summer that he “failed” to connect the team. So he called on his coaching staff to re-organize themselves and focus more on details in practices. That means veterans who already are well-versed in some of the basics are buying into longer, more arduous practices to benefit the rookies and younger players who fell out of the rotation last year because mistakes kept piling up.
“Last year coming off a championship, there’s urgency but you’re celebrating a little bit,” Kevon Looney said. “This year, out in the second round, short of our goal. You have new guys in and everyone is hungry. It’s a different type of urgency, you can tell from the players and coaching staff. The way we run drills, this has been one of the most coaching and detailed training camp we’ve had. So it’s fun and there’s a lot of urgency.”
How a team starts can telegraph how a season might go. Red flags started flying last season when the Warriors lost their first eight road games. A year before that, the Warriors launched themselves as real contenders when they started the year 18-2.
Kerr tempered expectations about how this team might look to start this season with Green missing Opening Night against the Phoenix Suns on Tuesday with an ankle injury and the defense not performing up to standard defensively. The efforts to build chemistry — with no drama yet — make this team more optimistic than last year.
“I think the clarity we have as a coaching staff, we can see where this team is going,” Kerr said. “That’s a great sign.”