The Warriors can never be THE WARRIORS without Steph Curry

Of all the potential ways the Warriors’ superteam could fall short, their biggest pitfall has always been the same thing: Stephen Curry’s health. That’s as true now as it was years ago.

Curry’s importance often gets downplayed because he plays on a team with Kevin Durant, two other superstars, a world-class coach, and a revolutionary system that can often mitigate the effects of an injury to one of the stars. But even under those circumstances, he stands out. When he’s out, the Warriors aren’t the Warriors, even with the embarrassment of riches they’ve assembled.

It’s not that Golden State is doomed to lose all the time without Curry. They are capable of beating many opponents without him. But despite having so many other great scorers, there’s a severe drop in the Warriors’ offensive output when Curry does not play. He is where everything starts for them, even in these seasons where he has so much help.

When Curry is hurt, as he has been this month and likely will be until the second round of the playoffs at the earliest, the offense usually goes through Durant. That was what happened in December when Curry sprained his left ankle. In those games, the Warriors went 9-2 and Durant averaged 28.8 points. Clearly, the world doesn’t end when Curry is out.

But even still, Curry is such a rare offensive weapon who makes everyone around him exponentially better, no matter how talented his teammates. There’s no replacement or adequate imitation. Durant, Klay Thompson, and Draymond Green can’t replicate his role, and that’s asking the impossible for anyone below him on the depth chart.

They all need Curry to be at their best. That’s even true of Durant, who was a superstar player before coming Golden State and is still quite good with Curry out. Even Durant turns into a different player with Curry on the floor.

Curry’s impact on the team, with and as opposed to Durant, is easily reflected in the Warriors’ offensive rating. When he’s played with Durant, the Warriors score an average of 121.7 points per 100 possessions, which is nearly nine points higher than the Rockets’ league-leading mark. (Golden State is second at 112.7 points per 100 possessions overall). When Curry is on the court and Durant is off, that rating drops to 116.6, which is a dip, but still firmly leaves them as an incredible offensive team.

But in the time when Durant plays without Curry, the Warriors’ offensive rating is at 108. That’s good, but it puts them right below the LA Clippers in seventh place. And the effect is even greater with Thompson and nearly every other Warriors player.

Since there’s no way to actually alleviate the absence of Curry on the offense, the Warriors usually lean harder into their defense. During the time that he was out in December, they had a 97.7 defensive rating, the best in the league at that time. But there’s no denying that without Curry, the Warriors are still excellent, but are much less extraordinary.

Steve Kerr admitted that without Curry, the Warriors have to change their style of play. They have to become more predictable, and less Warriors-like. Not only is their offense significantly worse, but its style changes from the all-powerful one we associate with the Warriors to something much more ordinary:

“As long as we have everybody else, we have a pretty good idea what we need to do — defend like crazy, take care of the ball and execute on offense. It’s a little different: a slower pace, a little more deliberate, and a little more half-court stuff. But we can still be really good, as we showed in December.”

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Consider the implications of this reality. Even with a superteam around him, Curry’s injuries still have such a devastating impact on the Warriors. This was supposed to end when the Warriors signed Durant. The idea was was that Durant could help mitigate the consequences if and when Curry goes down injured.

In a sense, that’s true. Durant’s presence and ability helps keep the Warriors at a more respectable offensive level when Curry is out, whereas they would otherwise be dramatically worse than even that with, say, Harrison Barnes.

But no matter how talented the Warriors’ roster is, no other player in the world could be plugged into the Curry role to do the same things he does. There is no Curry-lite to maintain the Warriors’ identity. Curry is Golden State’s identity.

This is true in a technical sense. His shooting range compromises defenses. His dribbling opens up angles and frees up his teammates. His vision and passing gives those teammates confidence in their movements. It’s also true in a more emotional sense. The swagger, arrogance, looseness, aesthetics, and identity of Golden State come from Curry’s game and Curry’s game alone. He is the system personified, and the system is him extended.

What Durant did was raise the floor of a Curry-less world. He can’t replace Curry, but he can at least set a higher baseline. When they’re both available, the Warriors walk over any team. With Durant alone, they at least now still win much more often than not.

Of course, Durant provides his own set of problems for opposing teams on both ends of the floor. His sheer size and physicality can be transformative in other ways, as Kerr mentioned when he picked Durant as the second best player in the league instead of Curry after their title win last year.

”In the playoffs especially, when you’re having to protect the rim and do so many different things, there has to be a level of physicality that factors in when you’re having these kind of conversations about who is the best player in the league ... And that’s why LeBron (James) is there, that’s why Kawhi (Leonard) is there, that’s why KD is there. That combination of skill and physical sheer force.”

He is still great, and the rest of the Warriors and the coaching staff is, too.

Still, Curry’s injury gives rise to the same anxiety that has hovered over this team since they had far less talent around him. No matter how many great players they bring in alongside him, their ultimate success and style needs him and only him. Even if he’s not the highest scorer, he is the brain of the team.

Now, his injury exposes that truth in an uncomfortable way at the worst possible team.

After once being omnipresent, the fear over Curry’s health has become relatively dormant over the last few years. Curry has appeared in 96 percent of the Warriors games in the last five years. But the anxiety still pops up at times like the 2016 playoffs, when he suffered a knee sprain against the Rockets after slipping on a wet spot on the court. That happened during his first game back from a right ankle sprain — that same troubled ankle that earned him the injury-prone tag all those years ago.

Since the turn of this year, Curry has hurt his right ankle three times, which makes the fact he’s now out with an MCL sprain a sickening ironic twist. It’s unfortunate and cruel. Curry has worked hard to stay healthy over the years, and that work was irrelevant because he was in the wrong place at the wrong time and saw a teammate fall on his leg.

It’s also unfortunate and cruel to us and the Warriors because it changes what makes the Warriors special in a way that no other absence could. His teammates are reduced because of it, and the generational style of play the team has become known for must be shuttered until he returns. None of the players and fans want to deal with that again.

But if anything can be taken away from it, perhaps it will finally underscore Curry’s greatness to the masses. Even one of the best teams ever, a team with three other all-stars and unprecedented talent, is nowhere near as all-conquering without him.