Player grades: Warriors vs. Suns

Assessing every Golden State player’s performance in the team’s 113-105 loss to Phoenix.

Despite valiant third and fourth-quarter attempts, the Golden State Warriors lost their fourth consecutive game on Saturday night, losing 113-105 to the Phoenix Suns. While stars Kevin Durant and Devin Booker got their numbers and commanded a lot of defensive attention, the Suns won in large part because of tremendous contributions from their role players ... particularly Tyus Jones and Grayson Allen. That, combined with shooting 18-for-35 from distance (compared to 14-for-40 for the Dubs) was enough for Golden State’s Pacific Division rivals to emerge victorious.

So let’s grade the ... gulp ... 13 players in Steve Kerr’s rotation on Saturday night. As always, grades are based on my expectations for each player, with a “B” grade representing the average performance for that player.

Note: True-shooting percentage (TS) is a scoring efficiency metric that accounts for threes and free throws. Entering Saturday’s games, league-average TS was 57.4%.

Draymond Green

31 minutes, 13 points, 2 rebounds, 7 assists, 2 steals, 1 block, 4 turnovers, 3 fouls, 5-for-8 shooting, 2-for-5 threes, 1-for-1 free throws, 77.0% TS, +6

Treymond Threen returns! Green’s threes have been one of the best stories of the last two seasons, but he’d been slumping a little bit lately, shooting 3-for-14 from distance over the last three games, and having an 0-for-4 two games before that.

This was a well-rounded offensive performance from Draymond, who not only made his jumpers, but attacked the rim for some vital buckets.

The turnovers were costly though, and a few of them were the type that will have Green beating himself up on the flight to Denver. But that really was the only stain on his game, as he played tremendous defense all night long to go along with his efficient scoring and team-leading assists.

Grade: A-
Post-game bonus: Led the team in assists.

Trayce Jackson-Davis

15 minutes, 2 points, 6 rebounds, 2 assists, 3 blocks, 1 turnover, 1 foul, 1-for-5 shooting, 20.0% TS, -3

Jackson-Davis looked quite overmatched on offense in this one. He struggled to find space and to finish at the rim, and didn’t look comfortable running the team’s plays.

On the other hand, he blocked three shots and finished a rebound shy of the team lead, despite playing a mere 15 minutes. It seems we see something every game that makes us excited about the future for TJD. But, despite that, he was replaced in the starting lineup to begin the second half, and there was a reason for that.

Grade: B-

Andrew Wiggins

34 minutes, 18 points, 3 rebounds, 3 assists, 1 steal, 2 turnovers, 2 fouls, 7-for-17 shooting, 4-for-9 threes, 52.9% TS, +12

Wiggins has really been trying to take on a bigger load offensively lately. In his last six games, he’s averaged 15.5 shot attempts per game. With De’Anthony Melton out for the year, and Steph Curry both struggling and not always playing, it’s been quite helpful having Wiggins in attack mode.

But there have been some hiccups. In the last two games, Wiggins has shot just 11-for-33 from the field. The good news is that he’s shot 8-for-17 from three-point range in that period, but you can do the math on the bad news: just 3-for-16 from inside the arc. That culminated in a less north-south aggressive Wiggins on Saturday, as he failed to get to the free throw line for the third time this season.

It’s a luxury that the Warriors can call on Wiggins to be their second option on offense when they need it, but we’re also seeing why they went so hard after Lauri Markkanen and Paul George this offseason. For the Warriors to be at their best, Wiggins should probably be the third or fourth option.

His defense on Devin Booker, who shot just 8-for-20 (albeit with eight free throw attempts and nine assists to just one turnover) was quite admirable. You’d have to make a long list of reasons for why the Warriors lost in order to get to Wiggins’ name.

Grade: B
Post-game bonus: Best plus/minus on the team.

Steph Curry

32 minutes, 23 points, 7 rebounds, 4 assists, 1 foul, 8-for-21 shooting, 3-for-10 threes, 4-for-5 free throws, 49.6% TS, +4

It was a tale of two halves for Curry. He was questionable to play after missing Wednesday’s game, and in the first half he looked like he should have just sat. He had just two points at intermission, while shooting a donut (0-for-5) from the field, and even missing a free throw.

But if Curry was the biggest reason why the Warriors trailed by 17 at the break, he was the biggest reason why they almost erased the deficit in both the third and fourth quarters. He piled in 15 third-quarter points, and had some massive shots in the final minutes, finishing the second half with 21 points on 8-for-16 shooting.

Still and all, we can’t just erase the first half, which was some of the worst basketball we’ve seen from Curry in a long time. Props to him for avoiding the disaster plays — he had just one foul and didn’t turn the ball over — but he didn’t look right. It’s probably just the ailment that he’s working through, so it’s a good thing that the Dubs have two off days before their next game.

Grade: C+
Post-game bonus: Led the team in points, tied for the team lead in rebounds.

Brandin Podziemski

33 minutes, 12 points, 7 rebounds, 4 assists, 1 steal, 1 block, 1 turnover, 1 foul, 4-for-8 shooting, 2-for-4 threes, 2-for-2 free throws, 67.6% TS, +5

Podziemski has been showing signs that he’s breaking out of his sophomore slump, and Saturday’s performance might have been the most encouraging data point yet. Podziemski did a little bit of everything in this game ... his defense was pretty decent, he seemed to be in the vicinity every time there was a loose ball or a rebound opportunity, he created opportunities for teammates in the half court and in transition, and he scored efficiently (albeit with the help of a three-point Phoenix bank that stayed open suspiciously late for a holiday weekend).

It never ceases to amaze me how much better the Warriors always seem to play when Podziemski is on the court. His energy, hustle, selflessness, and decision-making just seem to push the team in the right direction. And when he’s also filling up the stat sheet, it really makes a difference.

Grade: A
Post-game bonus: Tied for the team lead in rebounds.

Jonathan Kuminga

19 minutes, 12 points, 2 rebounds, 1 assist, 1 steal, 4 fouls, 4-for-12 shooting, 0-for-3 threes, 4-for-6 free throws, 41.0% TS, -14

While it wasn’t JK’s cleanest or most dominant performance, I strongly agree with Kerr’s assertion after the game that the Dubs might need to shrink their rotation to both get Kuminga more minutes, and minutes in lineups that are more conducive to success.

It hasn’t been an efficient scoring season for Kuminga, but part of that is due to how much of an offensive burden he has placed on him. He doesn’t play enough minutes to find a great rhythm, and he doesn’t play in enough of the strong lineups to benefit from Curry’s gravity and Green’s playmaking. The Warriors ask him to iso relentlessly, and while it’s a valuable skill to have, it’s not yet an efficient one. So his numbers take a hit, but it’s often more due to the task in front of him than his own abilities.

His energy on both ends of the court fueled the fourth-quarter comeback that saw the Dubs turn a 17-point deficit into a six-point game in about three-and-a-half minutes. And some of his misses came on bailout shots.

The Warriors need more efficiency from Kuminga in order for him to evolve into their second, or even third option. Some of that is on the dynamic fourth-year forward ... but some of that is on the team and the coaching staff.

Grade: B

Kevon Looney

16 minutes, 9 points, 6 rebounds, 1 assist, 2 fouls, 4-for-4 shooting, 1-for-1 free throws, 101.4% TS, +1

One of Looney’s best games of the year. While his defense and rebounding have been consistently strong, his offense has really had a tough go of it this season. He entered the game shooting just 50.0% from the field and 46.9% from the free throw line, but he didn’t miss from anywhere on Saturday.

Looney replaced Jackson-Davis in the starting lineup in the second half, and the Dubs opened the half on a 7-0 run, forcing a Phoenix timeout less than two minutes in. It was a strong reminder that the team’s iron man and underappreciated Mr. Consistency can always change a game from time to time.

Grade: A

Lindy Waters III

13 minutes, 3 points, 3 rebounds, 1 assist, 1 foul, 1-for-3 shooting, 1-for-3 threes, 50.0% TS, -6

Waters lost his spot in the starting lineup, and there’s a chance he might lose his spot in the rotation — as was the case when the season began — before too long. He still has a ton of talent in most facets of the game, and will surely be a player that the Dubs rely on many times this year. But at the moment he’s a little reliant on his three-ball to have any sort of success, and that hasn’t really been falling. Over the last two games, he’s 2-for-10 from three-point range, without attempting a shot inside the arc, and he hasn’t been doing much in other areas of the game either.

Grade: C

Kyle Anderson

7 minutes, 2 points, 2 rebounds, 1 assist, 1 steal, 1-for-2 shooting, 50.0% TS, -3

There are times where Anderson’s slow-motion play, when contrasted by a hyper-athletic team, is reminiscent of the stereotypical middle-aged player at the park pickup game, who can’t hold a candle to the athleticism of the youths they’re up against, but schools them nonetheless with finesse and savvy plays. And there are times where Anderson’s slow-motion play, when contrasted by a hyper-athletic team, just looks too slow to be effective.

This game was, unfortunately, the latter.

Grade: C

Buddy Hield

16 minutes, 11 points, 1 rebound, 1 assist, 1 steal, 3-for-7 shooting, 2-for-4 threes, 3-for-3 free throws, 66.1% TS, -15

At this point it’s fairly clear what the Warriors have in Hield: an offensive weapon who beautifully fits the motion offense, will fire with a green lighter in good times and in bad, and who struggles mightily on defense.

This was a great shooting night for Hield, and his three free throws to end the third quarter could have turned the game. But it was also a game where his poor defense made him nearly unplayable. Scoring 11 points in just 16 minutes on great efficiency is almost always worthy of a good grade, but this was a game where it felt like his defensive harm was stronger than his offensive contribution.

Grade: B-
Post-game bonus: Worst plus/minus on the team.

Gary Payton II

12 minutes, 0 points, 3 rebounds, 0-for-3 shooting, 0-for-1 threes, 0.0% TS, -14

As a team, the Warriors really struggled to score at the rim. They couldn’t get space, and often tried to force space that wasn’t there. Phoenix officially blocked nine shots, but that number sure doesn’t do justice to the way they controlled the basket at Golden State’s end of the court.

That’s where a lot of Payton’s offense comes from, and he tried to force the issue a bit, to no avail. His defense was, predictably, quite excellent, which is crucial against Phoenix’s star-studded offense. But I’m not sure it was excellent enough to negate the offensive void.

Grade: C+

Moses Moody

3 minutes, 0 points, 1 turnover, 0-for-1 shooting, 0-for-1 threes, 0.0% TS, -5

If Kerr is serious about trimming the rotation, then things don’t look great for Moody. His minutes have dwindled all week, from 22 against the Spurs, to 16 against the Nets, to 13 against the Thunder, to just three against the Suns.

Moody was excellent against the Nets, knocking in 15 points on 6-for-8 shooting. But in his last five games other than that one, he’s scored just 12 points on 4-for-22 shooting. He’s a good defender, but not good enough to make up for it if he’s not contributing on offense.

He’ll be a big part of this season — the Warriors signaled how much they value him when they inked him to an extension. But he might have to work to get back into the rotation right now. I have no doubt he’ll succeed.

Grade: C-

Pat Spencer

8 minutes, 0 points, 1 rebound, 3 assists, 1 steal, 2 fouls, 0-for-1 shooting, 0.0% TS, -8

After his strong performance on Wednesday in his first meaningful minutes of the year, Spencer was awarded with a spot in the rotation on Saturday. I doubt that will last, which is no shot at Spencer. 13 players is just too many in a rotation, and, with all respect to Spencer, there’s just no reason to have him in the rotation when Kuminga and Moody are only combining for 22 minutes.

Spencer showed he can really help run the offense, so I expect him to play a role anytime Curry or Podziemski is unable to play. But for now, I’d guess he goes back to being a DNP-CD for a while, even though he’s certainly impressed the coaching staff this week.

Grade: B

Saturday’s inactives: Reece Beekman, De’Anthony Melton, Quinten Post, Gui Santos