Since Steve Kerr took over as head coach of the Golden State Warriors, the "Death Five" lineup has become a weapon for the Warriors to end the game, and the composition of this lineup has always been the focus of discussion. Kerr usually ends the game with a completely different lineup than the starting lineup, and this trend is likely to continue into the 2022 NBA playoffs.
But who should be on the finalist lineup is a question, the Warriors do have a lot of options, and Kerr has to find the right combination before the playoffs go off. In Xiaobian's opinion, assuming that the team is completely healthy, at the critical moment of the game, only two players can be guaranteed to appear in the final lineup, that is, Stephen Curry and Draymond Green, Xiaobian does not even need to explain the reason, although Curry has determined the regular season reimbursement today and will re-evaluate the injury in 10 days, Xiaobian still believes that he can catch up with the playoffs, so let's discuss the situation of other players directly.
Klay Thompson
Aside from Curry and Green, Thompson is the player most likely to lock up a spot in the final lineup, and while there are indeed many voices saying he shouldn't be on the Warriors' final lineup, he's basically certain to be.
First, the lack of stability and pace on the team due to the Warriors' serious injury situation this season is one of the biggest challenges they face in the playoffs. While Curry, Green and Thompson have only played together for 11 minutes since 2019, they've been playing together on the pitch for too long over the past decade or so, and the chemistry between them is definitely much better than the rest of the team.
Second, Kerr has confirmed that Thompson will take on important defensive tasks for the team, so although Thompson's offensive efficiency has been declining, he will still be reused by the team due to the space and defensive ability he provides. At one point, Thompson was considered listing Thompson along with Curry and Green as one of the players who would lock up a place in the final lineup, but if he didn't perform well in the game, he wasn't entirely sure he would be on the court at a critical moment in the game.
Andrew Wiggins
If we had discussed two months ago whether Wiggins should have been in the final lineup, it would have been an absolute joke. But we all know what's happened in the last two months, Wiggins averaged just 14.6 points per game, shot 41 percent from the field, shot 31.9 percent from three-point range, shot as little as 55 percent from the free throws, scored more than 20 points in just three of 22 games, and worsenedly, his defense also took a huge backstabbing.
If we rank the Warriors' players now, Wiggins will certainly be behind Curry, Green, Jordan Poole and Kevin Looney, and possibly even Behind Thompson, Andre Iguodala, Otto Porter Jr. and Gary Payton II. Maybe we'll also count rookie player Jonathan Cumminga.
Wiggins certainly still has a good chance to get into the final lineup, he's a good defensive player who can defend multiple positions on the court, while the Warriors can still trust him to hit empty shots, he's been the team's starter all season, and he's also an All-Star starter, so it's hard to imagine the Warriors putting him on the bench at key moments.
Jordan Poole
Poole's current excellent performance has caused a lot of thorny problems within the team, he has scored more than 20 points in 15 consecutive games, during which time he can average 26.3 points and 5.1 assists per game, shooting 49.8% from the field, 45.5% from three-point range and shooting 89.7% from the free throw line.
He's been considered a healthy Warriors' sixth-man character until now, but he's playing so much better now than Thompson and Wiggins, which is an unavoidable fact that for a team like the Warriors, which is much more defensive than offensive, it's really hard not to let the team's number two offensive player play at a critical time in the game. However, adding Pooler to the final lineup is not an easy task, which will cause one of Thompson and Wiggins to move up to the fourth position, and the Warriors' backcourt and frontcourt defense will have problems at the same time, so it is not easy to arrange Poole, but it is really difficult to ignore his presence.
Kevin Looney
Looney is the team's starting center, which in the Warriors' convention usually means that he will sit on the bench in the final minutes of the game, but Looney is in the best year of his career and is now absolutely qualified to be in the team's final lineup. Looney is guessing that he will be a player who relies heavily on the situation of the opponent and the game, and we may see him in the final lineup of some games.
Andre iguodala
Iguodala is part of the Warriors' "Death Five" lineup that dominates the league, and we can always see him on the court when the game is at a critical moment, and although he is now old and his athleticism has dropped significantly, he has recovered from an injury in the middle of the season, so he still has the possibility of appearing in the Warriors' final lineup.
Iguodala has two of Cole's top priorities in the finalist lineup, a smart basketball mind and a high-quality, interchangeable defensive ability. When Iguodala and Green are on the court at the same time, the Warriors lose some of their spatial abilities, but the presence of Curry, Thompson, Poole or Wiggins will greatly solve this problem. Iguodala is an experienced player who rarely does anything wrong on the pitch, can defend almost any position, and is more familiar with Curry, Green and Thompson than the rest of the team. There is no doubt that Coach Cole must have very much hoped that Iguodala would play at a critical moment, but it depends on whether he can find a feasible method logically.
Otto Potter Jr
On paper, Porter has all the qualities the Warriors require for a finisher, a smart player like Iguodala who rarely makes mistakes, is a slender defensive player who can switch multiple positions, and unlike Igudala, Porter is also a good three-point shooter and the team's second-best rebounder.
But he doesn't have the full trust of head coach Kerr, as Iguodala did, and he didn't have a good chemistry with the Warriors' Big Three, and he wasn't a good organizational core. So Porter is likely to be in a similar situation with Looney, who has been in the final line-up in some games, but he's not a common option.
If you have to let the editor guess, then the editor will say that the Warriors' most commonly used final lineup will be Curry, Poole, Thompson, Wiggins and Green, but Iguodala will also have a good chance of replacing Poole or Wiggins in the final lineup, but once Curry can't come back in the playoffs, then their death five small lineups will become Poole, Thompson, Wiggins, Iguodala and Green, what do you think?