3 moves the Golden State Warriors can make to turn their season around

1. Golden State Warriors need to take care of the ball, finish games in the clutch

Once one or two veterans arrive in California, and the second unit becomes a solid, game-to-game productive reality, the final touches the Dubs must work out are just two, and that’s probably getting a bit picky: not turning the ball over and finishing close games more often than they’re currently doing.

The Warriors have lost a fair amount of ugly games this season.

Golden State ate an L at the hands of Charlotte after having a four-point lead before the Hornets flipped the scoreboard in their favor. In-state rival Sacramento outperformed the Dubs recently. Orlando surely enjoyed second-year Jalen Suggs hitting a couple of long-rangers to hand the Magic one of their few wins this season against the Warriors, no least. Most recently, Luka put on his superhero cape and dumped 41 pops on the Warriors in a triple-double, winning effort with the Mavs defeating Golden State by a three-point margin.

With three games at Chase Center next, things can (most probably, will) change for the better when it comes to overall results and earning victories. But clutch finishing is something the Warriors need to fix sooner rather than later, more than anything with the playoffs in the back of their minds.

Finally, turnovers have also been of some concern for a team that has always worked a smooth basketball operation. The Warriors are turning the ball over 17.1 times per game, the second-worst mark league-wide only behind Houston’s 18 TOV per game.

They are forcing the 17th-most TOV per game, which doesn’t get close to compensating for their lack of ball-caring chops.

The fact that the Warriors (377) have just one total turnover fewer than Houston and one more than Utah should be concerning enough. Even more knowing that the other teams that are deep into the turnover pool read like this: Los Angeles Clippers, Orlando Magic, San Antonio Spurs, and Minnesota Timberwolves. Not the best company.

Looking at this issue from a per-100-possession basis doesn’t quite fix the problem: Golden State is currently averaging a turnover percentage of 14.9 percent only behind Houston’s 15.4 percent figure.

That, paired with an offensive rebound percentage (another of the Four Factors) of 21.7 percent that ranks eighth through Wednesday’s games, isn’t helping matters.

The good news for the Dubs, though, is that this three-step process of moves to make should be fluid and lead naturally to an improvement of all of the maladies currently impacting Golden State’s .500 record.

With the first quarter of the season gone and a middling set of results, it’s time for the Warriors to get down to work.