Stephen Curry #30 of the Golden State Warriors drives to the basket against Peyton Watson #8 of the Denver Nuggets in the fourth quarter at Chase Center on April 4, 2025 in San Francisco.

Eakin Howard/Getty Images

The Warriors are officially back in the NBA title conversation. But in the eyes of ESPN, Golden State should desperately try to avoid a matchup with one specific Western Conference foe — even though the Warriors just beat them this week.

The Dubs were one of the eight teams included in an ESPN piece from NBA analysts Zach Kram and Kevin Pelton that broke down a fatal flaw for all of the NBA’s contenders. In a way, just being included at all is a sign of how remarkable Golden State has looked after trading for Jimmy Butler.

Article continues below this ad

But even Butler’s arrival hasn’t fixed the team’s midrange shooting, which Pelton called the Warriors’ biggest weakness. Some of this is by design for the Warriors — Steph Curry isn’t the greatest 3-point shooter for nothing, after all — but the acquisition of Butler was supposed to help the Warriors diversify their offensive prowess and give them a little more firepower in the midrange.

So far, that hasn’t happened. The Warriors score the second-fewest points from 2-point range in the NBA and are fourth-worst at midrange field goal percentage. In the playoffs, that could become an issue if teams try to force the Warriors off the 3-point line and muck up the paint, forcing midrange shots.

According to Pelton, one team out West is built to exploit that: the Nuggets. Denver forces opponents into 9.5 midrange shots per game, the most among the West contenders. 

Of course, Pelton wrote this story after the Warriors beat the Nuggets on Friday night, and Golden State made 7-of-14 shots from midrange in the emphatic win. But the Warriors had lost nine straight games to Denver before Friday night and the Nuggets were without star guard Jamal Murray, so he very well could still be right.

Article continues below this ad

The Warriors may get to find out, too. Entering Sunday night’s game against the Rockets, the Warriors were in the No. 5 seed in the West and would face the Nuggets in the first round of the playoffs if the season ended today.

April 6, 2025