What’s up, Dub Nation! Welcome to Town Business, where you can catch me here on B-Ball Index talking about the Golden State Warriors’ week in review. I will be talking about the latest trends, moments and top performances.

This week is all about the breakthrough. Some Warriors have reached theirs, and others are still searching for one. Alfonzo McKinnie continued his against the Grizzlies, putting up 14 points off the bench. Quinn Cook balled out of control as he filled in for an injured Stephen Curry Saturday against the Brooklyn Nets.  The “Sous Chef” cooked the visitors, scoring 27 points on 11-of-16 shooting.

On the other end of the spectrum, Jordan Bell’s play continues to be erratic. As he attempted to fill in for Draymond Green, Bell struggled to find his game. As a result, he lost even more playing time. I will talk about Bell later on in this piece but first, here are some observations for Week one.

What’s up in the paint?

In the 23 point loss at the hands of the Milwaukee Bucks, The Warriors surrendered 84 points in the paint. In the Nets game, Brooklyn outscored the Warriors 52-32. Now, rim protection’s been a chronic flaw for the Warriors ever since they released Andrew Bogut. However, they’ve always managed to hold their own when they deploy long and athletic guys, or compensate with solid switch head perimeter defense. During the past two games, we didn’t  see much of a fight. Opponents combined for 136 points in the paint. Draymond Green’s absence only made Warriors’ woes worse.

Now that Green has returned to the lineup, it will be interesting to see moving forward if the Warriors can win in the paint as well as the perimeter.

Did the Bucks provide the blueprint against the Warriors?

In Thursday night’s loss, the Bucks length and athleticism disrupted the Warriors’ offense. However, long and athletic teams isn’t anything that the Warriors haven’t faced during this run. They would make adjustments and win but here’s the caveat. They must care. It’s tough to presume that the Bucks have the blueprint because the Warriors played listless and unmotivated.

Kerr said it the best after the 134-111 beatdown that the team came in the game with “mindless intent.” In retrospect, Kerr told the truth. It was mindless that he decided to start Jordan Bell over Andre Iguodala or even Jonas Jerebko. Iguodala wouldn’t surrender 84 points in the paint. Better yet, his perimeter defense wouldn’t let the Bucks even get to the lane much.

Furthermore, this is only the 12th game out of 82. You really can’t use a game in which the Warriors didn’t really give a damn about and declare a blueprint. That’s not how any parts of the game works. Never have. Never will.

Bell’s Arrested Development

Jordan Bell impressed with his energy and athleticism during his rookie year. But as the season progressed, Bell played himself out of the lineup. In the Western Conference Finals, Bell redeemed himself by simply scoring in the paint and screening. Given his recent play, it seems as if Bell never really progressed at all. The thought of whether or not Kerr is stunting Bell’s development or if the issues are self inflicted is something worth watching during the season.

Granted, Bell doesn’t do himself favors by doing things like this:

Draymond Green been giving Jordan Bell some lessons on defense pic.twitter.com/fU57cGDIWV

— Ry (@JustRyCole) November 6, 2018

However, it’s also up to Kerr to put Bell into better positions to succeed.

Steph’s mini slump and MVP chances

Recently, I had the pleasure to interview NBA TV’s 10 Before Tip host Jared Greenberg. In our interview he said that Stephen Curry is a victim of his own success. Judging from some of the overreactions from the past three games, Greenberg has a point. Some fans thought that Curry struggled against the Timberwolves, Grizzlies and the Bucks while in actuality the only two categorically bad games Curry had was against the Grizzlies and the Bucks before he left with a groin injury during the third.

We as fans are numb to Curry’s feats to the point where whenever he’s not scoring 30 plus and shooting 50 percent from the field, we overreact.  The hot takes starts to fly and the panic sets in. “What’s wrong with Steph?” we wonder. Or, “There goes his MVP chances” But what most fans don’t realize is that it’s too early in the the season to call the race for anybody. Curry included.

Secondly, despite the Memphis and Milwaukee games, Curry was sensational and after a blistering start like he had, a cool down was inevitable. This brief slump does not automatically negate all those other games, and plus there is always a progression to the mean or in Curry’s case, an obliteration of it. The only thing that’s hurting Curry’s MVP chances is health. He missed 31 games last year, he cannot afford to even miss half of the time to remain an MVP candidate.

Week One’s Town’s Finest

“Town Finest” is reserved for the top performer and performance of the week. More often than not, it’s usually reserved for one Warrior but this week, there’s two. It’s two because for one, I said so. Two, they deserve it. Alfonzo McKinnie and Quinn Cook are the “town’s finest” for week one because of how they have elevated their games and made the most out of their opportunities.  McKinnie’s 14 points against Memphis happened when he fresh off of his 19 points the week before in Chicago. In McKinnie, the Warriors have a high energy ” 3 and D” guy that they thought Patrick McCaw would develop into. His energy on the boards have been prevalent since the beginning of the season.

Before Curry went down, Quinn Cook found himself out of the rotation. However, that didn’t stop him from doing the little things. He would get up shots after games and doing whatever he can to remain engaged. His preparation came in handy against the Brooklyn Nets. In addition to his 27 points on 11 shots, Cook was poised and confident in running the offense. He didn’t try to force anything  and played within himself.

That’s all for the first column of Town Business. Join me every week with the latest from the ‘Champs.

Photo by Thearon W. Henderson/Getty Images