Every season I activate this trope to try and inspire a wary Dub Nation who wonders why we don’t replace (insert suspect player) with someone else in the league. You’re in the back seat of your mom’s car, those sweet sweet Golden Arches come into view, and you make your pitch: “Mom, can we PLEAAASEEE get McDonald’s?”
And without missing a beat, back comes the dreamcrushing sentence masquerading as a better suggestion: “We got McDonald’s at home.”
What’s at home is never McDonald’s, but it’s ground
beef, sandwich bread, ketchup, mustard, and relish. You eat it and more often than not depending on who your mama is, it hits. Your tastebuds are awash with flavor and gratitude. Maybe mom was right, maybe you do have McDonalds at home.
That’s Charles Bassey for the Warriors right now. When Golden State asked for a real center, the front office looked at the cap sheet and injury report, and said, “we got a center at home.”
And maybe the Warriors front office is right, maybe we DO have a big man at home!
And that is quite the development considering the hope of Kristaps Porziņģis dominating as the big man for the Warriors has effectively died as it looks like he’s retiring from Warriors basketball. The team re-signed him this summer even though he’dmissed 90 games over the past two seasons with three different teams.
Then there’s Al Horford, who is 40 years old and dealing with a body banged up from years of playoff warfare. Horford is a professional basketball genius. But asking him to play 30 minutes a night in November is not gonna have him available for any kinda playoff run in the spring.
And of course the Warriors can always counter with the grizzled, undersized legend Draymond Green at center. That works until Draymond does Draymond things and gets ejected two minutes into the third quarter, which brings us to the night the center at home showed up.
On Nov. 2 against the Suns, Golden State trailed by 17. Draymond had been thrown out for body slamming one Phoenix player and quasi strangling Dillon Brooks (rightfully so).
That’s when Bassey had a career night, scoring 19 points on 7-of-10 shooting, grabbed 8 rebounds and finished +10. After Draymond’s ejection, the Warriors outscored Phoenix 59-45. He also built a connection with rookie Yaxel Lendeborg. Four of Lendeborg’s five assists that night went to Bassey. Every time the rookie lofted the ball near the rim, Bassey caught it and finished.
After the game, Bassey called out the Suns for“fake toughness.” The center at home has a little seasoning on him, don’t he?
This wasn’t a one-night fluke. The Warriors started 0-3, then won seven straight to get to 7-3, and Bassey was in the middle of it:
- He has a +34 plus-minus over the seven-game streak, and +33 in the five games where he played real minutes
- His 15.7 rebounds per 36 minutes ranks second in the NBA
- He’s shooting63.6% from the field and 88.2% from the line, with a 25.8 PER.
- Over the streak he’s averaging roughly 21 points, 15 rebounds and nearly 3 blocks per 36 minutes.
Ummm ladies and gentlemen, he’s really balling in his role right now. Here’s the case for more Bassey minutes: in the Orlando game, he played only 11. The Magic won the offensive rebounding battle 24-3 and outscored Golden State 33-2 on second-chance points. The Warriors still won in overtime, because Steph Curry is a supernatural force of nature on the basketball court.
Bassey isn’t Porziņģis, a guy who stretches the floor to 28 feet or make anyone’s All-Star ballot. He’s 6-foot-9 and focused completely on rebounding, rim-running and blocked shots. He’s also available to play, and we all know the best ability is availability.
Warriors GM Mike Dunleavy may still trade for a center; I absolutely think he should. Using Porziņģis’ contract to match salaries for a real big makes sense, and they have a real chance to pull it off before the trade deadline.
Until then, Dub Nation asked for McDonald’s and got told they had a center at home, and so far the one at home is providing a lot of sustenance.
