The Warriors are Playing Good Basketball
Edition #193
The Golden State Warriors are 10-2. 10-2.
This was a team I thought wasn’t going to make the playoffs, but somehow and some way, they’re 2nd in the west, and playing good basketball.
But how? What are the Warriors doing to play good basketball?
NOTE:
We’re nearing 200 editions published, meaning it’s time for another Sports Square special!
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Distributing The Ball:
I’ve seen way too many teams this season try to get it to their star player only for a “guaranteed” make. Okay, let me be frank. It’s the Bucks. They’re always trying to get the ball to either Giannis Anteokoumpo or Damian Lillard and it’s becoming the root cause of all their losses. Just take a look at the one-sided stat-line below:
Circling back to the Warriors, they’re spreading the ball around, regardless of who they play.
Look at that! Almost all of their players had 10 points.
You can’t say anything about the depth. Both the Warriors and the Bucks have solid depth. It’s who makes the most use of it. Spreading the ball around to all these guys is lethal, and gives guys like Steph Curry a bit more time on the bench, to come back and kill everyone once again.
Teams that spread the ball around are better than teams that don’t, and this should be pretty obvious to teams. The Suns, didn’t unlock that until this year. Take a look at last year’s Timberwolves vs Suns series.
And then this is this year’s first game of the season:
Let’s now take a look at the Warriors distribution meter:
Defense:
One of the Dubs' biggest problems last year was defense. It was their biggest liability and almost the root cause of their 10th-place finish in the West.
The Warriors had the 17th-best defensive rating last year. They were 23rd in steals and blocks and 22nd in opponents’ points of turnovers.
This year, they’re 4th in defensive rating and steals, 8th in blocks, and 7th in opponents’ points of turnovers.
Draymond Green:
Draymond deserves a section of his own for what he’s done for the Warriors this season. He’s aggressive, which makes things good and bad.
The Good: The aggressiveness makes him strip the ball away, block some shots, ferociously defend guys, and hold his ground.
The Bad: The aggressiveness gets him ejected and even suspended.
Draymond has long arms, great strength, great versatility, and a high basketball IQ, which is so important. He’s also a defensive leader and processes the game so fast, making crucial decisions in split-seconds! His off-ball defense and gap management skills are crazy good.
Defense? Is that it?
This guy is all over the court. He average about 5 rebounds and assists per game, and creating opportunities for other players to shoot and score. What Draymond does, doesn’t always appear in the stats sheet.
The Warriors are doing a lot of things right this year, and I hope (as a Warriors fan), that they will continue doing this.
One thing I didn’t touch a whole lot on is the roster in general. Great job by Mike Dunleavy to build a roster in such a way, that Stever Kerr doesn’t know who to put in the starting lineup.
Thanks for reading, and I hope you liked it. Please share this post with all your friends and like it down below. Any comments or questions? Put it down in the comments section.