With a record of 3 wins and 3 losses, golden state warriors currently playing sports ERA 113.6 – Place as the 20th ranked defensive unit in the league.
Compare that to the first six games last season. Defense rate 98.7 We got off to a good start at 5-1. So far, the Warriors haven’t looked like the strongest in the world on defense during this young season (the operative word is “young”).
Various personnel can be partially attributed to it. Elite defensive playmakers like Gary Payton II no longer exist. Gary Payton II was an absolute cheat code at the time of attack and a very versatile defender who excelled in every scheme. Otto Porter Jr. was a tough and intelligent team his defender with great positioning and perception.
Losing them to greener pastures certainly weakened the Warriors, but I’m not sure that could account for the most obvious cause of the Warriors’ defensive mistakes. Bringing them together is an unprecedented task. Progress in the NBA isn’t linear, and the Warriors’ youth move has its ups and downs, especially when it comes to learning how to play his NBA-level defense consistently.
But some of the mistakes the Warriors have made this season aren’t just due to their younger players. Some of the more spectacular mistakes have been made by the Warriors’ rugged veteran workhorses.
Defense Rating of 114.3 against Charlotte Hornets – A team without LaMelo Ball, Terry Rozier and Cody Martin should not be accepted for a moderate offense (pre-game offensive rating of 113.0, 15th in the league). Drastic situations aside, small details are overlooked and lead to the biggest breakdowns in a championship-level defense.
There are plenty of moments to examine and analyze, but I can identify three outages that occurred during overtime due to the Warriors not crossing the “t” and not scoring the “i.” The first one comes with about 3 minutes left on the clock.
The Hornets perform a staple of the 21 series/pistol offense, the “21 dribble.” After Kelly Oubre Jr. sets his screen on a wing ball, he receives a flare screen from PJ Washington and receives the ball.
Shortly after Aubre received the ball, the Warriors made a costly mistake.
Anticipating the switch, Washington slid a flare screen into Oubre. The Draymond Green/Andrew Wiggins duo usually have enough know-how and IQ to predict slips and influence Washington.
Wiggins, however, unusually misses the slip and walks Washington to the rim. Cook it up to a rare miss from an otherwise stout defender.
A second failure occurred about a minute later. The Hornets set up his screen with a two-sided ball for Dennis Smith Jr. With Wiggins being Washington’s defender, it’s easy for him to switch balls.
However, it makes a costly mistake in what should have been an easy switch on the other side of the ball.
Jalen McDaniels – another screening option – chooses to stay beyond the arc and allow 3 to respond. Green switched to Washington, pointed at McDaniels, and signaled to Stephen Curry that he should switch to the perimeter, but Curry failed to get the message and spat out a wide-open shot.
The third and final costly mistake occurred when there was less than a minute left in overtime. But before we go there, we need to apply a little context with what happened early in the game during the 4th quarter. Please keep this property in mind when considering the final error that will occur.
The Hornets run a sideline out-of-bounds play (SLOB) with a quick handoff to the ball screen. With Klay Thompson guarding Gordon Hayward, he switches to Washington and takes him deep into the paint for a turnaround bank shot. Thompson usually survives such mismatches, but in this example the size discrepancy could not be explained.
Steve Kerr calls timeouts. Perhaps part of the message during the meeting was to avoid switching to a mismatch as much as possible.
This leads to costly mistakes themselves.
The Hornets perform a double-drag action, clearly intending to force another Thompson switch on Washington and feed him low after seeing what happened earlier. The mindset I had for was to not give up on the obviously easy switch.
The problem with that line of thinking is that none of the Warriors are on the same page. ball green switch. Curry switches to Hayward (another potential mismatch the Hornets could go for). Wiggins and Poole are both at home in the corner.
Meanwhile, Thompson was stranded in no man’s land, leaving Washington alone for the finish.
This is a mistake that can be quite critical from a schematic point of view. It’s a rare failure for a Thompson. He has shown that he is better than this as a defender. He can perform beyond that one costly mistake of his. Perhaps his leg has not fully recovered. Given the lack of reps in offseason practice and scrimmage, it’s understandable.
Thompson himself is not the only problem. This “Pool Party” line-up of Curry, Jordan Poole, Thompson, Wiggins and Green has some on the defensive pitfalls. With 37 minutes, they are second only to the starting crew in terms of time on the floor, but have not achieved it attackingly, allowing their opponents to score easily (117.2 Defensive Rating).
Differences in support personnel play an important role, but some veterans aren’t doing what they should on defense. It’s still too early to conclude that there are. But ultimately, bad habits must be eliminated before it’s too late.
