Golden State Warriors Mailbag: Stephen Curry, Festus Ezeli, Steve Kerr
Feb 3, 2015; Sacramento, CA, USA; Golden State Warriors head coach Steve Kerr on the sideline during the first quarter against the Sacramento Kings at Sleep Train Arena. Mandatory Credit: Kelley L Cox-USA TODAY Sports
Kerr has had a significant impact on this team, both offensively and defensively. Although the Warriors were a quality team last season, the Warriors are significantly better this year, mostly because Kerr is taking advantage of the Warriors’ assets and skills much better than Mark Jackson did.
I won’t be able to detail every change that Kerr has made this season on just this slide (maybe in another future article), but I will focus on the two main things that Kerr has changed about the Warriors’ offense and defense.
Offensively, Kerr has implemented constant movement of both players and the ball. The movement of both parts is key to the Warriors’ success, and constant movement is exactly what the Warriors were lacking last season. They relied so much on isolation plays that the Warriors’ passing and cutting weren’t being utilized effectively.
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On any given offensive set, players are moving, the ball is moving, and most importantly, the defense is moving. When the opposing defense is moving more, there’s more likely to be a collapse in the defense, a missed switch, or a missed help opportunity, and the Warriors can take advantage of that.
Movement also makes the opposing defense more frantic, especially with quick, effective passes on offense or drives to the basket. With any type of drive to the basket, the defense collapses to the paint, and that allows the Warriors’ sharpshooters to stretch the floor and knock down threes.
This is oversimplifying the offense, but the Warriors’ constant movement of the players and the ball allows for several players to get involved in the offense, and it creates not just good shots for the Warriors’ offense but great shots, which is similar to how the San Antonio Spurs’ efficient, elite offense runs.
The foundation and the fundamentals of the Warriors’ defense were actually built and established by Coach Jackson. Kerr has reinforced the principles of the Warriors’ defense and added to it though. The Warriors know when and where to provide help defense, they’re active in the passing lanes, and they make smart decisions.
One defensive aspect that has been stressed and utilized more this season is their switching on defense. When two players switch which player they’re guarding on defense, it can sometimes cause lazy defense, but the Warriors’ small ball allows switches to be made more effectively and confidently.
If Green and Curry switch who they’re defending on a screen from the offense, for example, it wouldn’t be as drastic of a change as if Curry and Bogut had switched. Since the Warriors have effective defenders up and down their roster (and yes, that includes Curry), the offense can’t exploit mismatches by inducing favorable switches as much, which makes the defense stronger.
In addition, their tight defense leads to missed shots and rebounds, which leads to fast breaks, which leads to transition buckets. The Warriors excel when they get out running in fast break situations and take advantage of the defense when it’s not set and there are less defenders. The Warriors are at their best when they’re creating easy offense off of their stifling defense.
Kerr is extremely humble and knows how lucky he is to have inherited a team that already had so much talent on it, but he has made some pivotal changes to the Warriors’ offense and defense that have been key reasons for the Warriors’ NBA-best record.