Golden State Warriors: Making the case for the team’s most valuable player
The Golden State Warriors, ever since Kevin Durant decided to join the team 2016, has often been described as a “Superteam” — but who is the most important player on the team?
The Golden State Warriors are unlike many of the greatest NBA dynasties in a lot of ways. Teams acknowledged to be among the greatest dynasties in NBA history have always a big-trio, able to dominate their decade winning rings and individual awards.
However, when you look at Golden State, it’s fair to say that we probably have never seen so many All-Stars playing together in their prime.
Over the course of Golden State’s run, Stephen Curry has won two MVP awards, Kevin Durant has won one and one MVP Finals, Andre Iguodala won another MVP Finals award, and Draymond Green was the league’s Defensive Player of The Year.
In addition to those four, there is also Klay Thompson, a three-time NBA All-Star, and a two-time All-NBA Third Team honoree.
Watching the Warriors game in and game out, it’s impossible to not admire spectacular plays, passes behind the back or full court and unbelievable shots.
Focusing more on their offensive plays, it is possible to see how the Warriors are pushing on playing fast, in transition or insisting on cuts and off-screen action. Offensively speaking, the Golden State Warriors are currently the closest thing to the Harlem Globetrotters the NBA could ever compose.
But who is the leader of this team? What is the hierarchy – if we can create one — of this incredible amount of talent?
Considering the numbers and the skills of the team as a whole, we need to consider that Stephen Curry is the leader of this team. Kevin Durant is, of course, a great player — probably the franchise player on any other team of the league (except for the Cavs) and maybe the current best player on the planet, along with LeBron James.
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But, he is incredibly, not the most important player on this Warriors team. You can find the proof in this season when, because of the injuries, the Warriors had to play without Curry in December and without Durant in another phase of the season.
Before the game with the Houston Rockets, as reported by ESPN Stats & Info, the Warriors had a big difference in Points Differential per 100 possessions with/without Kevin Durant or Stephen Curry.
In fact, without Curry but with Durant on the court, the Warriors were averaging a plus-minus of +6.1. This stat is positive, which is good. But, in the opposite situation (with Curry on the court and Durant off) that number explodes to +19.8.
As confirmed by analytics, nearly every man on the floor is more efficient with Steph on the court. They are able to take better shots (not just jumpers behind the line) and the offense is the best in the league by far with the pace improving behind Curry to five points.
Of course, Durant is more complete as a player overall, and he is surely able to do more things then Curry.
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Durant is one of the best defensive players in the league, but when he is off the floor, the Warriors defense is still good. While, without Curry, the offensive rhythm is unsustainable in the long period.
The gravity Steph has is something unmatchable and, for this reason, he is the franchise player – the most important player on the roster. In an interview, even Durant himself admitted it, calling Curry, the “face of the franchise.”
In addition to everything else he does, Steph is also one of the best opportunity creators for his teammates along with LeBron James and James Harden.
So, don’t be surprised if the league’s MVP race, once again, comes down to Curry, LeBron James, and James Harden.
More difficult is to establish the third player in this Golden State hierarchy.
Should we consider Draymond Green or Klay Thompson as the third most important player on Warriors roster?
Draymond is certainly one of the best defensive players of last decade and he has just set the franchise’s new triple-double record. But, Thompson was great during the last playoff run protecting the perimeter on Kevin Love and Kyrie Irving and being the major contributor in this first half of season.
And as if that’s not enough, Thompson is also one of the best shooters in the NBA, with a career 45.6 percent from the field and 42.2 percent behind the line.
All these numbers still are not enough to consider him more important than Green. In fact, using the job done by Jacob Goldstein for The Nylon Calculus on the impact of every player in a team, it’s possible to see how Green has a higher player Impact Plus-Minus (the estimation of how impactful a player is per 100 possessions).
He also has a lower Win Added number than Thompson (the Win Added is an estimation of the number of wins a player adds to their team compared to a replacement level player, as a good G-League, Euro, or end of bench player).
So, what does it mean?
Golden State Warriors
It means that Thompson has, in this moment, a higher Win Added because he’s played six games more than Green. This is also the reason why Thompson has a Usage Rate of 24.4 percent, while Green has just 16.7.
But, considering the single impact of the players, or even the Net Rating, Green has better numbers and. Factoring in his emotional control of the team, we can still consider him as the third most important player of this team.
To confirm this, there are also the number of touches per game, which places Green second, behind only Curry.
What is interesting in this case is that Thompson increased his importance to the team, and now the difference between him and Green is slight. He is no longer just an efficient scorer from the corner, but he increased his effort on both ends of the floor, and is more involved in the action increasing the passes and decreasing his attempts.
This change will be interesting during the next free agency period, when GM Bob Myers will have to deal with extensions for both.
Should Green and Thompson be given the same amount? Or should Draymond claim a bigger slice of the pie because he has been, essentially, the third most important player of the team until now?
Or will Klay Thompson’s new and increased impact on the team change this perception?
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By the way, behind Green and Thompson there is Andre Iguodala, the last (but not the least) member of the Hampton Five, as they are called.
The 2015 MVP Finals is the sixth man on this team, but he always finds his spot in crunch time.
He is averaging 5.7 points per game, with just 43.7 percent from the field and an awful 24.2 percent behind the arc. The same Iguodala admitted his problems on the offensive side, but he also highlighted his effort on defense.
This is true because he is not just the best defender on LeBron James, but he is also able to oppose bigger players and then switch to quicker, smaller players.
Although he is able to elevate his game at the most important times, we can’t consider Iguodala at the same level of the other four because he no longer plays at the high level he has in the past — partially because his age.
However, how many franchise can boast to have a fifth player like him?