Warriors Movie Summary: On the Dubs, the way to make threes fly is to look good

The Golden State Warriors’ first three-pointer of this uncertain preseason came from a simple pick-and-roll move – nothing new, ubiquitous across the league and fairly atypical for a team that has traditionally eschewed the conventional and unorthodox.

Stephen Curry had just completed his legendary Olympic campaign, which added another level to his legendary career, and was tasked with starting the action as the primary ballplayer. With the departure of Klay Thompson, the Warriors had several candidates at the two-guard position to replace Thompson as Curry’s backcourt partner in the starting lineup: Buddy Hield, whose number of three-point attempts rivaled Curry’s over the past five seasons ; De’Anthony Melton, who is a more stable defensive option and has the ability to shoot three-pointers to provide offensive relief on the other side; and Brandin Podziemski, whose ball-handling ability allows Curry to slide into his deadly off-ball role.

Steve Kerr chose to start the preseason with Melton against the Los Angeles Clippers, along with a frontcourt duo of Draymond Green at the four and Trayce Jackson-Davis at the five. Rounding out the starting group was Jonathan Kuminga, whose viability as a three-man was one of the hot topics heading into the regular season.

Despite possible phone booth spacing, Kerr has temporarily solved this problem. By positioning Melton in the left corner, Kerr puts pressure on Melton’s man – whose decision to help or stay determines how the Warriors view Curry’s angle pick-and-roll action with Jackson-Davis.

As seen in the clip above, Melton’s man decides to help out early to “tag” Jackson-Davis’ roll toward the rim.

That’s an automatic trigger for Curry to whip the pass to Melton in the corner, whose assist gives him plenty of space to play the ever-valuable corner triangle.

Fast forward to the fourth game of the preseason against the Detroit Pistons. The same angle pick-and-roll – albeit with Melton holding the ball instead of Curry – puts the same pressure on the corner defender, whose shooter this time is Lindy Waters III, a career scorer with 37 .7% on threes that has set the Nets on fire this preseason.

Jackson-Davis sets the drag screen for Melton. Watch what Waters does as Jackson-Davis begins his roll — and note the type of shot the Warriors create from it:

Waters “shakes” his way out of the corner – which simply means he moves from the corner to the wing – and brings his defender with him, eliminating a tackle on Jackson-Davis and giving him a clear runway.

While the two clips above are from the same standard pick-and-roll configurations, I believe they are representative of the Warriors’ “novel” approach to three-point shooting. While the preseason doesn’t give a complete indication of what the regular season will look like, it is a very important window that offers a glimpse into ethos and philosophy. In this regard, the mantra is simple: Shoot lots of threes.

But shooting a lot of threes can mean a lot. It’s easy to throw the ball wantonly, regardless of how those shots are defended. It’s also easy to jump to the conclusion that shooting a lot of threes means running endless ball screens, spreading the floor and shooting from paint contact toward open shooters – or finding the roll man when the threat of shooting puts the fullbacks in their place brings. It also helps to have someone who can pull up and/or penetrate off the dribble, in the mold of top player James Harden and current Luka Dončić. While this heliocentric approach isn’t completely ignored by the Warriors, it’s by no means the centerpiece of their offensive system.

Still, Kerr encouraged the Warriors to make a breakthrough this season.

“The math just doesn’t add up (if you don’t take a lot),” Kerr said. “Especially for us. We’re not a team that gets to the free throw line often. It would be hard for us to win a lot of games if we didn’t shoot a lot of threes… What I like about this team is that even though we lost Klay, we have more shooting depth. I don’t necessarily have a number in mind. I want to do a lot of them and of course I want them to be good recordings.”

The crux of Kerr’s statement above comes from the last sentence. Good perimeter shots are created in a variety of ways – one of which happens to be using traditional pick-and-roll possessions like the ones mentioned above. But Kerr has also incorporated many of the Warriors’ tried-and-tested motion offensive formulas, with sets both old and new.

The “new” is due in part to the influence of assistant coach Terry Stotts, the former head coach of the Portland Trail Blazers. Although Stotts wasn’t called upon to reinvent the wheel, his extensive experience as an offensive specialist gives him the scope and voice to give it new impetus.

Stotts – known for his penchant for mixing flare screens (a screen for someone moving away from the ball) and wide pindown screens – has already made an impact on the Warriors’ offense, most notably with a signature standing play involving Damian Lillard and CJ McCollum were involved.

The flare and pindown elements can be clearly seen from the clip above and are still at the core of the Warriors version. But their clear emphasis on structured improvisation ensures that if the core action fails, they would be able to segue into more familiar actions – all while using the threat of the three-point shot to create looks central to their historic approach an attack from the outside in.

“That was a Terry Stotts move, the Portland stuff he ran with Dame and CJ,” Kerr said of the aforementioned move. “Part of the idea of ​​bringing Terry was that his offense would be similar to ours, but with more personnel structure. The interesting thing about this piece was that it was all old Portland stuff. And then we didn’t get anything, and then it came back to the split game that we’ve been running forever.”

The mix of old and “old new” (i.e. Stotts’ input) is mixed with the completely new. Thanks in large part to the Warriors’ efforts to advance the three-point era over the last decade, the concept of shooters being used as screeners has become a bit more commonplace than it was a few years ago, when players like Curry and Thompson had the monopoly such a maneuver.

More and more teams are adopting this concept and implementing it into their own programs. Others have added their own twists and innovations. But there’s nothing better than the OGs carrying on what made them famous – and putting their own spin on it despite what was once thought to be their ideas becoming stale and outdated.

Take this action for example – and watch as two shooters (in this case Curry and Hield) are bundled or “grouped” in one place to cause chaos:

If the above ideal course of action involves rotating defenders from Curry and Hield, the prospect of two high-volume, high-efficiency three-point shooters coming together is a puzzle like a Pandora’s Box. Opening up the box to put two on Curry, Hield will find himself open on the cut, possibly with a wide-open layup; Open the other box with two tackles on Hield coming off the rip screen from Curry – as happened above – and the defense is faced with the prospect of an open Curry around the Kevon Looney screen. Or at least a defender who realized his mistake too late, recovered to Curry and gave him a clear path to the rim.

However, Hield’s job doesn’t stop after he was a decoy near the rip screen. He shifts to the weak-side corner to take his defender with him, making Curry’s drive to the rim a breeze since there is no rim protection there to deter him.

There’s just enough new to keep you interested – even if the old still forms the core of the offense. But the old has also been flooded with new ideas, even if the new is simply a matter of a different positioning or a different situational context.

Take, for example, the Warriors’ “Quick” move – an early offensive away screen in which an off-ball player approaches the ball and receives the pass. The screen would traditionally be set to the opposite slot area:

A “new” version of “Quick” in preseason – particularly when used in SLOB (Sideline Out-of-Bounds) situations – is to place the away screen deeper in the corner, which increases the defender’s pursuit distance and exponentially increases Curry’s difficulty in covering, especially without the presence of a top lock or rejection off-screen:

Another example: the Warriors’ “Quick Touch” campaign, which consists of two components:

1. “Quick” action (away screen for an off-ball player approaching the ball)
2. An immediate pass back to the original ballplayer (the “touch” component), which then comes from a ball screen through the big guy who originally set up the away screen

The Warriors’ approach to being new this preseason isn’t to throw away and rebuild, but rather to add and refine. This became clear when they performed the same “Quick Touch” action and placed another layer on the pistons:

“Quick Touch” is just an initiatory tool to get into the meat of half-court possession. Once Looney throws the ball back to Podziemski, he turns and forms the second component of a staggered “away” screen setup, with Moses Moody being the first. As soon as Kyle Anderson turns around the Moody screen, Moody runs to get off the Looney screen. Moody’s man, distracted by Anderson’s curls and cut, falls back. Moody immediately punishes by drilling the three on the screen.

The foundation for excellent bilateral movement (and overall movement across the board) is taking shape. The execution was outstanding compared to previous season standards. Good looks come from both structured randomness, which is an indication of where the Warriors are at this point in their ramp-up. Another “Quick Touch” variation – this time with a “Flex” screen for Gary Payton II that flows into a single “Away” screen for Hield – creates another look the Warriors are happy to embrace:

Combined with the usual “organized chaos” (sometimes downright chaotic) that the Warriors are known for – i.e. Point competencies that they can use to go beyond their theoretical possibilities:

Last season, according to Cleaning The Glass, the Warriors ranked sixth in three-point attempt percentage that did not include shots at the end of the quarter (39.4%), while they ranked sixth in field goal percentage (38.5%). were in eighth place. The obvious caveat of a massive difference in sample size shouldn’t be discounted, but the Warriors’ numbers in four preseason games are the same: 52% (!!!) of their total attempts were three-point attempts, while they made 40.5% of their threes – are a sign of their willingness to break their own performances last season.

But not at the expense of mindless back and forth and poor shot selection. They want to prove that a productive three-point program can be based on smart decision-making and excellent shot creation.