WarriorGM wrote:During the Dubs championship years, they had a proven blueprint for success if you look at their roster construction.
You had Steph, Klay, and Draymond. Then you had Harrison Barnes and Andrew Bogut or Barnes and Iguodala. They were so lethal they were called the Death Lineup.
Then you had the years with KD and they were just overwhelming.
But then after KD left the team rebuilt and found success with a lineup of Steph, Klay and Draymond with the addition of Wiggins and Looney or in the finals against the Celtics Otto Porter Jr. in place of Looney.
Now compare the above lineups to the main lineups the Dubs were trotting out in the playoffs this year. Does anything stick out to anyone else? In place of Looney or Porter Jr. the Dubs were putting in JaMychal Green and GPII against the Lakers. Did anyone really think that would be an improvement?
In hindsight I would say the JaMychal Green signing was pretty fatal for the team's chances this year because he was ineffective as a substitute for Looney in that lineup. Wiseman was a distraction. Kuminga or Lamb had to fill in but they were either unready or Kerr wouldn't play them. GPII was simply out of place and Donte unfortunately looked better than he really was. That's 5 players that couldn't really fill in that the team desperately needed to fill the hole.
We don’t have the personel to do what we did in 2015 and 2016.
The ball is no longer flying arround like a Harlem globe trotters passing Drill.
Klay and Steph can not marathon sprint all night long all over the court off ball like they used to. We no longer have 5 men setting screens.
We no longer have a fast scrambling defense that causes turnovers and rotates perfectly like an amoeba zonish man to man.
We usually don’t have a 3rd passer on the floor the quality of Iguodala but when Podz or Chris Paul are on the floor with Curry and Draymond we do have 3 passers except Podz and Chris Paul do not get rid of the ball so quickly. They are very good passers but dribbling the ball without going anywhere allows the defense to rotate back into position and is not Harlem Globe Trotters passing Drill style. Draymond and Iguodala quick passing to each other while Klay and Curry ran around Bogut screens created chaos in defenses.
We were a fast team, now we are a slow team.
With Bogut we were not small. With Harrison Barnes, Curry and Klay our 3 point shooting spaced the floor wide creating open Layups on cuts to the basket.
So merge best of 2016 Bogut with best of Looney.
Best of 2016 Curry with current Curry.
Best of 2016 Klay with current Klay.
Best of 2016 Iguodala with current Kuminga
Best of 2016 Harrison Barnes with current Trayce
Best of 2016 Rush with current Moody
Best of 2016 charge drawing Speights with current Saric
Best of 2016 Livingston with Current Wiggins
Best of 2016 Barbosa with Current Chris Paul
Best of 2016 Ian Clark with current Quinones
Best of 2016 McAdoo with Santos
Best of 2016 Verajao with Garuba
And then we have a team that could play our old style in win more than 73 games.
Our current team is no longer equipped to play like we used to play.
No team but the the 2016 Warriors could play 2016 Warriors ball like the 2016 Warriors.
Durant was very good but he moved the Warriors away from the 2015 2016 style. The ball did not zip around as much with Durant and the players did not run arround screens as much with Durant. Durant clogged an area where Klay and Curry used to criss cross screen for each other while also using Bogut screens leaving the defenders not knowing who to guard.
We are not that team anymore. We are not that fast anymore. We are not such quick passers. We do not run so relentlessly off ball. Our defense rotations are not as good. We do not pressure the ball as much.
We are not that good.
It is not just the Warriors that can no longer use the 2016 blueprint for success; no other team was able to use that blueprint although the Spurs were a little similar to the 2016 Warriors and the Nash Suns were little similar. No coincidence. Spurs and Suns taught Kerr and Gentry that style.