2017 Golden State Warriors Thread

[eminence]

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Maybe all the doom and gloom is just a bit premature for a 12-2 team with the best offense in league history?

*Note: Stats in tweet from before yesterday's game.

[Texas Chuck]

Kevin Durant's shot chart:

yeah that's just ridiculous.

[The-Power]

But rim protecting, of course, is not defined just by the blocks number. On the non-block plays, do you still create misses? A week back, opponents were shooting better than 54 percent against the Warriors at the rim, one of the league’s worst numbers.

But they cranked up the defensive effort and activity on this undefeated road trip. In the four wins over the Raptors, Celtics, Bucks and Pacers, the Warriors only gave up a 39.6 percent conversion rate at the rim, which is incredible.

Since the sample size remains small, the four-game stretch lowered opponents’ at the rim success against the Warriors to 49.8 percent this season, the eighth-stingiest number in the league and better than Golden State’s 50.4 percent last year.

http://www.mercurynews.com/2016/11/21/warriors-block-10-shots-smash-pacers-120-83-cap-undefeated-road-trip/

Slowly and under the radar the Warriors climbed their way up in the DRTG ranking and currently sit at #16 with an DRTG of 106.4 - league average is at 106.3. We have to wait for them to be really tested on defense a couple times before drawing any conclusions but it's quite obvious that the defense has improved as of late.

The biggest issue has been rim protection and defensive rebounding. Opponents take 27.3% of their shots at the rim which is the 8th lowest number in the league. The FG% on these shots is 63.2 which ranks 22nd in the league. They are a league average team (16th) in opponent's FT/FGA. Still long ways to go obviously but they seem to improve on defense as expected due to slow but steady integration of new players.

[PCProductions]

The biggest issue has been rim protection and defensive rebounding. Opponents take 27.3% of their shots at the rim which is the 8th lowest number in the league. The FG% on these shots is 63.2 which ranks 22nd in the league. They are a league average team (16th) in opponent's FT/FGA. Still long ways to go obviously but they seem to improve on defense as expected due to slow but steady integration of new players.

Yeah none of this is a surprise to me given how massively disappointing Zaza has been. He's been straight trash.

[picc]

The simple and quick solution to many of the warriors problems is just playing Javale McGee more. I would even start him. Yeah he's dumb, but GS has 4 ballhandlers in their starting lineup, so he doesnt even have to touch the ball unless its finishing an alley oop.

Their offense and defense looks a lot more dynamic when he's in over Zaza or West. Both of those guys try, but you cant teach height and youth. Either start McGee, or bring him off the bench first every game and give him the majority of center minutes. It will help out a lot.

I would also start playing McCaw as the first guard off the bench over Clark, and sometimes over Livingston. He's the best guard defensive player they have, and they dont need Shauns offense as much now that they stagger Klay, Steph and KD. McGee and McCaw playing more will mitigate a lot of the problems they have on D. Just have to pull the trigger and not be afraid of what people might say, or if Zaza's feelings will be hurt.

[The-Power]

The biggest issue has been rim protection and defensive rebounding. Opponents take 27.3% of their shots at the rim which is the 8th lowest number in the league. The FG% on these shots is 63.2 which ranks 22nd in the league. They are a league average team (16th) in opponent's FT/FGA. Still long ways to go obviously but they seem to improve on defense as expected due to slow but steady integration of new players.

Yeah none of this is a surprise to me given how massively disappointing Zaza has been. He's been straight trash.

Yes, but I believe people are too harsh on him. The Warriors as a unit struggled to defend because they played like they still had Bogut as a presence around the rim. Of course this was bound to fail and make Zaza look incapable. Meanwhile they adjusted to some extent by a) giving Zaza less minutes but, more importantly, b) playing differently to accommodate Zaza.

In the meantime, Zaza's on/off DRTG has been -1.6 according to basketball-reference, i.e. the defense with him on the floor was better than without him. The last five games, the Warriors have been excellent defensively with Zaza on the court (98.4 on-court DRTG according to stats.nba.com - not as accurate as bbref but I'm not sure that bbref allows those splits easily) and quite poor without him (105.9) - which is the best on/off DRTG of all players who played at least 33 minutes during this stretch (Zaza played 80). Rebounding in particular has been much better with Zaza (50.8 TRB% on, 47.9 TRB% off), while opponents also shoot slightly worse with him of the floor (49.8 to 50.1 eFG%).

Zaza is not a great defender by any means but he is solid if you don't ask him to constantly stop opposing wing players at the rim. With more familarity our defense improved and not asking too much of Zaza helped our defense and him to defend more efficiently. I'm still glad we got Zaza for the money we pay him.

[The-Power]

The simple and quick solution to many of the warriors problems is just playing Javale McGee more. I would even start him. Yeah he's dumb, but GS has 4 ballhandlers in their starting lineup, so he doesnt even have to touch the ball unless its finishing an alley oop.

Yes and no. McGee is like a surprise egg for kids. Last night he had a great impact but the game before, I believe, he was horrible. Dumb fouls, always out of position, overchallenged with the pace on offense. You do not want to rely on McGee every game - you just don't. He solves some of our problems when he's focused, with the right match-ups, but only then. Otherwise he causes us self-inflicted wounds. So you give him minutes and see where he's at in that particular game but I strongly disagree with starting him because that's going to fail quite often.

I would also start playing McCaw as the first guard off the bench over Clark, and sometimes over Livingston.

McCaw has playing much more often than Clark lately. 84 to 33 minutes in the last five games. Livingston, during the same stretch, played only 3 minutes more than McCaw. So it's already happening.

Re: Not starting Zaza. No, you don't do it this early in the season. As I wrote in the post above the Warriors have been good with him on the floor lately. It takes time to accommodate a completely different player into the starting line-up so you take the time to let the team and coaches figure out how to best incorporate him before jumping the gun. Classy organizations don't overreact to small samples when the player in question was the first choice during free agency who left a lot of money on the table to join this team. Of course it's easy to call for major adjustments on the internet, we all do it sometimes - but reality is different. Not to mention that the replacement would be McGee (I wrote above why he's not going to start (yet)), Looney (who needs time to get up to the task of battling opposing Centers night in and night out) or West (yeah, no reason to start him over Zaza).

[Onus]

The biggest issue has been rim protection and defensive rebounding. Opponents take 27.3% of their shots at the rim which is the 8th lowest number in the league. The FG% on these shots is 63.2 which ranks 22nd in the league. They are a league average team (16th) in opponent's FT/FGA. Still long ways to go obviously but they seem to improve on defense as expected due to slow but steady integration of new players.

Yeah none of this is a surprise to me given how massively disappointing Zaza has been. He's been straight trash.

Yes, but I believe people are too harsh on him. The Warriors as a unit struggled to defend because they played like they still had Bogut as a presence around the rim. Of course this was bound to fail and make Zaza look incapable. Meanwhile they adjusted to some extent by a) giving Zaza less minutes but, more importantly, b) playing differently to accommodate Zaza.

In the meantime, Zaza's on/off DRTG has been -1.6 according to basketball-reference, i.e. the defense with him on the floor was better than without him. The last five games, the Warriors have been excellent defensively with Zaza on the court (98.4 on-court DRTG according to stats.nba.com - not as accurate as bbref but I'm not sure that bbref allows those splits easily) and quite poor without him (105.9) - which is the best on/off DRTG of all players who played at least 33 minutes during this stretch (Zaza played 80). Rebounding in particular has been much better with Zaza (50.8 TRB% on, 47.9 TRB% off), while opponents also shoot slightly worse with him of the floor (49.8 to 50.1 eFG%).

Zaza is not a great defender by any means but he is solid if you don't ask him to constantly stop opposing wing players at the rim. With more familarity our defense improved and not asking too much of Zaza helped our defense and him to defend more efficiently. I'm still glad we got Zaza for the money we pay him.

The main deficiencies the Warriors had at the beginning of the season were getting lost on screens, getting blown by, not rebounding defenses misses, and not fighting through screens. All of which are easily correctable with effort and continuity, because the players on the court are normally better defenders than they've shown. Having a "rim protector" in most of those instances wouldn't have helped much.

The whole not having a rim protector and defensive issues are/were being overblown. I think we'll be a better defensive team than we were last year, maybe not during the season (because really who cares about that) but during the playoffs. Kevin Durant is a HUGE upgrade defensively over Harrison Barnes, he's all over the court defensively.

[GSP]

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Maybe all the doom and gloom is just a bit premature for a 12-2 team with the best offense in league history?

*Note: Stats in tweet from before yesterday's game.

That's definitely encouraging but man how bad has their garbage time players been then? Last season they would hold a lot of leads and even extend at times, really helped their SRS stay consistently high

[Ballerhogger]

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Maybe all the doom and gloom is just a bit premature for a 12-2 team with the best offense in league history?

*Note: Stats in tweet from before yesterday's game.

Not the end of the world but can they rebound the ball enough in the playoffs. That's a obvious flaw they have . Regular season is preseason most of the time with that roster.

[Ballerhogger]

Read on Twitter

Maybe all the doom and gloom is just a bit premature for a 12-2 team with the best offense in league history?

*Note: Stats in tweet from before yesterday's game.

That's definitely encouraging but man how bad has their garbage time players been then? Last season they would hold a lot of leads and even extend at times, really helped their SRS stay consistently high

Well Macdoo won't be up for 6th man award.

[Ballerhogger]

The Warriors need get mcadoo or javal into the line up and develop them defensively and rim protecting. 15 min ppg? To start.

[The-Power]

The Warriors need get mcadoo or javal into the line up and develop them defensively and rim protecting. 15 min ppg? To start.

McAdoo? McAdoo is a D-League level player, he won't see the court much. I guess you mean Looney!?

[Ballerhogger]

The Warriors need get mcadoo or javal into the line up and develop them defensively and rim protecting. 15 min ppg? To start.

McAdoo? McAdoo is a D-League level player, he won't see the court much. I guess you mean Looney!?

I've only seen those 2 play really. Looney i guess? HOW LOONEY ...

[picc]

Warriors offense is something else. Since Klay has started being Klay again, don't think i've seen anything like it.

When they're running the Steph/Klay/Durant/Green/McGee lineup, doesn't seem like there's any way they won't score somehow.

[DreDay]

Warriors offense is something else. Since Klay has started being Klay again, don't think i've seen anything like it.

When they're running the Steph/Klay/Durant/Green/McGee lineup, doesn't seem like there's any way they won't score somehow.

It may seem like a small thing but the JaVale alley-oop threat does so much for the team. The guys, specifically Draymond, aren't forcing a tough shot or pass to Zaza, but rather have a nice angle to through a high percentage oop. Excellent bailout play that Zaza just isn't capable of doing and makes teams properly pay for overhelping on guys.

[Clyde Frazier]

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[dc]

Score keeper tonight was awfully generous with some of the "assists" he recorded for the Warriors. Plenty of them were of the John Stockton variety where the guy scoring took a dribble before shooting.

[Wall34]

Must watch TV

[GSP]

They could quietly go on a 15 game winstreak and might have the #1 Srs by then with how the Clippers have been slowing down recently after their hot start.

@ Lac and @ Utah b2b is bound to be a loss tho.

We are very likely watching the Goat offense. We all knew it was possible but its still insane to see how gelled they look offensively, theyre so far ahead of everyone else on that end. And teams like the Cavs and Clips have elite offenses which would be in the running for #1 in alot of years.