Twinkie defense wrote:Kerr definitely is a system guy, but for me his system is basketball at its purest, as it was meant to be played - as a flowing, team game. Constant motion. Constant ball movement. ISO ball is horrible, ugly, bastardized basketball and is not winning basketball in today's NBA - for a brief time maybe it was, when defenses were a brutal hackathon and the idea was to slow down the pace. But now with the prominence of the three point shot, the flexibility defenses are given to play different schemes, and the cracking down on thuggish play, iso ball is a losing formula.
The Lacob-era Warriors are very good at player development. Players might not be used to playing the beautiful style of play that the Warriors employ, but the Warriors think they are capable or they wouldn't have invested in them. It takes some time, but this season was never about this season, it was always about retooling for the Warriors NEXT championship squad, which hopefully will come in the net 2-3 years.
I actually don't think that the Lacob-era Warriors are all that great at player development. There's clearly some disconnect between the scouting and player development in the organization. I don't think that Damion Jones or Jacob Evans were ever going to be useful players, so it's hard for me to pin that on the coaches, but we also had in our G-League team, training camp, or on two-way contracts the following NBA rotation players: Georges Niang, Danuel House Jr., Kendrick Nunn, and Chris Boucher. We chose Alfonzo McKinnie, whose only above average skill was offensive rebounding from the wing, over Nunn (domestic violence past probably makes me feel better we never did get him, but I digress) and House Jr.
There have been some encouraging signs with Wiggins and Oubre. Chriss was a good find last year, although my understanding is that he showed up to training camp and immediately started passing the hell out of the ball, so I don't necessarily think that this was a skill the Warriors developed as much as it was one he got to show in our system. JTA and Lee have been good finds, but I feel like they're such solid guys with an understanding of the game that they were bound to catch on.
I agree with you that Kerr's system was gorgeous, at least in the pre-KD years. Those teams were far greater than the sum of their parts. But there is also no way they could be dropped into the modern NBA and win 73 games. Our bench lineups were revolutionary at that time relative to what other teams were trotting out. Barnes was quicker and a better shooter than most backup 4's and we could get away with running bizarre sets where the nominal PG, Livingston, operated in single coverage in the post because we could space the floor around him with shooters and let our backup C, Speights, operate as a stretch 5 gunner.
What I think made those teams really special and dangerous in Kerr's system was that pretty much everyone had to be guarded. If Livingston had the ball in his hands, you had to be alert so he wouldn't run and a give and go on a baseline cut or take you into the post for a fadeaway. Barbosa was always a threat to get to the hoop or shoot the ball. Speights was a gunner. Barnes was a good shooter and a lot better offensively than most bench 4's. Andre was always looking to make a smart play. Then add in the starters and all the possible lineup combinations... it was a very well built team and the system perfectly maximized the strengths and for the most part, minimized the weakness of the players.
I do very much appreciate the system, but I'd like Kerr to be more flexible in regards to his system. As I've said before, what made the system so deadly in the past was that most everyone on the floor was a threat to do something with the ball in their hands. Last year, that wasn't the case. Teams knew that a Jacob Evans entry pass to Kevon Looney wasn't going to end in a bucket. Evans wasn't a shooting threat and Looney doesn't look for his own shot. A lot of the passing that was so purposeful in the pre KD-years is utterly feckless when it's Brad Wanamaker playing hot potato with Looney at the top of the key to get a pindown for say, Damion Lee to come up to the top of the key and handle the ball and drive into traffic because teams don't respect our shooters and pack the paint.
I am not advocating full Harden ball here. I simply think that the Kerr motion system really only works when teams respect the players running it. I think Kerr has shown that by and large, he places greater value on having NBA level defenders out there than NBA level shooters. And when you sacrifice offense for defense like that, you end up running lots of sets where defenses don't feel inclined to pay attention to the main action.
