For all the focus on the Warriors’ shooting ability—and just in case you’ve been unplugged from the sport for a while, there’s even more of it now than there was before—the team doesn’t get quite enough credit for how it makes hay with the threat of the longball.
Drilling down more specifically, Golden State has teams so afraid of its three-point flair that it can generally back-cut them to death, quietly sneaking behind the defense into the paint while opposing wings are overly focused on what’s happening out in front of them.
The Warriors, who’ve utilized perhaps the most beautifully chaotic offense in recent memory, have long been pros at this. Stephen Curry’s shooting helps open things up, but his willingness to serve as an off-ball screener makes it an even more challenging task to guard such an unscripted style of play. Draymond Green’s passing ratchets up the pressure, as does Klay Thompson’s sharpshooting. And having a player like Jordan Poole seemingly makes things unfair again, in the way it was during those years when Durant was a Warrior.
