Why No One Could Stop the 2017 Warriors || Thinking Basketball

Welcome back to another Watch Along. Today it is the 2017 Golden State Warriors, perhaps the best offense in NBA history. Kevin Durant, Steph Curry. We're picking it up in the second half. This is a February game. The first thing to notice is the spacing and what having all these great shooters will do, pulling bigs out of the lane, opening up the paint for finishes like that. So it starts with DeAndre Jordan and worried about this Klay Thompson cut. That gets him out of position on the Steph Curry ball screen. That's a no-no. His man had to go over, worried about that outside shooting. So Zaza Pachulia breaks free. And then on this offensive rebound, no one's in the paint to help out when JJ Redick gets backdoored. So it's a simple little broken play, but the rebound and the pass and the finish all come from the shooters and the incredible spacing of the offense. The average offense in the league at this point in time was about 109 points per 100. This team, and we'll talk about some numbers, how historically great they were, how far ahead of the league they were, they were basically the definition of a cheat code. So one of the staples that most people have come to associate with this offense is motion, movement. You see Klay Thompson cutting up from the baseline, a lot of passing. Draymond Green's kind of like a point guard as he's a little sloppy with that entry. Golden State has been criticized or was criticized throughout their dynasty for sometimes being a little too loose with the ball. I always felt that was more of a feature than a bug because they're getting so many great plays out of that that every once in a while, they have to kind of play on the edge. Here's a turnover, five on four. This is gonna be really tough. Curry gets free around the screen. And it's not really Steph's man that loses him. It's because there isn't an extra defender. So you see DeAndre Jordan, he's gonna sag off because it's five on four and he's not gonna worry about Zaza Petrulia. But then when you don't worry about the screener, Curry can get a two on one, runs Austin Rivers around the outside of that. And that's like a layup for him. And so all of a sudden, they've scored nine points in two minutes. 63 to 54. It was 61 to 45. Keep that score in the back of your head. And after a very flat Clippers possession that leads to a shot clock violation, Golden State can get into some half court offense. So you see Green in that elbow position as a feeder, backdoor cut for Curry. Now the defense is scrambling. Great save by Austin Rivers. And he was on fire in the second quarter. Huge second quarter for the Clippers as they took that big lead. But against this team, that lead really isn't that big. And Rivers continues the hot shooting with a three. Allows the Clippers to get their defense set. Curry goes with a little pick and roll. Empty side, gets Petrulia a wide open jumper. And if it's gonna be that easy, maybe they'll take that. Zaza Petrulia, clearly the fifth option as a starter. Not even really the fifth option because Andre Iguodala and other bench players will come in. So he's in there for defense and size. Right on cue with the hands. So they get out in transition some more. There's Klay Thompson running to the three point line in transition. There's Curry running to the three point line. And this gets us a vintage Warriors possession. One shooter in transition to the three point line. Now Curry takes Austin Rivers right out of the play by running to the three point line. And that's what frees up Durant here. So it's a layup, an assisted layup because of all that space that the shooting provides. And the Warriors shot a league best 67% at the rim. But more importantly, 71% of those shots were assisted. That was first in the league that year by 12%. The next closest team was at 59%. We'll talk about that more in a second. As here they come in transition. Draymond playing that point guard role. Quickly gets into two man with Durant. And as they just sort of freestyle here, kick, move, space, you'll see that lane is either open to move into or there's cutters flying through it. And when you have that many shooters, you end up with Blake Griffin as the one chasing Durant. Curry's man doesn't want to leave him on the screen. That leaves a little space. Just incredible shot making. So they have three of the best shooters ever. You think of Curry, you think of Thompson, the Splash Brothers, the backcourt, but Durant is also one of the great shooters of all time from the mid range, from the outside, from the free throw line. His shot making just gave them another additional dimension. And so all of a sudden it's a five point game as Draymond Green picks up a technical. In the playoffs, the Warriors had one quarter under 20 points in the entire playoffs. That was the first quarter against the Spurs in game one. And they followed that up with a historic blitz that we'll talk about if we have time. But they were very consistent. 56% of their playoff quarters were 30 point quarters. More than half the time, they were putting 30 up on you in a quarter in the playoffs. Here's some more defense to offense. And Durant's the one that's open again. And it's another three. So this is an explosion in four and a half minutes. It's 19 points, a couple threes from Durant. He already has 10 in the period. And here's more defense to offense. Curry runs to the line, waits for Durant, finds Durant. Come on. This is totally unfair. And this is why you can't play a traditional power forward against Kevin Durant. Look at this cut coming back to the three point line in transition. Blake is just completely lost by it. And the game is tied. It was just a 16 point game. We have a technical foul on the Warriors bench for celebrating so exuberantly that they've come onto the floor. And that's just a way to maybe make it even at this point. You're allowed a little bit more contact, a little bit more physicality compared to what would come in the ensuing seasons. Here's some more defense to offense off a dunk that's missed. And again, for the second time in a couple minutes, we see this spacing effect of these shooters. Curry in transition. You have to meet him out near the logo. JJ Redick is thinking about Klay Thompson. Blake Griffin is not running back to the paint. He's staying with Durant. And that leaves the lane wide open for Golden State. 71% of their layups were assisted. That is the best we have on record for the last, oh, quarter century plus we have play-by-play stats and things like that back to the late 90s. And that is the best we have on record except for the 2018 version of this team, which was about 72% of their layups that were assisted. So we think of them as this jump shooting team. That was the moniker that was attached to them. They actually were fifth in the league in three-point attempts and because they were so effective at using their movement and their shooting and setting up shots to create opportunities, they combined that with the spacing and the passing to make layups and shots around the basket, the highest value shots in basketball, more available and easier. Blake Griffin misses a free throw after a bucket to keep the Clippers in front. And now we're back in a half-court set. So look, the paint is wide open. Thompson looking for a pin down. And with Draymond out with the technical and some foul trouble, you just have Durant initiate and then you go into pick and roll and the league hasn't got the memo yet. You can't play this drop coverage against these shooters because we saw the two-on-one earlier off ball or the pick and roll here. Jordan's coming out, but it's too late. This isn't a serious threat to the pull-up shooting of Thompson. These are just coverages the league learned. You can't play against this team. So we saw that in the transition play earlier. If you traditionally sag off, whether it's a drop coverage or you want to protect the paint in transition, then you have to worry about these open threes. If you come out to play the shooters behind the three-point line, then you give up space in the paint and it turns into a layup. Three of the best shooters ever, and then a system that takes advantage of all their gravity, movement, and space based on feeding the right player in the right spot from the elbow, from the three-point line. That's Draymond's role as a point guard. That's Andre Iguodala off the bench as a passer. He's in right now. There's that ball pressure physicality. And right on cue, another layup. So let's see what happens. Griffin hits the ball, maybe a double dribble. Now, why is DeAndre Jordan way out of the paint? Well, last time his man set a screen, he was too far dropped back. So this time he comes way out. Curry gets by his man. And now, because these two defenders are occupied on the super shooters, no one's left at the basket for Iguodala. Curry, Durant, Draymond, they all had the ability to attack and playmake off the dribble, which was the perfect complement to the rest of the offensive system that we've discussed. But I mean, right now, whether it's the half court or whether it's in transition, they have cracked the dam, so to speak, when they have a defense on its heels, trying to pick its poison between the shooters and the motion, and then the paint. Do I defend that real estate out at the three-point line that stretches 80 feet or whatever from corner to corner? Or do I camp out in the lane and dare them to shoot? Thompson for two. This is hilarious, because Jordan's instinct is saying I have to help out on this two-man action with Kevin Durant. At the same time, Curry's man doesn't wanna leave him when he sets a screen, so there's just no one left to deal with Klay Thompson. This can be a three, or they can all curl it in for two, because they're unbelievable mid-range shooters, and I don't know how you stop it. Nice bucket from DeAndre Jordan there. Allows them to set the defense, maybe stop the bleeding a little bit. They go right back looking for Klay. Then pick and roll with Durant and Curry. So, we saw Curry as a screener a second ago. Here, you invert it, you have him on the ball in a natural position, you have Durant set the screen. Now, because he gets a little contact on Steph's man, Blake has to step up, worried about that three-point shooting pocket pass is there, and no one is behind, because again, DeAndre Jordan's the rim protector. He doesn't have to worry about Zaza Pachulia's shooting, but in the back of his head, he's saying, do I need to be up high on a screener? Iguodala clears the paint, that removes his man. Durant's too good. So, Durant and Curry, specifically, can screen and are deadly in that position, and they're deadly when they have the ball. Speaking of deadly, DeAndre Jordan, many legendary dunks. Beautiful pass from the mid-post there by Blake Griffin. The Warriors are 12 of 13 from the floor in this quarter so far, and they have 12 assists. They have an assist on every single one of their field goals. So, they have this extra dimension with Durant compared to the teams in 2016 and 2015 that gives them isolation at the elbow. You can fall back on his ability to just shoot right over people, and they would play that way at times, especially in the playoffs in 2018 and 2019. But when the system is really humming and moving and you see all this motion, that would have been another assisted three, and they lose Curry. So, who is the most dangerous shooter on the miss? In modern basketball, it's the three-point shooter on these kickouts. But if you make a mistake, like Raymond Felton does here, going to leak out for an outlet pass, he goes to the other side of the court to catch the outlet pass. Now, no one's on Steph, and they dodge the bullet once, but you're not gonna dodge that bullet twice. 13 makes 13 assists. Curry up to 21. We've seen transition. We've seen half-court. We've seen off misses. Here's that high pick and roll. They attack DeAndre Jordan. Curry just lets it fly, and that's just the magic of Steph Curry. The quick release. I mean, Felton is there. He doesn't know what's happening. He turns to the ref. He says, is that even allowed? I don't know what he's complaining about. Maybe you're not allowed to shoot that well. We saw Durant's shot making. Another beautiful pass. This was actually a really good Golden State defense, just overshadowed by an unbelievable offense. Same pick and roll. Now we switch to like traditional guy with gravity as he's dribbling out of the pick and roll, gets an open three in the corner. Just doesn't fall. How do you guard two of these guys? You know, one is hard with Curry. Two is difficult with Clay because they can play off each other. Multiple guys can screen and move at the same time. And then you add a third one, and it's just this multiplicative effect that makes it impossible. So here comes Steph off the miss. And he can just go to work in isolation. And now we've seen our first unassisted, self-generated basket. Notice the spacing once again. Durant's out of the paint. Look at all this room. Too easy for Curry. And this is just an offensive explosion for Golden State. They have scored 41 points in less than a quarter. Here they come again. There's a leak out. Free throws, Durant with the beautiful pass. By the way, I was talking about those assist percentages earlier. In the last 15 years, the highest non-Golden State team in terms of assist rate at the rim is 64%. That's the Miami Heat in 2021. The Warriors were 71%. Clay, Curry, and Durant. In their first 25 games or so together, they had a 117 offensive rating. After December 15th, they went 40 and six with a 14 point margin of victory when those three guys were in the lineup with a 119 offensive rating. And after January 1st, it was a 120 offensive rating. So we're talking about 71, 73 win pace performances depending on how you slice it. And then offensive ratings that were 11 to 12 points better than the lead. So Curry makes a pair of free throws. They had 45 points in the first half with 30 seconds left. In less than a quarter, they've scored 45 points. And it was rare for this offense to kind of go cold and then nuclear hot like this. They were usually just always burning kind of like a red hot, not a white hot, just kind of red hot. 30, 35 points every quarter. No big deal. High pick and roll. And so now we have a lineup with one shooter. We get the backdoor. This is the essence of this offense again. They're not even overplaying Curry. He's just so good at cutting. He gets backdoor into a little space. And then because of the spacing and there's no one left, he can dump it down to McGee. It's gonna be a dunk if they don't foul. Quick two for one from the Clippers. Gets the Warriors a half court possession here at the end of the third. Oh my gosh. Curry's dancing, four point play. This is a double screen, a V screen that he loves where you can go either way off the screener. McGee's defender is 30 feet out and he just uses the step back and there's no defense for that. Celtics found that out the hard way in the 2022 NBA Finals. Curry was 17 in the quarter. And after some Clippers free throws, they're gonna get one more possession here with 15 seconds to play. Curry waits for the small, small screen. They switch it. He just goes to work. Checks the clock. Come on. We've seen that in the Olympics. I've seen that before. Steph Curry with five threes in the quarter, 20 points in the period. Durant had 15 in the quarter, three threes. Golden State with 13 assists and nine threes in a quarter where they put up 50 points. That caps a 54 to 26 run in just over a quarter. I mean, that is absolutely ridiculous for an offense that just holds a ton of records. And here's more vintage basketball. I mean, we're gonna stop, but these sets are just too good. Klay Thompson destroys his man on this screen counter. Gets to the other side. The help has to come. Iguodala slips it in. Then Draymond slips behind, tic-tac-toe. More layups, more passing, more assisted stuff, off the motion. Here's one more stat that kind of sums up where this offense is. Steph Curry, the Warriors on-court offensive rating with Steph Curry in the 2017 Conference Finals was 129. Outside of the 2017 Cavs and their Conference Finals, that was the highest of any Finals or Conference Finals series that we've had on record. And he did the same thing in the Finals, 129 offensive rating. So in the Conference Finals and the Finals, he had a 129 offensive rating. No one had a higher on-court offensive rating before that. And as of recording this, the only person to have broken it since is Kevin Durant in the 2018 Finals. And they had a 132 offensive rating when he was on the floor. With this next free throw, the Warriors have scored 60 points in 13 minutes. It was 61-45, and now it is 105-87. That is a 60-26 run in just over a quarter. Overall, with Curry, Durant, Klay Thompson, and Draymond Green in the lineup, they were 58-10, including the playoffs. They had a 118 offensive rating. So they were about 10 points better than league average, including the playoffs, which would be the best offense of all time. Maybe there's some Magic Johnson Lakers offenses and Steve Nash's sons' offenses that could squeak in there and compete. They were that far ahead of their time. They were that good. Arguably the best offense ever. Thanks for watching along. Let me know what you think in the comments below. Hope you enjoyed this one and that you are having a great day. You can get Thinking Basketball content in the NBA app throughout the season. And if you want more right now, check out the Thinking Basketball on YouTube.