The entire NBA is waiting for some team to knock the Golden State Warriors off of their perch atop the league. While the Houston Rockets look like they’re going to be a legitimate challenger to the Dubs’ throne, Golden State is very much in “they’re the top dogs until someone beats them” territory.
Still, despite the fact that the Warriors are great, this team is not perfect. This is especially the case when it comes to their passing. Golden State possesses a laundry list of playmakers, but sometimes, the team can get a little too eager to make the high-risk pass rather than do something a little safer.
Chris Herring of FiveThirtyEight broke down how the Warriors’s propensity for “reckless” passes — things like alley-oops or one-handed dishes — has led to the team turning the ball over with some frequency. In fact, this is the one thing that Warriors coach Steve Kerr says he has to make sure the team is focused on, using a baseball analogy to break things down.
“[The passes] are the one thing I do have to stay on them about,” Kerr said, according to Herring. “I talk about hitting singles all the time instead of hitting home runs. I don’t mind turnovers that are the result of us trying to make the extra pass. It’s the ones that are out of motion that don’t stand much of a chance to get through that bother me. So if we just hit singles with this team, we have so many playmakers and shooters that it’s all going to come in the wash pretty positively.”
Golden State is an interesting case here, because part of what makes them so dangerous is the fact that they can make these dynamic passes that stem from their team’s overall passing ability. It is a team that is really, really good at moving the ball, and with a handful of guys capable of finding teammates before they’re wide open, the Warriors are able to unlock things that just others can’t.
But to keep with the baseball analogy Kerr threw out, the Warriors are a power hitter both in their ability to go yard and in their propensity for striking out. Kerr didn’t say this is a full-blown concern, but he does seem to believe this is the main thing Golden State can tighten up between now and the postseason.
(Via FiveThirtyEight)
