Constant cutting makes the Warriors’ offense unguardable
By Tommy Dee
We all know that the Golden State Warriors can shoot and it’s one of the most obvious factors in their chase for the most efficient offense in league history. But for all that shooting prowess, their success this year scoring off cuts is a much bigger outlier compared to the rest of the league. The variety of their cuts combined with their constant movement, all leaning on the threat of their shooting, is making them impossible to defend for the full 48 minutes.
To date, the Warriors have scored 251 more points off cuts than the second place team in the category per NBA stats. Think about that for a second. The difference in points off cuts between the Warriors (723) and the Milwaukee Bucks (472) is more than the entire season totals of the Cleveland Cavaliers (250), Dallas Mavericks (229) and the Toronto Raptors (227).
Cutting off the ball is a team concept, and it seems like every player knows just when to slip into an open seam in the defense.
How, exactly, are you supposed to stop Klay Thompson’s catch-and-shoot game when he combines it with a backdoor cut against an overplay? If you try to go over the screen to stop him from catching the ball he simply cuts backdoor and is able to finish at the rim on any pass coming from the high or mid-post area.
Here, coming off a curl, Thompson and David West use the two-man game to run a classic “give-and-go” as Thompson again cuts backdoor for the easy two.
A deep flex cut to the strong side with a trailing defender gives Thompson all the room he needs to bury the corner 3-pointer.
The Warriors constant cutting also opens up wide open shot attempts for Steph Curry, who, like Thompson, just needs a split second before his jumper is released. He is so hard to guard when you run him off screens because he has such an incredible head fake. Here, the Warriors don’t get the look they want in transition and Thompson’s cut through during their secondary break leads to a ball reversal that ends with a Curry ball-fake that freezes the defender and allows an open look.
Out of a side out of bounds set, Kevin Durant sets the screen for Ian Clark who cuts through leaving a two-man game with Durant and Curry. Despite not being well-executed, Curry still ends up creating an open 3-pointer, which he makes.
A Curry flare cut off two screens allows for Curry to catch the ball behind the arc and a quick head fake gets his defender in the air leading to a wide open look.
Not all of these plays would be technically classified as cuts in the NBA’s play type statistics but they are indicative of how the threat of shooting and constant movement serve to open holes in the defense.
This isn’t just a characteristic of the starting lineup either. Over the course of 48 minutes the cutting is non-stop, which allows Steve Kerr the luxury of mixing and matching with his rotations, trusting that all sorts of different player combinations can play complementary basketball. Shaun Livingston uses 23.6 percent of his possessions on cuts, averaging 1.24 points per possession. Andre Iguodala, Ian Clark, and David West all have excellent numbers as well and that effort from the second unit affords the Warriors an opportunity to put pressure on opponents all game long.
And again, it’s not just scoring on cuts that’s important. It’s the interplay between cutting and the Warriors’ shooters.
Here, Clark cuts through the lane in order for Durant to have a one-on-one, face-up in rhythm.
Durant looks like he’s going to pin down but his sideline L-cut allows him to run off a West screen freeing him for the open 3-pointer.
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The more the Warriors’ shooters cut, the more they find themselves freed up to get open looks. It’s both elite shooting and constant movement that makes the Warriors so difficult to guard.