How do you solve the Golden State Warriors?
By Seerat Sohi
We’re coming off the season of the defensive highlight. It’s no small thing that the highlight of the NBA Finals was not a shot, nor a dunk, not even an assist, but a block. As we become accustomed to the rise of lab-programmed athletes with perfectly precise workout regimens, the more likely we are to be bowled over by defenders who can actually manage to stop them. The question du jour, among NBA junkies this offseason, emerged when Kevin Durant elected to join the Golden State Warriors: “How would you defend them?”
The answer to that question could come down to a tale of two Saturdays, as the Warriors set to face off against Giannis Antetokounmpo and the Milwaukee Bucks tomorrow, and Karl Anthony-Towns’ Minnesota Timberwolves on November 26.
The duo was paramount to two of the Warriors losses last season, the first of which was on
Dec. 11, 2015, when the Milwaukee Bucks snapped the Warriors historic 24-game winning streak in stunning fashion. Antetokounmpo notched the first triple double of his career, banging the boards, careening into the lane and slipping passes through tiny crevasses in the paint, where Milwaukee finished with 60 of their 121 points.
Read More: The Charlotte Hornets know exactly who they are
With seven minutes remaining in the fourth quarter, a particular defensive moment comes to mind. Giannis pesters Draymond Green in the high post, his wiry limbs allowing no openings, and slaps the ball out of hands. Green recovers, passes to Curry and sets a screen for him. Giannis switches onto Curry, and the MVP unleashes a barrage of dribble moves, the death knell for big men, which Antetokounmpo contains with ease. With the clock running down, Curry steps back and shoots a contested fade-away three that clanks off the rim. Golden State was held to a season-low six 3-pointers.
On April 5, 2016, Karl-Anthony Towns, six weeks prior to being christened Rookie of The Year, did his best rendition of Giannis, at one juncture outfoxing Curry with a defensive play that doubled as a dance number.
These dazzling moment are reminders that the NBA, like most things, is self-correcting, summoning visions of big men picking up the small man’s game, flipping the small ball script back on itself, restoring the order of basketball as the domain of giants.
In an act of pure magic, the right ingredients came together and the Timberwolves and Bucks had the unstoppable Warriors, if only for a night. In the long-term, the only team those Warriors were truly susceptible to was the the Cavaliers, with their heady combination of 3-point shooting, elite rim protection and rebounding, as well as, oh yeah, LeBron James. Still, it took the injury bug breaking Cleveland’s way, as Curry and Andrew Bogut hobbled to the finish line, and Draymond Green getting suspended, to unlock a momentary cheat code against a steel-trap.
Despite defeat, the Dubs were confident in the vision of a high octane small ball-heavy, 3-point hoisting machine. Durant’s acquisition forced them to let Harrison Barnes, Bogut and Festus Ezeli walk, parlaying rim protection and the versatility to dominate big and small, for offensive firepower.
When the contours of a formula to defeat the Warriors presented themselves, Golden State responded by doubling down. The new-look Warriors may be 8-2, but they look more susceptible to big men attackers than ever. Golden State upgraded their talent but, in essence, allowed a weakness they didn’t have last season: They made themselves solvable.
Golden State, as a matter of will and ability, is lagging defensively this year. Regardless of whether they figure it out, rim protection projects to be a long-term issue. They are the second-worst defensive rebounding team in the league, and the fourth-worst at rim protection. The league’s prominent bigs have made quick work of the revolving door of big men the Dubs have plugged in to try to stop the bleeding, including Zaza Pachulia and David West. To add injury to insult, defensive swiss-army knife Andre Iguodala is finally playing like he’s on the wrong side of thirty.
Giannis, for good measure, is in the midst of a breakout season. He is emerging as a master of all trades, averaging 21.1 points, 8.7 rebounds, 5.4 assists, 2.2 blocks and 1.7 steals, despite the absence of a jumper. Since notching his first career triple-double against the Warriors, he has morphed into a triple-double machine. Having improved in every facet of the game, he has to be chomping at the bit to destroy a frontline no longer featuring Bogut or Ezili. Giannis is commanding double-teams this season, and if the Warriors 23rd-ranked defense collapses, he’ll have his pick of the slaughter. He might not even need to break out that freshly-honed eurostep.
While Towns’ rebounding has regressed, the Wolves grab more second chance opportunities than any team in the league outside of Chicago. Early in the season, the Wolves lag behind defensively, and Towns hasn’t quite exploded onto the scene as much as fans hoped. But he still projects to have all the tools to be a Warriors-stopper — the quickness and 3-point shot, low-post potential, the ability to protect the rim and switch onto shifty guards — and more importantly, big men facing off against the Warriors no longer have to vie for perfection. Not only that, the guys primed to defeat them, too quick to be sent to the bench by an ultra-small lineup, are multiplying in the league, from Towns, Giannis and the original avant-garde big, Anthony Davis, to Joel Embiid and Kristaps Porzingis. You might even say they’re “light years ahead.”
Davis, in a loss, dropped 45 points on the Warriors. The loss, of course, is where the Golden State’s saving grace lies. The Wolves, Bucks, 76ers, Pacers, Knicks, Pelicans all have one thing in common, aside from their do-it-all seven footers: zero championship hopes. But if the right team can step into the fray, they could tip the scales. In a blowout loss to the Spurs on opening night, Golden State was thrashed on their defensive glass, with LaMarcus Aldridge accounting for eight offensive rebounds. In a league defined by change, the frontcourt duo of Blake Griffin and DeAndre Jordan has come to age together, and the Clippers are leveraging continuity into the best performances they’ve delivered in their tenure.
Listen: What scares the Golden State Warriors?
The acquisition of Durant, on its face, improves the Warriors. But at a certain point, exchanging versatility for firepower results in diminishing returns. On some weird level, to sacrifice some defensive role players for Durant is to leave your fate in the hands of JaVale McGee. Which is not to say that his acquisition was a mistake. We are, after all, comparing the winningest team in regular season history to a championship contender that, if it falls short of those heady expectations, is still pretty damn good. Solvability doesn’t beckon the inevitability of loss; it merely denies the inevitability of victory, which the Warriors seemed to represent until the final seconds of Game 7 of the Finals.
To boot, Bogut was the picture of inconsistency last season, especially on the road, and his Finals performance left much to be desired. Ezili, on the other hand, is still hobbled by knee injuries in Portland.
In the coming weeks, the Warriors will face off against the looming reality of this new era of big men, while the rest of the league watches, flipping the original question over on its head. How would you defend them?