Why the Warriors are ahead of the curve………

Embed from Getty Images

Again.
Most hoops fans would have seen Steph Curry nail the ridiculous near half-court game-winner to beat the Thunder a few weeks back, leaving us all shaking our heads and subsequently breaking the internet and melting twitter.

One of the common post game narratives was the Zen master-esque thinking of Warriors Coach Steve Kerr by NOT calling a timeout with scores level, 6.4 second left in overtime and with the Warriors securing a defensive rebound.

Instead, Kerr backed the Warriors to score without drawing up a play, a genius move in the heat of the moment, catching the Thunder off guard when everyone expected a timeout to be called….heck every coach in history is calling a timeout in that situation!

What do they do instead? They run it back down your throat and score.

“Yeah but they have Stephen freaking Curry, he’s going to score the ball no matter what. No other team could do it.”

Wrong.
Let’s look at the numbers[1]:

So what does it all mean?

You have a better chance of scoring[2] if you take the ball out of the net and run it back at the defense. If you need to call a timeout, make it after a foul or another stop in play.

Steve Kerr is a disciple of Phil Jackson who was renowned for resisting the urge to call a timeout during sloppy play. Kerr is taking it to another level and is keeping his ego in check along the way, resisting the urge to stop play with the belief he can draw up a play that is more efficient than the Warriors free flowing offense.

Sure, there are renowned side-line/end-line play geniuses like Brad Stevens over at Boston who will back themselves to draw up a play vs taking it out of the net, but for every Brad Stevens there are a hell of a lot of coaches who aren’t going to have a rabbit to pull out of the hat with a play the opposition hasn’t already scouted.

Think about the intangibles that are at play with this kind of move; catching the defense off guard, flat footed and not giving the opposition coaches a chance to scheme up a stop during a timeout.
This obviously isn’t the sole reason why the Warriors are a juggernaut but it’s just another example of the team being ahead of the curve, perhaps the rest of the league should take note…..again.





[1] Thanks to www.nbastuffer.com for providing play by play data
[2] Obviously if there is limited time on the clock you will need to call a timeout to advance the ball to half court. These numbers look at every possession throughout a full game and not just limited to final 2 minutes.