Explain One Play: KD loves passing, really

Kevin Durant had a delightfully well-rounded first half against the Orlando Magic last night. He repeatedly passed on time to anyone who got open and still strolled into 17 points on 9 shots, with 6 assists in 1st half. I was really impressed.

A huge part of the Warriors offense involves a big posting up with the ball and having the other players cut and screen off-ball. (This comes straight out of the Triangle Offense that Steve Kerr played in during the Jordan Bulls days.) You’ll see the role played by Draymond Green, David West and Zaza Pachulia (and in the future, ahem, Jordan Bell), as they are smart floor readers and passers. This is a fantastic role to get extra mileage out of a smart big who can’t create their own shot, like Pachulia, Green, before him Andrew Bogut and David Lee.

There’s been an uptick in the last couple of games having Durant be the post hub. In some ways it’s a waste to have Durant be the hub, since he’s also a top shooter. On the other hand, he’s a smart reader and passer, he doesn’t like screening so much and of course he is also an excellent isolation scorer from the post. Also it keeps Durant from being tempted to isolate at the top and to fire up a contested off-the-dribble three. (Statistically in the past, he’s shot 4th quarter jumpers poorly by his standards.)

The Warriors ran the same simple three-man post split cuts through the Lakers game overtime (covered in this E1P). https://www.goldenstateofmind.com/2017/11/30/16718956/nba-2017-warriors-lakers-stephen-curry-amazing-overtime

The play worked every time, but the process was troubled. Durant looked off Green on a couple of open dives to the basket and instead took difficult isolation shots. Green ended up having an on-court rage reminiscent of last year’s blown Memphis game.

Here is video with what I assure you is absolutely accurate transcriptions of what the players were saying.

(alternate YouTube link)

In the Magic game, the Warriors went back to the same play repeatedly, giving Durant a chance to show he could make the right pass, and that Green and Stephen Curry could make the right counters when defenses tried to blow up the play.

Video here:

(alternate YouTube link)

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