In shocking fashion, the Golden State Warriors might be suffering from a serious spacing problem in the NBA Playoffs.
The Golden State Warriors are likely the greatest 3-point shooting team of all-time. With the best individual shooter ever in Stephen Curry and the talents of Kevin Durant and Klay Thompson, this team has forever changed the style of NBA basketball.
Because of how talented the Warriors have been at shooting the 3-pointer, the rest of the NBA has played copy cat. The success the Warriors have experienced was enough to create a league-wide evolution as the game transforms into a space-and-pace era.
It might come as a shock that the Warriors are actually beginning to become victims of their own success. In previous years, the Dubs had deadly shooters at every position. Draymond Green and Andre Iguodala were their weakest links, but both had postseasons in which they shot above 35 percent from deep.
Now, the Warriors have less shooting than ever before. Green is shooting a woeful 21.4 percent from the 3-point line while no other big man has hit a 3-pointer for the Dubs outside of Cousins who is now sidelined for the remainder of the postseason.
This has caused quite a bit of trouble for the Dubs as they are running into problems while trying to set up the offense. With the lack of shooting from the Warriors big men, it is much easier for opposing defenses to recover from the off-ball movement as they have a minimum of one extra defender to their exposal.
The lack of spacing has directly resulted in the Warriors averaging a Playoff high 17.0 turnovers a game. This problem will only get worse as they face teams such as the Houston Rockets who are leading the league in 3-point shooting.
Luckily, the Warriors still have the greatest shooting trio of all-time. Curry, Durant and Thompson will have to be at their best to bring home this year’s championship.