Golden State Warriors 2022-23 Season Preview
Golden State Warriors 2022-23 Season Preview
Warriors 5-Out motion offense should bounce back to be lethal this year.
Welcome to the 2022-23 previews for every NBA team! These breakdowns are designed to look at stats, film & anything I found interesting in my preparation for the upcoming NBA season.
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Stats
Net Rating: +5.2 (5th)
Offensive Rating: 112.8 (17th)
Good
Outside of their efficient shooting, ranking 4th in the NBA, there is not a ton to love about the Warriors offensive numbers - especially when Steph Curry is off the court. When Steph Curry is on the court, the Warriors offense ranked 5th in offensive efficiency - when he is off the court they ranked 26th. The bench unit really needs some scoring efficiency, and we will see how that plays out this season.
Bad
In addition to the struggles with Steph off the court, the Warriors did not do a great job drawing fouls either. They ranked 23rd in the NBA in FT Rate, making 18.1 Free Throws per 100 field goal attempts.
Ugly
Nothing new here, but turnovers were an issue for the Warriors this season almost ranking dead last in the NBA turning the ball over 15% of the time. The Warriors always struggled with turnovers in Steve Kerr’s free-flowing motion offense, but last year was the worst one by far since Kerr took over. Improve this and their offense will become top-10.
Defensive Rating: 107.6 (2nd)
Great
The Warriors defense was ELITE. This is how they won the championship, through their defensive scheme, system and Draymond Green’s insane defensive abilities.
Contesting every shot they can, shutting down superstars, the Warriors ranked 2nd in eFG% defense - a great sign for a defense that should be better.
Good
Turning teams over at a high rate really helped the Warriors defense, they turned teams over 14.7% of the time - ranking 7th in the NBA. This helped alleviate their own turnover concerns since they wouldn’t get crushed in the turnover battle.
Ugly
You create turnovers, you foul. That’s pretty simple and the Warriors defense fouled teams more than normal, finishing 23rd in the NBA in defensive FT Rate.
Film
5 Out Motion Offensive Concepts
Here are some of the most common Warriors 5-Out motion concepts, which are all simple but when combined become one of the hardest offenses to guard in the NBA.
Backdoor
When teams deny or overplay on shooters, they have space to cut backdoor into the lane for easy layups.
Ballscreens
Random ballscreens force defenses to always react and forced to have coverages planned for every single situation.
Chicago
We have talked about this Chicago action out of Delay (Warriors run that too), but they also randomly get into this action out of 5-Out and not a playcall.
Corner Burn Cuts
NBA players on defense fall asleep, Warriors make them pay with backdoor cuts from the corner - I call these Burn cuts.
Bust Outs
Draymond Green busting out and starting the break off a rebound ensures the Warriors get easy buckets in transition and early offense.
Hand Off
Hand Offs are simple actions that become very complex when it is Steph/Klay/Poole coming off them.
Kick & Relocate
A Steph Curry inspired action, anytime he drives and kicks he will never stop moving and always try and relocate for shot opportunities.
Pins
Pindowns have been a staple for the Warriors once Kerr took over, with them usually happening at random and often for their lethal shooters that open up shooting chances and slips to the rim.
Zooms
2-Man game or “Zooms” are what the Warriors have sprinkled in and mixed up more often for specific players to attack off of.
Head Tap (ATO)
Warriors use head tap when they added Kevin Durant for multiple options, similar to Motion Weak. Starting off with a thru cut from the point guard he cuts into the lane to the opposite block as the ball gets reversed.
Then the player low - now Wiggins - sets a cross screen to look for a post up.
Another option is to have the player use the screen in the middle of the floor to cut to the top of the key and look for a shot.
This ends up in the initial player who set the cross-screen, sprint into a ghost screen.
Weak Ballscreen (ATO)
The Warriors run the same play the Heat do out of Motion Weak, where the cross screen acts as the initial screen to setup a bad defensive coverage for an empty side ballscreen.
21 Dribble (ATO)
A set for Klay Thompson primarily, the Warriors fake 21/Pistol action and dribble at the player on the wing who cuts backdoor.
This is all decoy action to push the ball to the opposite side and the player who cut backdoor comes off a pindown.
Thumb Out (ATO)
The Warriors’ favorite After Time Out play looks just like a basic ballscreen, but they are really setting up second-side action for Steph & Draymond (typically). As Curry comes off the initial ballscreen he quickly throws it to the other slot to Draymond/Looney. Steph/Poole then chases and looks for a quick handoff back from Draymond/Looney.
Draymond of course uses his IQ to read this and fake the handoff for an easy drive.
If you liked this breakdown feel free to share it & if you have any other scenarios, plays, or thoughts on any future breakdowns let me know in the comments below!
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Note: if you are reading this in the e-mail-only form some of the gifs and videos do not always show up correctly.
Outwork Yesterday.
Coach Pyper
Can you do another breakdown of the Warriors' defensive coverages for this season?