During the second episode of the Mind the Game podcast with JJ Redick, LeBron James broke down what made the post-2016 Golden State Warriors’ post split plays impossible to guard with Kevin Durant in the fray. While breaking down the actions, LeBron pointed out that the “two most important players” during the play were usually the ones on the “weak side”. Considering the Warriors’ ceaseless ball movement and the presence of elite shooters, the weak side players often ended up with open looks.
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With two elite shooters like Stephen Curry and Klay Thomspon and a terrific passer like Draymond Green on the floor, these actions have paid immense dividends for the Dubs. The Warriors always had high-IQ big men like David Lee and Andrew Bogut, who could make the sets work. For James, adding someone like KD in such a system made the apparatus “unguardable”. They could always throw it to Durant standing in the fringes, who is also an elite shooter and can beat defenders off the dribble.
“Nine times out of ten when we were playing them in the Finals, it was JaVale McGee, Iguodala, it was Andre Bogut, Shaun Livingston, Harrison Barnes…When everything went haywire, when it was fu**ing Kevin Durant over there, and another shooter. It was like impossible to guard,” LBJ reflected to Redick
What made the play even trickier to guard was Draymond Green’s presence, who could always make the right pass cross court. If one Cavaliers player decided to help from the weak side, Green was aware enough to throw it to the open shooter standing on the other side of the court.
James cited a play from the NBA Finals’ Game 1 to bring his point home. During a sideline out-of-bounds situation, Stephen Curry made a pass all the way to the corner on the weak side. It meant that the ball traveled from one sideline corner to the other sideline corner in a jiffy. LBJ did catch up to KD. However, the elite sniper faked a triple to leave James in the dust, which left the lane wide open for a jam. With Durant, an already efficient play just became even more deadly.
The Golden State Warriors are the Champions of post split
The Warriors have been running post splits even before Steve Kerr took the reins. Under coach Mark Jackson, the post split plays were also the staple of the Warriors offense. In 2013, Bleacher Report’s Dylan Murphy rolled out an article discussing this unstoppable action. Murphy highlighted how the play was “moot” without a terrific passing big man like Andrew Bogut.
The author also pointed out how during the splits, Point Guard Stephen Curry set the screens while Center Bogut could be the designated passer from the top of the key. This unique quality of play coupled with high-IQ players like Andre Iguodala, David Lee, and Harrison Barnes, made it one of the most efficient plays in basketball, similar in effectiveness to the 90s’ Bulls’ triangle offense. When Kevin Durant joined the picture in 2016, opposing teams just had no answer.
Durant could act as the post-up player and act as a hockey assists maker, while at the same time posing a perpetual shooting threat. Thus, the Warriors with KD epitomized the ascension of the Warriors’ post split action.
