NBA’s best offense has a catchy beat
“I got rhythm. ... Who could ask for anything more?”
— Lyrics by Ira Gershwin
NEW ORLEANS — What better city to bring your rhythm to? And during Jazz Week, yet.
We’ll see how it unfolds for the Warriors in Games 3 and 4 of this first- round playoff series against the Pelicans, but so far, the rhythm thing has worked out well.
There will be no complex breakdown here of
the Warriors’ turbo offense, because it would bore you, and because it would confuse me. But of all the things that are different about this season’s team, the offense is the most dramatic.
The Warriors outscored everybody in the league. Period.
After Wednesday’s practice, I asked assistant coach and offense guru Alvin Gentry to give me the lowdown. Head coach Steve Kerr stole Gentry from the Clippers, who led the league in scoring last season. As did the Suns when Gentry was head coach in Phoenix.
Gentry is one of those lucky guys. Just about every team he hooks up with leads the league in offense.
Kerr says he built the current Warriors on the foundation poured by previous head coach Mark Jackson, and there is truth to that. But not so much with the offense, which Kerr and Gentry tore down and rebuilt, like teenagers dropping a huge new engine into the family sedan and taking it to the streets.
One key to the offense, Gentry said, is to coach the players, then let ’ em rip. Many coaches like to run the game from the bench like an orchestra conductor, calling almost every play. Kerr gives direction during timeouts, but, Gentry said, “We don’t want to be a team that stands up and goes ‘ One- down,’ ‘ Threeout,’ ‘ Four- side.’ We want to be able to have a flow in our offense. We want to play with rhythm, we feel like allowing the guys to do what they do best puts us in more of a rhythm than it would be ( with) us trying to call every play.
“That’s where Steve is really good; he allows guys to do what they do best. He doesn’t put ’ em in a box. We give ’ em freedom to play the way they think they can have the most success. You have to give guys freedom, but understand that there may be growing pains. In order to get to where we need to get to, we have to allow those guys to have some freedom to play.”
Kerr and Gentry didn’t invent their offense from scratch. They stole like bandits from the many great coaches they each worked under and studied, including Gregg Popovich and Phil Jackson. Mike D’Antoni was an influence. Gentry said he learned a ton coaching under Doug Collins, and assisting Larry Brown at Kansas and with the Spurs.
Kerr and Gentry boiled it all down to one play. Gentry swears the Warriors have a playbook, but really, it’s one basic play with approximately infinite options.
“It may look like eight plays,” Gentry said, “but it’s really one play. You’re reading defenses, you’re reading options, you’re taking what the defense allows you to do.
“I think it’s very simple. The thing we’ve tried to do is not lock guys into, ‘ On four- down, you gotta be standing right here and you gotta cut right here.’ We’ve tried to create a system where you have enough freedom where we become a tough team to scout.”
Kerr’s grand offensive scheme has two pillars: Pace ( fast) and ball movement ( constant), with the element of spacing, which facilitates the ball movement.
One more thing: The offense has to be run hard. Speed of movement. New Orleans head coach Monty Williams said recently, “The Warriors run their sets at full speed, and that makes ’ em hard to defend.”
Kerr’s and Gentry’s goal was to be top three in the league in scoring and assists. Mission partly accomplished.
It’s probably not a coincidence that Stephen Curry and Klay Thompson are having the best offensive seasons of their lives, and that Andrew Bogut is thriving, and that the Warriors are the running, passing scourge of basketball.
One important part of the deal for Kerr and Gentry was that the offense had to be a growing organism. Many elements that were installed in training camp have long since been discarded and many tweaks have been added. The adjustments are ongoing, and augmented with input from the players.
“I think we’ve come miles,” Gentry said, “and to be honest with you, I think we’ve really just scratched the surface. Not to look ahead, but I think next year in training camp, the things we had to spend a lot of time with last camp will already be in, and I think we can go to more advanced things.”
For now, the basics will have to suffice. What’s important is they got rhythm.