Sports: Steve Kerr wants the Dubs to become even better passers.
Room for improvement: Coach Kerr says Golden State can get even better in the passing game, and his championship team agrees
Without much doubt, the Warriors are the NBA’s best and most sophisticated passing team. So why would they be taking so much extra time during their one precious week of training camp to dwell on it, throwing simple two-handed chest passes and such?
Simple. Coach Steve Kerr, drawing from the pages of his Tex Winter handbook, believes the Warriors can be so much better at it, particularly in terms of accuracy on passes to the plethora of open shooters they are bound to free up in this season.
The Warriors arguably have more standout longrange shooters heading into the 2017-18 campaign than they’ve had during their majestic, historic, three-year run of success. To be sure, with the addition of longdistance rhythm gunners Nick Young and Omri Casspi, Golden State’s spot-shooting capability could become utterly ridiculous.
But players such as Young and Casspi — much like Klay Thompson — are most effective and unstoppable when they can receive an accurate pass “in the pocket” — the tighter area of their catch-and-release zone — once they get open. And passing proficient as they may be, the Warriors don’t always throw strikes.
“It’s a big thing for us this year,” Kerr said in his most
The new focus on passing will benefit Klay Thompson, center, who has seen his 3-point percentage drop over the last two years, and veteran distance shooters Nick Young, left, and Omri Casspi, right.
serious coaching voice. This accu-pass emphasis isn’t just passing fancy for the league champions. It may be the most dominant theme of camp.
The Warriors are watching film, looking at some bad passes that resulted in missed shots but also good ones that helped a shooter complete his mission. They’re doing drills, right down to some of the most basic basketball fundamentals beginners are taught at an early age. They’re listening to Kerr preach the gospel of his old-school taskmaster and No. 1 coaching mentor, Winter, Phil Jackson’s Hall of Fame righthand man on the bench in both Chicago and Los Angeles for the 11 NBA titles to his credit.
Going old school
“I’m a Tex Winter disciple, and in Chicago, I’ll never forget one of my first practices with Michael (Jordan) and Scottie (Pippen),” Kerr said. “Tex had us line up at halfcourt throwing two-hand chest passes back and forth to each other, one-handed passes, left-handed bounce passes. You’re thinking, ‘What is this, third grade?’
“But there you’ve got the two best players on Earth throwing passes back and forth to each other. It’s a good reminder that fundamentals matter, no matter how old you are or how good you are.”
Even beyond the specific drills and film sessions the Warriors have introduced in camp, Kerr said coaches are “harping on the accuracy of passes as we go through practice. No matter what we’re doing, there’s passing involved, so we’re talking about that accuracy constantly.”
At least in some cases, the coaches are preaching to the choir. Draymond Green, for starters, thinks his passing could get a lot better in terms of accuracy despite being the second-best frontcourt assist man in the league (7.0 per game) behind LeBron James last season.
It’s definitely something I know I need to get better at … I don’t really need to see no tape,” Green said. “I think it’s very important. With the shooters we have, if you deliver the ball on time and on target, it keeps them in rhythm, as opposed to if you throw the ball and it hits somebody in the ankles. It may take them out of rhythm.”
Green laments many a time he’s thrown a pass to Thompson spotted up on the wing or in the corner that might not have been the sharpest.
“I’m like, ‘I’m the reason he missed that shot,’ ” he said.
Green added that it’s altogether different with Stephen Curry, that Curry can recover an off-target pass and still regain his balance with a dribble and shoot from anywhere.
“Not that Klay can’t shoot it from anywhere, but when Klay releases, everything is so compact,” he said. “If you throw the ball down and he has to go get it, it’s just affects the rhythm. With the shooters that we have, you don’t want to throw that off. That’s their weapon, so you do whatever you can to help that weapon be better.”
Target audience
For his part, Thompson welcomes the additional attention to detail. While his overall shooting percentage remains remarkably consistent at right around 47 percent, his 3-point shooting percentage has ebbed slightly in the past two seasons, from a career best of 43.9 in the 2014-15 title season to 42.5 percent in 201516 and 41.4 percent last year — the same percentage he shot as a rookie.
“It helps to get a pass in the pocket, but I never try to make excuses,” Thompson said. “If it hits me, it’s got to go in. That’s the way I look at it.” Then again …
“We move the ball so well, that if we pinpoint our passes better, I really believe our percentages as a team and as individuals will go up,” Thompson said. “The simplest things are probably the most important. People kind of forget that as they grow up playing basketball. They think because it’s the NBA, it’s complicated with all these schemes. But no, it’s just basic fundamentals.”
For Kerr, it’s simply taking better advantage of the Warriors’ built-in ability to move the ball as well as they do.
“I would say we’re the most unselfish team around, but we’re probably an average passing team as far as fundamentals,” he said. “Our guys see everything – they move, they pass, they cut, they are totally unselfish. But you can see on tape a lot a guy will catch the ball and it’s at his shoelaces instead of in his shooting pocket. There’s a dramatic difference in makes and misses when you make a bad pass or a good pass.”
Even though the Warriors led the league in scoring (115.9) and field goal percentage (49.5) last year and were third in 3-point percentage (38.3), Thompson has no problem whatsoever with looking at ways to improve.
“Some may say coach is nitpicking, but he expects perfection and we want to champions again,” he said. “You have to be near perfect to be champions. It’s a long, hard road.”