Why Team USA's play could spell problems for the Warriors
There are three members of the Golden State Warriors on the U.S. men’s basketball team, representing a quarter of the squad.
One of those players — Kevin Durant — had not played with his new Golden State teammates and fellow Olympians, Draymond Green and Klay Thompson, before Rio 2016.
Having three of the four best players on the U.S. team working together in a competitive tournament before the regular season starts was a coup for the Warriors — the theory was that the three would develop some on-court chemistry ahead of NBA training camp in the fall. Integrating an offensive player of Durant’s caliber into a historically great offense is a tough task, but the Warriors were going to get a bit of a head start.
But so far in the tournament, there’s been no overt sign that the three Warriors are developing any rapport on the court. The Olympics might, in fact, be harmful to the Warriors’ goal to mesh Durant into the team.
The first problem is that the three Warriors haven’t played much together in Rio. In part but not entirely because of the tight officiating in these Olympics, Green has been ostracized by coach Mike Krzyzewski and isn’t getting much playing time, particularly in what should be his best role in these Olympics — smallball center. It’s hard to develop chemistry between three players when only two are on the court.
Durant and Thompson have played together frequently in the tournament, but without Green, any chemistry the two might develop on the court seems wasted. That said, that chemistry is yet to be seen and you can’t divide by zero.
With the Warriors, Durant and Thompson will be catch-and-shoot guys who will get some clear-out isolation looks throughout the game, but Golden State’s offense goes through Stephen Curry and Green, and Team USA isn’t doing much to replicate that dynamic.
Instead, Coach K has the team playing in a basic dribble-drive offense — one that shares few similarities to the Warriors’ kinetic motion look.
Far too many Team USA possessions are rooted in isolation – how many times have we seen the Americans' offense start and stop with giving the ball to Durant or another shooter on the wing as the rest of the team stands and watches?
Those are the kind of looks the Warriors are trying to avoid.
And while the Warriors do use isolation more than you’d think, those looks are part of the offense, not the offense itself. Typically, Golden State’s offense aims to run action for the first 15 to 17 seconds of the shot clock and then, if nothing has developed, allow Thompson to take on his defender one-on-one.
When Thompson is hot, the Warriors run those clear-out sets for him — but those looks are earned.
With Durant, Golden State now has two players who thrive in isolation, and that is no doubt going to make the Golden State offense look different in 2016-17. Will Curry be more of a facilitator this season? Will Green put up more than five shots a game? These are good problems to have, but they’re still concerns.
And the concern about how Thompson — who has said that he isn't going to sacrifice a thing next season — and Durant will coexist in the Warriors offense persists despite them having played 10 games together this summer.
Both Durant and Thompson are going to want those end-of-clock looks, and so far in their time playing together neither player has shown much of an inclination pass up his own shot, regardless of how many defenders are on him.
So instead of going into the season with some baseline understanding between the three Olympians, the Warriors will instead enter training camp with Green’s confidence low and Durant and Thompson drunk on isolation.
It’s not Krzyzewski’s job to care about the Warriors’ assimilation process, just as he holds no obligation to help Harrison Barnes better fit in with his new team, the Mavericks, or give the Bulls a reason to move Jimmy Butler — but the lack of developed chemistry has to be disappointing for the Golden State coaching staff.
And who knows — maybe some chemistry would help Team USA.
