golden state warriors passing (Photo: Christian Petersen/Getty Images)
Are the Golden State Warriors the best passing team in the NBA?
Scott Ostler of the San Francisco Chronicle recently asked Mark Jackson, Andrew Bogut, Jermaine O’Neal, and Steve Blake that question, and they all had similar answers.
Coach Mark Jackson, past master of the assist, answered my true-false question with, “I would probably say, off the top of my head, true, because we have playmakers and good to very good to excellent passers.
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Bogut answered “true,” with a caveat: “I think we are (the best passing team), but our hindrance is turnovers. … The asterisk you would put next to that is we’ve got to limit our turnovers to be the best passing team in the league.”
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Steve Blake answered the T-F question, “Quite possibly. … That’s a big part of what we do. We’ve got certain guys we need to be aggressive at times and just go one-on-one. But at the right moments, guys are making really good passes.”
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So enjoy it while you’ve got it, Warriors fans, because as O’Neal said, “It’s rare in professional sports that you get a team that likes each other and is very unselfish. Basketball can really become a very individualized sport within a team system. You see that a lot on some teams, but for us it’s about making the extra play, making the extra pass.”
Ostler brings up an excellent point in the article that O’Neal touched upon also. The Warriors’ excellent passing could be partially attributed to their elite team chemistry.
They all want to win badly, and that brings them closer to together. That underdog mentality and that never-say-die attitude breeds excellent team chemistry, which can take a team far.
So what makes the Warriors such a good passing team?
First of all, all five of their starters are arguably elite passers, for their position.
Stephen Curry is a creative, crafty passer who can pass well with either hand, Klay Thompson is a great passer out of pick-and-rolls, Andre Iguodala is also a creative passer who creates plays and can drive-and-kick, David Lee has great anticipation of what his teammate is going to do and when and how he should pass the ball to them, and Bogut, for a center, also has great timing and anticipation as a passer.
Curry, statistically, is one of the best passers in the league in terms of assists per game, secondary assists per game, points created by assist per game.
As a team, the Warriors average 23.1 assists per game, which is currently tied for ninth in the NBA. They allow their opponents to average just 19.7 assists per game.
According to 82games.com:
- 59% of the Warriors’ made jump shots have been assisted,
- 57% of their made close-range shots have been assisted,
- 85% percent of their made dunks have been assisted, and
- 58% of their total made shots have been assisted.
As a comparison:
- 58% of their opponent’s made jump shots have been assisted,
- 46% of their opponent’s made close-range shots have been assisted,
- 74% of their opponent’s made dunks have been assisted, and
- 54% of their opponent’s total made shots have been assisted.
Bogut is right. The Warriors are certainly an excellent passing team in the NBA. When they’re sharing the ball and playing selflessly, the Warriors are hard to stop on offense.
However, their turnovers prevent them from being an even better passing team. Although 58 percent of their total made shots are assisted baskets, they turn the ball over 15.2 times per game, which is fourth most in the NBA.
“Our hindrance is our turnovers,” Bogut said last week after practice, “So I think we’re definitely one of the best passing teams, myself David Lee, Andre Iguodala, guys that are just very unselfish. The asterisk you’d probably put next to that would be we gotta limit our turnovers to be the best passing team.”
The Warriors’ ball movement can be beautiful at times, but they hurt themselves when they commit sloppy, careless turnovers that eliminate offensive possessions and slow the game down.
“It’s just trying to be too unselfish sometimes, maybe taking some risks every now and then,” Bogut explained, “You know, we make a lot of beautiful passes, but within that you’ve got to make some beautiful passes that don’t work out, that get deflections or turnovers. So if we limit turnovers, that will not only help out our offense, but really help out our defense because right now teams are getting some easy baskets from our turnovers with fast break layups.”
[NOTE: Poor Man’s Commish contributed to this report.]
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