So what you're saying is the Warrior's ruined the game of basketball by utilizing a strategy that maximizes their points and minimizes their opponents? Interesting.
Now now... considering you can post you can also read. The love for the plodding ages is gushed here by a few posters here On the other part... how come they are also insanely good in the lane and score so much without FT? People act like Curry and Co can only chuck a three pointer... And then you look at the stat lines and realize that a lot of posters here are seriously delusional.
Maybe other teams should shoot more threes, then, if it's such a big edge? And it's not like that's the typical case, where the Warriors lose every statistical category except threes made. They usually win points in the paint, assists, field goal percentage, three point percentage (not just three pointers made), are usually competitive in rebounds, steals and blocks. People who don't watch or read about the game think the Warriors just shoot threes. People who pay attention know that the Warriors are one of the best driving teams, passing teams and defensive teams. Their ridiculous shooting just makes them (nearly) unbeatable on top of all their other strengths.
Interesting to note that the league wide O Rating has not gone up to a new high since teams have gone into 3 point bombing mode (almost 40% of field goals attempted are 3s). Also, the 3 point bombing has caused a significant decrease in offensive rebounding and free throw attempts. It would be interesting to see how much free throw attempts have dropped when you exclude the hack a player strategy which skews them higher. To me it seems the 3 point bombing strategy only works if you have 2 of the all time greatest shooters. There are downsides to it that people aren't noticing.
Actually, offensive rebounding has gone down because more and more teams prioritize transition defense over crashing the offensive boards. Greg Popovich was an early proponent of that.
This is not really about the Warriors. They're just the personification of the current rules. The main issue is that the current rules make 3pt shooting a mandatory skill. I cringe every time I see Kevin Love, Serge Ibaka, or Al Horford shoot a 3pointer. It's not because they aren't good at it. It's just that it just shows that their low post skills have become almost worthless. A well-balanced game is one in which multiple strategies are viable, with victory determined by the skill of the players. That's not the case with the current NBA. It may be true that GS has the most skilled players. But it is not true that multiple strategies are viable. Every team now plays a 3pt spread offense, almost always driven by a high PnR. We may eventually see some innovations that diversify the current styles. New strategies have continued to emerge in fixed rules games like chess over the centuries. But most likely we're still in the middle of the 3pt trend. 3pt attempts are still going up, and interior play likely has a lot more decline ahead of it.
The 94 and especially the 95 Rockets won a title largely because of their GOAT center and a plethora of 3 point shooters that gave said center the space to do his thing. Its pretty laughable that people on this site of all places are critical of a heavy 3pa strategy. Both of those Rockets teams were top 3 in percentage of shots from the 3 point line in the playoffs those years. The warriors just take it to another level. If teams employed a strategy to double Dream 100% of the time, those Rockets teams would've chucked even more than the current Dubs.
The Dubs go at it in a variety of ways though. They run multiple pindowns for Klay, run high screen rolls with Steph and Dray/Bogut as you said, post Livingston, run offense through Dray from the post with guard exchanges and backcuts, use Bogut as a passer from the high post, isos with Steph, and try to get buckets in transition as much as possible as well. Its not just high screen roll. Its what makes them so ridiculously tough to guard.
Shooting lots of threes didn't kill anything and aside from the ridiculous screens that get them opeN it's pretty fascinating to watch them go off. But I do think they are talented enough to play within the same rules everyone else has. Illegal screens and illegal D, aside from the ****show of draymond green....are what I would say ruin it. I think curry is crafty enough to get a shot without boguts bogus screens.
THe only reason OKC lost was because they went HERO ball too much late in games. The Warriors ruined basketball? At least they set a pick force a mismatch or set a screen before half these 3's.
It's just part of the trend where scoring are slowly shifted from post up to perimeter shooting. Warriors' success debunk the myth that jump shooting team can never win a championship. However, I do lament the fact that post games have slowly become a lost art and we can only resort to youtube to watch the likes of Hakeem, Duncan, Yao etc.
I don't see people lamenting the lost art of the running game in football. Let's face it. The running game will always be there. But it won't be the main weapon for pro football anymore. It's a passing game league. Same way. The post game will always be there. It probably won't be used a the main weapon. But it will be used to set up the perimeter game. And it will be used when there is a mismatch down low. Maybe, just maybe, 20 years from now, basketball fans watch the games in the 1980s and 1990s wonder why they were letting the big men try to score so much. Just like when now we watch the games in the 1960s and laugh at some of the things they did.
There will always be skilled post players. Karl Anthony-Towns and DeMarcus Cousins, for example, are very enjoyable to watch in the post. If Olajuwon came into the league today, he'd still be a super-duper star and people would still be in awe of his post ability. Jahlil Okafor was, for a long time, considered a serious contender for the #1 spot based almost purely on his post game, and he doesn't have a tenth the raw talent of an Olajuwon.
That might play some part but it certainly seems like there is some relationship between the increase of 3 point attempts and decline of offensive rebounding percentage over the past 5 years.
I have to disagree on this. KAT and Cousins can play in the post, but more and more they are being forced to become 3pt shooters. That brute Cousins took 210 3pters last year. Olajuwon would of course be a star today. But you can bet your ass he'd be shooting hundreds of 3pters a year too. Okafor is actually a sign of how bad things have got. He has a fantastic back-to-the-basket ability, but it's not an ability that anyone in the NBA knows how to win games with. Even the Clippers play better when their best post player (Griffin) is off the court.
Much like when the Chicago Bears ruined football by employing the T formation. Football could have been such a good sport.
Sure, Olajuwon's team would see if he could shoot threes and encourage him to develop a stroke, but there's no way in hell they wouldn't exploit his tremendous post ability. Neither KAT nor Cousins are Olajuwon's level as post players, but they get plenty of post opportunities. It's not that post play is discouraged or unwanted--it's that the game is all about versatility now. It's all about how much of the floor you can exploit--the paint is part of the floor too. DeAndre Jordan is a very valuable player in the league and he couldn't hit a three given twenty attempts in an empty gym. So it's not like it's "shoot threes or GTFO." It's, "the more of the floor you can score from, the more valuable you become."
Yeah, the shotgun formation is just a travesty. That Tom Landry guy ruined football by using it when only amateur flag football league people thought it was a good way of snapping the ball to the QB.
