Most of the Warrior’ players are great defenders. Draymond, GPIII, Chris Paul and Kuminga are elite. Klay has played himself back to the great defender he once was. Wiggins is a great defender. Stef has not shaken the ‘below average’ defender label, but for years his defense has been well above average. Looney is also very good when he doesn’t give his opponent space. Garuba, a two way player, is an under appreciated player as his defense is way above average.
With all of these great defenders, why are the Dubs such a bad defensive team? Talent is not the issue. Nor does blame fall on the rookies. TJD is still ‘getting schooled’ by better NBA players, but if there is a player who can play Jokic one-on-one, none come to mind. Except for those occasions, TJD has been pretty solid as a rookie.
Poz has been a surprise on defense. In summer league games, he stood out in two ways. Offensively, despite a cold shooting streak, he was one of the best players on the floor for either team. This guy just knows how to play. But he also stood out defensively as being unable to keep anyone in front of him. But he learned fast, and with a zone defense helping mask that deficiency, he, too, has been far more solid defensively than expected.
So what gives? Why are the Dubs giving up the points at a high shooting percentage? Two things: bad team defense and bad transition defense. Both are caused by overconfidence.
Team defense is predicated on each player looking out for each other. When TJD was guarding Jokic, for example, TJD needed help. But when help came, the person helping needed help on his assignment. Rotation needs implementation before the ball starts hopping around, and the Dubs, as a team, were and are too slow to help the helper. Without timely help, a player’s defensive aggressiveness can be exploited.
Transition defense is simple in concept: Get back. Run. All the time. From 2014-2020, one could count on one hand the times in a season that the Dubs were beaten down the court. It just didn’t happen. This season, it happens in every game.
Both of these flaws are caused by overconfidence. On offense, players need confidence. When a player believes the opponent can’t defend him, belief becomes reality. On offense, the Dubs have that confidence, and they should.
They have that confidence on defense, too. But on defense, confidence leads to complacency. To successfully defend, as a team, each defender needs to believe they will get their butts kicked unless they expend maximum effort with focused aggression to attack offenses when on ball, and maximum effort to help their teammates when focused aggression results in defenders being out of position, as in the case of double or triple teaming, or when one’s teammate is beaten off the dribble because of overly aggressive defensive play. Poz plays that way because he knows he has to.
The rest of the Warriors have great confidence in their defense. As their record shows, they shouldn’t.
