Should the Warriors shoot 69 threes every game?
Rejoice. Warriors basketball is finally back.
In true Warriors fashion, the team in their return to the court shot 69 three-pointers. Good for the second most attempted in NBA history.
The Warriors looked to be in midseason form as they traveled to Portland Monday night for their first preseason matchup. It's no secret the Warriors are a team that loves to shoot the three-ball. How could you not? With two of the most prolific three-point shooters in the history of the League, their ability to shoot the ball at a high clip is what separates them from the competition.
What's even crazier about this stat, Klay Thompson wasn’t even on the floor for Golden State. Let that sink in. The Warriors shot 69 three-pointers without one of the NBA’s most dynamic shooters to ever grace the court.
Throughout the game, it became apparent that through solid ball movement the Warriors were getting lots of wide-open looks from three. Wide-open looks at the bucket, of course, are always a good thing and this furthers the notion that this team may have an offensively focused roster. The adage “Defensive wins championships” is no longer as prevalent in today's NBA. Teams that can score at a high clip efficiently are now more dangerous than ever, albeit, a top defense ranked defense doesn’t hurt.
In the last decade alone, we have seen the average points per game go from 97 ppg to roughly 112 ppg. This trend indicates that not only are teams scoring more points per game but also teams are having to score more to win games. Enter the Golden State Warriors, who shot 69 threes last night and made 24 which gives them roughly a 34% shooting average from three. While this statistic would have them in the bottom tier of teams solely based on percentage, I don’t think that it is as bad as it may seem.
With last night's game being just the first contest of the preseason there is plenty of room for the team to grow in terms of shooting percentage. But, the idea that guys like Jordan Poole, Mychal Mulder, and Otto Porter Jr. were willing to shoot 26 three-pointers combined is a good sign for Golden State. It shows that these guys aren’t afraid to shoot and what better time to get your shots up than in a pre-season game where the result of the contest has no ramifications on the actual season. We’ll look at it as a good trial run, for now.
If the Warriors want to be successful this season their going to need to make the wide-open threes. It’s not that we need Stephen Curry, Andrew Wiggins, or Thompson to make them. We need the role players to be ready to shoot at all times. We’ve seen how teams are willing to throw aggressive half-court traps at Steph and presumably Klay upon his return. When this happens, there is almost always going to be someone wide open on the perimeter. If guys like Poole and OPJ can fill the role of a consistent knockdown spot-up shooter it can take this team go from good to great.
Additionally, Juan Toscano-Anderson, Jonathan Kuminga, and Andre Iguodala all struggled from beyond the arc last night. Combining for a whopping 0/11 from three-point land. I think that while they struggled last night, all these guys will begin to settle in once their roles on the team begin to become more definitive.
Last night was just an opportunity for coach Kerr and staff to see what they had. Everyone on the active roster played and there was little to no focus on nailing down a specific rotation of players. Look for all these guys to become much more effective when they start the regular season and grow into their minutes with the team.
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