Basketball twitter is a funny place. Everyone seems to know how to best coach the team, or it becomes an echo chamber for analysis (generally negative analysis, too) that doesn’t always warrant comment. But when you’re 3-6 in your last 9 games, it becomes a bit more of a valid talking point.

That’s where Steve Kerr and the Warriors are right now. A lot of the team’s key actions in the motion offense that once collapsed even the best defenses are now being picked up by opponents who are missing significant amounts of their starters. When a bench squad can ice their actions, something’s gotta give.

Most notable as of recent (and it was on full display tonight) was how the post-split that Kerr loves to run for Steph Curry got blown up a few times. For awhile, it seemed almost unguardable. Here’s how it works:

As you can see here, Looney gets the ball on the wing and throws it into Gary Payton II, who’s in the post. Looney then screens for Curry, who curls to the wing and receives the pass from GP2, getting him an open look. While the Warriors also love running Steph baseline into a pin-down screen to get open in the corner or for him to lift up to the wing, this is probably where the Dubs make most of their money on open shots.

What usually throws a wrinkle into it that keeps defenses guessing is off-ball movement on the other side, as well as the big man making the dive cut into the paint. Usually, the roll man is Draymond in this situation, but because it’s Kevon Looney who isn’t a super-credible roll threat to either pass or attack like Green is, it’s easier to blow up. This figures to be an action that would involve James Wiseman as well, but for now, the team is running it with personnel who it just doesn’t work as well for.

Problem is, there’s only so much you can develop out of it. It’s a good action, but it only works so often. And Kerr likes to use it a LOT. Plays like this and the corner pin-downs are two of Kerr’s favorites because they get Curry open for a catch-and-shoot three. When you have Draymond Green, this works, because Curry isn’t always the right read: It’s why his gravity is so effective, because the Dubs have a passer who can make those reads. This would actually be an interesting set to run for Klay Thompson, but

The Warriors are renowned for running Curry around a million screens. This becomes stagnant pretty quick, because let’s be honest, it’s a lot easier to deny Steph off-ball than it is to stay in front of him or play 3-on-4 when he passes out of a trap or double. Curry is a pretty damn good passer, contrary to what seems to be popular belief, and can make the reads with the ball in his hands.

This is the kind of stuff we should be talking about when we say Steph needs it in his hands more. He’s a capable point guard who can run the same actions that more ball-dominant stars run. Because he’s so good off-ball, Kerr’s pivoted to trying to weaponize that, but there is such thing as overuse of a good thing, and it’s very obvious that that’s starting to become the case.

There’s a lot of questions that should be asked about how Steve Kerr coached this game, but the most important is how can he make up for lacking creativity in stretches without Draymond? The answer is surprisingly simple: Actions that promote the same off-ball movement you’re looking for, but you let Steph lead the actions as the ball-handler. He is quite literally one of the best 1-on-1 scorers in the NBA, and the threat of that alone means it will open up opportunities left and right.

The Warriors play the second half of their back-to-back against the Houston Rockets tomorrow night. It would be a good game to experiment with some new stuff, especially in a time as tumultuous as this. Steve Kerr is far from on the hot seat, obviously, but some new looks wouldn’t just not hurt, they would probably help quite a bit. Now that Steph looks to be returning to normalcy, it seems that may be a nice solution until Draymond’s good to go.

(Photo credit: National Basketball Association)