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Golden State Of Mind

Synergy Recap: Warriors vs. Bulls

Warning: This post contains advanced stats. Proceed with caution.

Warning: This post contains advanced stats. Proceed with caution.

Just renewed my Synergy subscription so I'll be able to provide "real-time" game recaps this season for you guys. The idea is that we'll be able to see patterns emerging over the course of the season. Has our post offense improved? Are we still one of the best spot-up teams? Those are the some of the "advanced" questions that Synergy can be used to answer.

Star-divide

If you haven't already, make sure to read my Advanced Stats Primer to get up to speed on PPP, Synergy, and other terminology you may not be familiar with.

Offense

Our offensive efficiency was good overall at 0.98 PPP. The PNR play was almost equally effective whether the ball handler or big took the shot. As usual, the team excelled in transition. Spot-up shooting was a weak spot, though.

PLAY

%TIME

#

PPP

Overall

100.0%

101

0.98

Isolation

12.9%

13

0.77

P&R Ball Handler

7.9%

8

1.38

Post-Up

10.9%

11

0.82

P&R Roll Man

5.0%

5

1.40

Spot-Up

15.8%

16

0.88

Off Screen

5.0%

5

1.20

Cut

14.9%

15

0.93

Offensive Rebound

3.0%

3

0.00

Transition

15.8%

16

1.38

All Other Plays

8.9%

9

0.67

Defense

We held Chicago to 0.81 PPP overall, which is very good. We effectively stopped them on almost every play type, save for POST plays (no surprise there, really).

Overall

100.0%

110

0.81

Isolation

7.3%

8

0.50

P&R Ball Handler

9.1%

10

0.40

Post-Up

9.1%

10

1.20

P&R Roll Man

3.6%

4

1.50

Spot-Up

23.6%

26

0.92

Off Screen

5.5%

6

0.50

Cut

10.0%

11

0.73

Offensive Rebound

10.0%

11

0.82

Transition

14.5%

16

0.94

All Other Plays

7.3%

8

0.50

Reference

Here are the league average efficiencies from last season. You can use these to compare the values in the tables above. Blue line represents GSW's average.

Off_ppp_play_type_bw_medium

Def_ppp_play_type_bw_medium

Here are the league average rates (% of time each play was run) from last season. GSW is in blue.

Off_play_type_bw_medium

Def_play_type_bw_medium

1 recs  |  18 comments

Comments

Really looking forward to seeing how this year’s defense shapes up to be any different or more effective than past years. My eye told me last night’s defense looked a lot like Don Nelson’s defense (creating possessions through turnovers) when it worked.

I agree. We did add more defensive personnel, though, so we should be better defensively this season no matter what. Remains to be seen how much coaching makes a difference. Some promising signs, though – it seemed to me we created the TO’s last night without gambling too much/giving up position. In game 1, I really liked our defensive rebounding. We looked to be more physical down low and did better at keeping the other team from getting easy rebounding position. Last night we regressed in that area, though.

This is what I was thinking too, that they’re playing a disciplined version of Don Nelson’s defense. However, it remains to be seen if “discipline,” “Don Nelson,” and “defense” can all be used in the same sentence going forward.

I do like Kwame Brown’s grown man rebounding though.

"...they’re playing a disciplined version of Don Nelson’s defense."

That sounds like a better way of putting it ;)

But I don’t recall the team trapping as often/aggressively under Nellie… or bigs having so much responsibility to rotate… but maybe I just have a really hazy memory of defense being played under Nellie…

Maybe not in recent years,

but that swarming defense that we had during our playoffs run was pretty aggressive and vicious. One guy would tie you up while another guy would come over and intercept your pass or just reach in and yank it from you. The defense we saw last night was pretty similar, though last night’s defense wasn’t quite as “swarming”.

My eye told me last night’s defense looked a lot like Don Nelson’s defense (creating possessions through turnovers) when it worked.

I kinda got the same feeling. Couple that with the Bulls not taking us seriously until it was too late for them to re-group. They obviously had not scouted us much as they played right into our strengths and avoided our weaknesses.

Like I mentioned in the recap...

That ‘07-’08 team was 2nd in steals and 1st in opponents turnovers. I’m not sure if there will always be as much of an emphasis on creating turnovers as there was last night, but it seems like a good fit for the personnel we have right now. It would do wonders for the offense too, because Monta is most effective on the break, and I can’t get enough of Steph tossing lobs from half court. :)

weren't they also like top 3 in blocks that year?
I think a little moderation is justified in all the enthusiasm for the new defense.

The Bulls are not a particularly good offensive team. They’re a great defensive team. They ORTG was only 11th in the league last year despite a defense that caused a lot of misses and turnovers (eg: easy points on the other end off breaks).

I mean, yeah, it’s great to see good post defense. But it’s just one game.

Rec'd

Thanks for sharing Evanz, and giving us your analysis on the data/graphs as well.

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