At the beginning of the season the Warriors offense looked very sharp. There was a lot of good motion going and ball movement. After watching the Spurs game, it seemed as if that offense has disappeared. The spacing on the court was atrocious. There were frequently three players right next to each other, making it very easy for one person to guard two people, putting the offense in bad situations and leading to a lot of turnovers. I think the team made some adjustments against that, but overall the offense has lost the flare it had at the start of the season. I think last night there was a lack of off the ball movement and a lack of ball movement overall. Has anybody else noticed this too? Was the beginning just a fluke or what? Did the outburst of Ellis offensively at the start and Lee's injury completely change the whole team's mindset? The two things I see is the combination of a lack of ball movement and efficient off the ball movement. It was actually a big difference between Spurs offense and Warriors offense in San Antonio. Spurs have great spacing, where each movement by each player is purposeful and effective leading to passes to open players to lead toward easy scores. The Warriors on the other hand were playing like they just met that night before the game. It's kind of frustrating because you would hope that the team makes progress during the season, but it seems as if it is regressing some. What's the deal?
I also noticed the poor off-ball movement. The system is supposed to be a 1:4 high post set with a lot of cuts and screens, but the players just have been standing around mostly until they give it to Monta and he drives, or they take a poor jump shot. I have no clue why they're regressing, but it's definitely frustrating to watch them in half court as they make a few poor passes and jack up a bad shot for an entire quarter.
Yeah its mind boggling how they started so well but got worse over time. Before it was excusable that Smart didn't use the pick and roll but its hard to justify now with the offense in a funk. Lee hasn't gotten into a groove and its partly because he did most of his damage on the PnR in NY. We've got one of the best pick and roll bigs in the game and we're not using him to the best of his abilities. Curry has never looked in sync either though and Reggie has been spotty. Andris is lost on offense. Its just not clicking.