Warriors Could Roll Out Ace 3-Level Scoring Lineup When Klay's Back
The ability that the Warriors have to develop young talent on their team is nearly unparalleled. From Steph Curry and Klay Thompson to Jordan Poole and even Andrew Wiggins, who the Dubs have brought out of his shell in his third season with the team, the team has been able to create opportunities for talented scorers to garner success.
When Klay Thompon returns at the end of the month, the Warriors can employ a super-spacing lineup that not only has two All-Defense calibre wings, a Defensive Player of the Year in the middle, and two guards who are improved, disruptive defenders in their own right. Not only are the a very solid defensive lineup, the Warriors can put four guys on the floor who can score from just about anywhere at the same time. Let’s go through each member of this 2-way, 3-level scoring lineup, and see what each player brings.
Draymond Green, as a playmaker and shot-caller on the floor, can engineer his passing talents and basketball IQ to get open looks for all four players. Usually playing the 5 in Golden State’s historic “death lineup”, there’s plenty of evidence and samples that Draymond would thrive on offense and could still lock down at the other end no matter who he’s guarding.
Stephen Curry is obviously the core of this lineup, as he is with most of the team’s play-style, and the attention he demands will open up the floor for everybody around him. It can be argued that all the other guys on this list can benefit and have benefitted greatly from Curry’s gravity. Not to mention, he’s a top-5 scorer of all time, and his scoring has been defense-warping for years now. This season, he’s shooting 61% from the restricted area, 50% from the midrange, and 41% from three.
Jordan Poole has made the jump as a scorer this season in an impressive way. As he’s garnered more minutes, his lightning-fast first step makes it hard for defender to keep up with him, and his east-west shift makes it harder for them to stay in front. His shot selection has matured drastically already, and he’s getting to his spots more efficiently now that it has. This season, Poole’s shooting 71% from the restricted area, 45% from the midrange, and 34% from three.
Andrew Wiggins has also matured as a shot-taker while providing some excellent defense on the other end. Wiggins has been less timid, attacking the basket more and settling for bad shots less. His percentage of assisted field goals attempted has jumped by a lot in his third year with the Dubs, and he’s showing signs of possibly making a jump even in a system where he isn’t a #1 option. This season, Wiggins is shooting 76% from the restricted area, 37% from the mid range, and 37% from three.
Klay Thompson does not get nearly enough credit as he should for his scoring. Because he plays off-ball a lot and doesn’t have the fanciest bag of dribble moves in the league, there’s little reason to recognize him as a complete scorer instead of just a shooter. While it’s true he operates mostly off-ball and off-catch instead of setting up combos, he’s still a 3-level scorer, and the eye test supports that if you don’t think the numbers are adequate. In 2018-2019, the last season he played, Klay shot 70% from the restricted area, 45% from the mid range, and 40% from three.
Using these stats, this lineup shoots (assuming Green takes zero shots, which is unlikely but still possible) 69% from the restricted area, 44% from the mid range, and 38% from the three. Those are some pretty damn good numbers, at about 50% field goal percentage. That’s not even counting free throws shot and made.
This new death lineup, as Andre Iguodala continues to age and has to play less minutes, has three very capable passers (Green, Curry, Poole), four very capable scorers (Curry, Poole, Wiggins, Thompson), and three All-Defensive or higher calibre defenders (Green, Wiggins, Thompson).
Working on the assumption that Klay Thompson is even a fragment of what he once was - and it looks like he’s plenty more than that - this lineup could be the league’s best combination of scoring and defense in a 5-man unit.
(Photo credit: Noah Graham / Getty Images)