How Steve Kerr's Offense Made the Splash Brothers Completely Unguardable

The fluorescent green lights for Golden State Warriors sharpshooters Stephen Curry and Klay Thompson haven't so much as flickered under first-year head coach Steve Kerr.

The Splash Brothers have as much freedom to create as ever. But Kerr, along with the help of his high-powered coaching staff, has devised an offensive system that supports and strengthens Golden State's gifted guards.

It starts with ball movement. Everything about Kerr's Warriors starts with ball movement. In the span of one season, Golden State has jumped from 30th in passes per game (245.8) to 14th (313.1), via SportVU player tracking data.

Passing is the most critical component of the Warriors' offensive success. Short on established superstars outside of Curry, their whole has always been greater than the sum of its parts. What Kerr and Co. have done this season is ensure that all of those individual pieces have the opportunity to contribute.

"If you start moving the ball, you start getting some cheap baskets, everyone kind of gets involved, everyone is feeling good," Andrew Bogut told Tim Kawakami of the San Jose Mercury News. "And then our offense ends up scoring 130 points, you know?"

Obviously, Bogut is exaggerating. Slightly.

The Warriors don't rip off 130 points a night, though, they have topped 110 seven times in their first 18 games. That's just one of the numerous elite-level accomplishments this offense has enjoyed. 

Category	Statistic	NBA Rank
Points Per Game	106.8	Third
Field-Goal Percentage	48.4	First
Three-Point Percentage	38.3	First
Assists Per Game	26.0	First
Assist Percentage	64.6	Third
Fast-Break Points	18.9	First
Pace	100.48	First
Offensive Rating	107.1	Fifth

Kerr has looked to utilize every weapon in his arsenal.

He puts his players in positions where they are most comfortable: Bogut at the elbow, Shaun Livingston on the low block, Harrison Barnes flashing to the basket, Marreese Speights near the top of the key. Guys that are capable and comfortable initiating the offense, a list that includes Curry, Thompson, Andre Iguodala and Draymond Green, are allowed and encouraged to do so.

More often than not, this offense has run quickly, productively and efficiently.

"Kerr...is emphasizing a motion offense where the isolation play that was so prevalent in the past regime is discouraged and cutters who follow Bogut's high-post lead are having their way with opposing defenses. Running is highly recommended, too," wrote USA Today's Sam Amick.

Everyone plays a part, which might sound as if it lessens the individual impact of the league's best backcourt.

But having the extra help—plus an offensive system that accentuates their strengths—has both Curry and Thompson on track for career years. (Not to mention the Warriors hold a league-best 16-2 record and ride a franchise-record-tying, wildly entertaining 11-game winning streak.)

Thompson entered this season with the most room to grow and the heaviest burden on his shoulders. After all, he was the one who played arguably the biggest part in keeping the Warriors out of the Kevin Love sweepstakes. The four-year, $70 million contract Thompson signed at the start of the season only pushed him further under the microscope.

Under former coach Mark Jackson, Thompson made his living on the offensive end as a shooting specialist. Over 62 percent of his field-goal attempts the past two seasons came at least 16 feet away from the basket. He did a solid job of converting those looks (.444/.417/.795 slash in 2013-14), provided someone else could create them. More than 62 percent of his two-point shots and 94 percent of his threes came off assists last season.

With the slim margin for error as a long-range gunner and the inability to manufacture quality opportunities for himself, his stat sheets were uncomfortably volatile. He went for 25-plus points 18 different times but failed to reach 13 points in 12 separate games.

Kerr has given Thompson the opportunity to do more, and the former one-trick pony has started laying down cards no one knew he had in his hand, as Bleacher Report's Adam Fromal observed:

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Kerr has unleashed two previously hidden facets of Thompson's game: creating off the dribble and facilitating for his teammates. In the past, Thompson's been limited to catch-and-shoot situations, but it's now apparent that was more due to the limitations of Jackson's offense rather than the lack of applicable skills in the shooting guard's arsenal.

"

Thompson's stat sheet highlights the way he has expanded his game and taken control of his production.

More than 45 percent of his shots inside the arc, and even 14 percent of those outside it, have been unassisted. He has never generated a higher percentage of his offense inside 10 feet of the rim (32.4 percent of his field-goal attempts), nor made more frequent trips to the foul line (4.4 free-throw attempts per 36 minutes).

Both his usage (26.7) and assist (16.7) percentages are at an all-time high, yet his turnover percentage (10.5) is the second-lowest of his career. Even his three-point shooting is better than ever. His 46.3 perimeter percentage trumps his previous best, as do his 3.2 makes per 36 minutes.

"We talked to him a little bit in training camp about trying to get to the line more, about being a little greedier for great shots rather than settling for tough shots, and for the most part he’s been good," Kerr said, per Tim Bontemps of the New York Post.

The strides Thompson has made under Kerr's watch have been jarring. Somehow, so too are the steps Curry has taken, despite the fact he was already an All-Star and the sixth-placed finisher in the MVP voting last season.

Following a 24-point, 8.5-assist campaign, Curry clearly did not need an overhaul. He needed a few minor tweaks, as he was occasionally too loose with the basketball and not effective enough around the rim. But he also needed a system that catered to creativity, as too much structure would have threatened the very things that made him great.

"Curry is fun personified on the court. Nobody plays like he does. Nobody ever has, really," wrote ESPN.com's Ethan Sherwood Strauss. "He shoots with incredible accuracy, with uncommon speed, off the dribble, out to 30 feet. By that calculus, there are 1,500 square feet where Curry must be guarded up close, without lapse."

Curry keeps constant pressure on a defense. He can and will pull the trigger at any time.

He is tied for the second-most points off pull-up shots per game at 8.8, via SportVU player tracking data. He is a 45.3 percent shooter from the field on such shots and a 44.3 percent marksman on pull-up triples.

His 64.0 true shooting percentage is tied for the second-highest among all players with a usage percentage of 25-plus (minimum 20 minutes per game). Even historically great shooters marvel at Curry's accuracy:

What Kerr has done with this offense is limit some of the demands on Curry. The Warriors aren't looking for their prolific point guard to create magic on his own. They are running him around screens (both on and off the ball) to free him up for cleaner looks beyond the arc and more shots underneath the basket.

Curry has nearly eliminated long twos from his arsenal. Less than 23 percent of his two-point field goals have come within 10 feet of the rim out to the three-point line. Prior to this season, that percentage had never been lower than 32.2.

With so much movement of players and the ball, Curry has found enough room to cause havoc in the paint. He's on pace to post career marks in shooting within three feet (74.5 percent) and from three to 10 feet (50.0), and his 5.0 free-throw attempts per 36 minutes would also be a personal best.

He has also started to slice into his still-too-high 15.0 turnover percentage, a process he has credited to Kerr simplifying the offense, per Kawakami:

"

I think he had a great plan of running a lot of different sets and we were trying to install all of them at the same time.

When you have that many ideas in your head, it’s hard to kind of focus in on what options you’re looking for and kind of let the game slow down. So we’ve simplified a lot to pick-and-rolls and certain sets we’re comfortable with and he’ll throw in a lot of ATOs [after-timeout plays] and things we can execute.

"

The Warriors certainly look comfortable. They have erupted for 100-plus points in 10 of their last 12 games, including the 112 they put up Thursday night while committing a season-low nine giveaways.

Golden State, which was already an elite defensive team last season, is quickly becoming a two-way force. And that dominance reaches absurd levels when Thompson and Curry step inside the lines, as data from NBAWowy.com shows below.

Situation	Off Rtg	Def Rtg	Net Rtg
Thompson On	115.6	91.4	24.2
Thompson Off	96.6	109.7	-13.1
Curry On	114.8	94.7	20.1
Curry Off	96.0	104.5	-8.5
Thompson and Curry On	118.3	90.6	27.7
Thompson and Curry Off	91.5	110.2	-19.2

Kerr didn't make the Splash Brothers good. They've been drowning defenders in a pool of perimeter bombs for a few years now.

But Kerr, with a big assist from associate head coach and offensive guru Alvin Gentry, has helped move this backcourt combo along from good to great. As a result, the entire franchise has made the same transition as the guards.

The Warriors still have plenty of work to do, but it's hard to imagine a better start than the one they have enjoyed.

"It's early, but it feels great," Thompson said, per Bay Area News Group's Diamond Leung. "I won't sell it short. ... We're on top right now, and that's our plan to stay there."

With these guards and this coach, Golden State's spot at the top feels as secure as it can in early December.

Unless otherwise noted, statistics used courtesy of Basketball-Reference.com and NBA.com.

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