Warriors Notebook: Why Steph Curry Could Be Better Than Ever with Kevin Durant

After the most scrutinized and pressure-packed season any NBA team has ever endured, there was a visceral sense at media day that something loomed large. 

It had been 100 days since the crushing blow of losing Game 7 of the 2016 Finals, but the Warriors are a much different team as constituted right now, to the relief of those who are still here to bear witness.

Head coach Steve Kerr has an immense task ahead. Not only did he lose five of his top 10 rotation players, but he has the not-all-that-unpleasant job of figuring out how to effectively shoehorn Kevin Durant (a four-time scoring champ) into a lineup that already includes Draymond Green (a nightly triple-double threat), Klay Thompson (who once scored 37 points in a quarter) and Stephen Curry, who is coming off his first scoring title and two straight Most Valuable Player awards.

First-world problems and all that, but it’s still true that there’s only one ball.

The trick will be defining the calculus wherein everyone feels they’re getting their touches and playing up to their fullest potential. The more the Warriors win, the less of an issue this ultimately will be. But Kerr has, from the get-go, been using variants on the word “experiment.”

For now, anything and everything is on the table.

Conventional wisdom says Thompson is going get his touches regardless, Green will continue filling his row on the stat sheet from one end to the other and Durant is a gravitational force too great to be denied. So, Curry might suffer the greatest regression in his stats.

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More than just coming off one of the top five offensive seasons in NBA history, the belief is that his role as the point guard will become even more defined and unalterable. Maybe give up five points or so off the 30 per game he poured in last season, maybe his assists (which reached their lowest per-game average since his tumultuous 2011-12 season, shortened by both a lockout and numerous ankle injuries) will trend back up a tick or three.

“I try to really remind myself every day that for us to be as great as we want to be, every day you have to learn a little something,” Curry said after Tuesday’s practice. “You have to be 100 percent focused on the nuances of what’s going to make this year’s team different from last year’s team.”

Indeed, it’s possible that Curry’s numbers do take a step backward in the wake of Durant’s arrival, but it may not be the zero-sum game that many assume. Yes, Curry is due for some regression on last year’s feats, but there are ways Durant makes not only the Warriors but Curry better as well.

And if the Warriors win at anywhere near the same pace as last year’s 73-9 team while Curry’s overall stats and efficiency aren’t all that far off from where they were last season, then a third straight MVP may well be in the offing.

As the defending MVP, as the undisputed leader of this superteam, he has a head start out of the gate.

In real basketball terms, the Warriors have effectively just swapped Harrison Barnes, who started at small forward for most of the past four seasons, for Durant, who slides into the 3 behind power forward Draymond Green and new starting center Zaza Pachulia.

Durant will, of course, also take Barnes’ place in the vaunted “Death Lineup,” in which Green slides up to center and Andre Iguodala comes in as an elite roving defender.

Barnes, at his best, could score on the wing, knock down a three when needed and defend multiple positions. Durant does all those things, except better.

When looking at how Curry’s game was directly affected by Barnes, who was an integral cog in Kerr’s iso-allergic scheme that’s dependent on ball movement, we see Curry shot relatively poorly off passes from Barnes (just 44.9 percent from the floor). That’s the lowest percentage off passes from any regular teammate.

What’s worse is that Curry received more passes from only two other players, Green (41.6 percent) and center Andrew Bogut (16.7 percent). With Bogut shipped off to Dallas and Pachulia not quite as capable a passer, Durant figures to cut into not only Barnes’ allotment of passes but Bogut’s as well.

The Warriors would be well suited if he did.

Last season, Russell Westbrook shot 48.2 percent from the field off Durant passes, better than his mark off passes from any other regular teammate and nearly three percentage points better than his season average. Westbrook has never been known for his shooting efficiency, but he was never a better shooter than when receiving the ball from Durant, who uses his outside shot and elite perimeter passing to spread the floor like maybe no one else in the NBA can.

With Durant in tow, Curry should get better outside looks than he's ever seen. That also means less pressure to make things happen from nothing, which could translate to an appreciable decrease in turnovers.

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But using Durant to improve Curry’s game at the rim seems like an especially tantalizing proposition.

As lethal a spot-up shooter as Curry is, he’s at his most efficient, like most every NBA player, the closer he is to the rim. Less than 10 feet from the bucket, Curry shot 61.3 percent from the floor, but those accounted for less than 30 percent of his shots. Most of Curry’s shot attempts (43.7 percent) were pull-up jumpers, on which he shot 44.3 percent.

That’s pretty remarkable considering a great deal of those were three-pointers, but Kerr’s scheme relies heavily on screen-and-rolls, back cuts and designed plays that require timing and deft ball movement.

“We got so much movement, a lot of spacers and guys who can do multiple things out there on the court,” Durant said on Monday. “We just got basketball players here—positionless players.”

Durant is excellent when one-on-one or muscling through smaller players with his back to the rim, but if Kerr can use his skills to, say, catch Curry cutting under the basket for an easy lay-in, the combo could prove unstoppable. It would also help the Warriors become less dependent on the outside shot in crunch time, one of the reasons Warriors executive Jerry West (among others in the organization) pushed so hard to recruit Durant, as West told Tim Kawakami of the Mercury News on The TK Show podcast on September 16.

Curry has benefited from some great high screeners, from David Lee way back when to Green nowadays, but Durant’s skill set could open a world of possibilities—either for open threes or to drive a hollowed-out lane for an easy two.

Curry doesn’t think the Warriors will change their style that much from last season, and he sure doesn’t think that anyone has to sacrifice much of anything. He knows there will be a transition period, and the onus will be on him and the other team leaders to figure out the best way forward.

“It's just when it comes to the full picture of our team, you've got to take a minute to flow,” he said.

And that’s the goal in these early days: learning each other’s tendencies and building the kind of chemistry that only time can deliver. It was just the first day, but Curry, playing one-on-one as practice wound down, looked spry, rested and more relaxed than when we last saw him after the Finals, crumpled in front of his locker in debilitating defeat.

That night is a memory never forgotten but always fading, thanks in large part to the 6'9" behemoth shooting mid-range jumpers at the far end of the court Curry now occupies.

Durant’s arrival has changed the Warriors’ immediate fortunes in ways we can’t fully understand until they come to pass, but Golden State is undoubtedly a better team now than a year ago. And while the Dubs will remain the odds-on favorites to win the championship from now until spring blossoms bloom, it is Curry who may well end up the biggest beneficiary—even if that’s not the end goal.

“They're all smart players,” Kerr said a few days before training camp. “They know the ball is going to spread around a little bit. Everybody's numbers might not be where they were last year.

“Who cares? It's about winning.”

Loose Balls

Head Honchos

Owner Joe Lacob was on hand for the first day of training camp, sitting courtside with Kirk Lacob (his son/assistant general manager) and general manager Bob Myers. Jerry West was also present, holding court with various front office officials and chatting up different players as they shot around after two hours of practice. This will be his sixth season as an executive board member.

That Other New Starter

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The offseason signing of center Zaza Pachulia for $2.9 million was easily Kerr’s second-favorite offseason move, but maybe a closer second than you think.

“When we got KD, we knew that meant we were going to lose Festus [Ezeli] and Bogut. You have to have a good, solid center in this league. We didn't have one. We had some guys who could play that role," he said. "A consistent starting big man is tough to find. [Pachulia’s] been a pro in this league. He's been so consistent. He's a guy who knows how to play, fits our style well. I know he took a lot less money to come here, just as David West did. We were incredibly fortunate to get both those guys to fortify our roster.”

You Get a Raise, You Get a Raise, You Get a Raise

The Warriors announced a slew of promotions before training camp officially opened:

• Myers is now president of basketball operations (in addition to his general manager title).
• Travis Schlenk, the club’s most tenured executive in what will be his 13th season in Oakland, California, is vice president of basketball operations/assistant GM.
• Kirk Lacob was named vice president of GSW Sports Ventures/assistant GM.
• Nick U’Ren (who famously suggested subbing Iguodala for Bogut in the 2015 Finals) is now director of coaching operations/special assistant to the head coach.
• Stats guru Sammy Gelfand is now manager of basketball analytics.

The 2nd Act of JaVale McGee

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JaVale McGee, who was recruited to the Warriors by former Nuggets teammate Andre Iguodala, made a good first impression with his training camp debut, recording several blocks, including one that made some heads turn. “I think he's got a chance and we'll give him every opportunity to play,” Kerr said before camp opened.

With a dearth of reliable bigs, McGee would be an intriguing presence on a second-unit frontcourt with West.

Not in Kansas (or Wherever) Anymore

Durant is quickly getting acclimated to the Bay Area, starting to come around on all of the expectations that have been laid before him. Now he just needs to expect a longer commute than he’s used to.

“I hit a little bit of traffic as I was on the highway and I wasn’t used to that in Oklahoma City,” he said with a laugh. “It wasn’t too bad, but that was a little different.”

As long as Durant alleviates some of the traffic the Dubs see when driving down the lane, the team will live with that.

Follow Erik Malinowski on Twitter at @erikmal. All quotes were obtained firsthand. Statistics courtesy of NBA.com.