Draymond Green

[Minstrel]

Three seasons ago the Spurs hid Tony Parker on Harrison Barnes, who had two decent games scoring against Tony but the Warriors still lost the series.

That was a much worse Warriors team, though. In Mark Jackson's offensive schemes, there was a lot less movement and passing, so the Warriors' couldn't/didn't take advantage when the Spurs brought help against Barnes. It's interesting that this year, a lot of talk has centered around the idea that Tony Parker might be borderline unplayable against Golden State because there's no good match-up for him to guard.

If the Blazers really defend Barnes with McCollum and don't help, Barnes isolating will be fine for Golden State, because he'll be backing McCollum in for 6 foot gimmies. If the Blazers bring help, it'll activate the Warriors' swing-the-ball scheme. If this were really such a magic bullet, Stotts would have done this from the start...it's not a new idea. Barnes is nowhere near as good as Curry or Thompson, but you make him a lot better by putting someone much smaller on him. He's not a Tony Allen type you can safely ignore.

 

[B-Roy]

That was a much worse Warriors team, though. In Mark Jackson's offensive schemes, there was a lot less movement and passing, so the Warriors' couldn't/didn't take advantage when the Spurs brought help against Barnes. It's interesting that this year, a lot of talk has centered around the idea that Tony Parker might be borderline unplayable against Golden State because there's no good match-up for him to guard.

If the Blazers really defend Barnes with McCollum and don't help, Barnes isolating will be fine for Golden State, because he'll be backing McCollum in for 6 foot gimmies. If the Blazers bring help, it'll activate the Warriors' swing-the-ball scheme. If this were really such a magic bullet, Stotts would have done this from the start...it's not a new idea. Barnes is nowhere near as good as Curry or Thompson, but you make him a lot better by putting someone much smaller on him. He's not a Tony Allen type you can safely ignore.

Barnes hasn't shown the ability to be a dominant post option, even against smaller guards, and he's not good enough to make good reads on pass outs.

Yeah this Warriors team is really good. Really really good. So you pick your poison. I would rather not have to scramble around on defense chasing guys because once you get Klay or Draymond going they will rattle off 12 straight and you're stuck in a hole.

 

[WarriorFan]

That was a much worse Warriors team, though. In Mark Jackson's offensive schemes, there was a lot less movement and passing, so the Warriors' couldn't/didn't take advantage when the Spurs brought help against Barnes. It's interesting that this year, a lot of talk has centered around the idea that Tony Parker might be borderline unplayable against Golden State because there's no good match-up for him to guard.

If the Blazers really defend Barnes with McCollum and don't help, Barnes isolating will be fine for Golden State, because he'll be backing McCollum in for 6 foot gimmies. If the Blazers bring help, it'll activate the Warriors' swing-the-ball scheme. If this were really such a magic bullet, Stotts would have done this from the start...it's not a new idea. Barnes is nowhere near as good as Curry or Thompson, but you make him a lot better by putting someone much smaller on him. He's not a Tony Allen type you can safely ignore.

Jackson's offensive scheme was a bunch of one-on-one play and he was obsessed with forcing the ball to a mismatch, so he repeatedly went to barnes in that series. If I'm stotts, I'd love for the Warriors to go to barnes every play. Make him show that he can make the right pass, it's not something that he has to do often and is probably the worst passer on the court. It's true that you can't ignore him but he's the guy I'm least scared of. Even livingston, who has a great post game, is a worse matchup for the Blazers than barnes. And what else would you do? The only other options I see are to bench CJ or just hope Klay goes cold and I wouldn't want to do those either. Pick your poison.

It's funny that for decades of losing I'd sit at work and daydream about what would I do if I'm the Warriors GM, now I sit and think about how can another team stop them. There don't seem to be a lot of good options and anything you do could create another problem for you.