The Physics Of The Golden State Warriors
Stephen Curry & Co. have exploited the fact that a basketball moves faster than basketball players do — and the results have been glorious.
Basic physics help explain the record-smashing performance of the NBA’s Golden State Warriors. They exploit the laws of nature in three important ways, allowing them to dominate like no team before, while embodying a flowing style of play that joyfully transcends the game.
Steph Curry has reinvented the physics of the jump shot.
Classic jump-shooters from Jerry West onward shoot the J the same way. They rise up, extend their arms straight above their heads and shoot the ball from the top of their jump, as high as possible. Klay Thompson of the Warriors does this to perfection, as classically pure an old-school jump shooter as ever stroked a 3. Sharing the backcourt with the greatest shooter of all time, Klay comprises half the greatest shooting backcourt of all time.
Then there’s Splash Brother #1.
Steph Curry, now widely acknowledged as the greatest shooter of all time, shoots the jump shot differently. He’s New School. In fact, he is the New School. By breaking time-honored rules of jump shooting, he has utterly changed the game. Basketball will never be the same because of Kid Curry’s transcendent skills, which begin with his radically heterodox J.
Steph shoots the ball on the way up, not from the top of his jump. This confers several advantages. Shooting earlier makes his release faster. In fact, his release is so blindingly fast that defenders rarely have a chance to block it. Secondly, he is much more controlled while powering through his jump than he would be at the apex, when any hitch could throw off the release. That’s ingenious. His extraordinary core strength comes into play here, since the secret to his jump shot is the jump itself. It’s worth noting that 180-lb Steph deadlifts 400 lbs, second on the team to 265-lb “big” Festus Ezeli.
Finally, his low release point gives the ball tremendous arc as it heads towards the basket. Thus his jump shots tend to drop straight down into the basket, which has the effect of making the basket wider than with flat shots.
[Tip of the hat to the early-season article that first described Steph’s early-shooting-while-still-jumping J. I’d share the link if I could find it again.]
Vastly Expanded Area of Play
The rise of the 3-ball has greatly expanded the area of play in today’s NBA compared to the era before the 3-ball. This larger area of play means defenses have to guard more territory than ever before, leaving them vulnerable to lapses and breakdowns.
The current Warriors extend the area of play well beyond the rest of the league due to their extraordinary ball movement and stupendous 3-point shooting. Consider the following statistics.
- 7.5' — Distance from the basket of the average made shot in the pre-3 era
- 11' — Distance from the basket during the 2015–2016 NBA season!
- 12.5' — Distance from the basket by this year’s Warriors!!
- 88 square feet — Active Area of Play in the pre-3 ball era (π x 7.5² / 2)
- 191 square feet — Active Area of Play in the 2015–2016 NBA!
- 217% — Change in Area of Play of the 2015–2016 NBA average of 191 sq. ft. over the size of the pre-3 ball Area of Play, or more than double the area!
- 244 square feet — Active Area of Play by this year’s Warriors!!
- 276% — Change in Area of Play utilized by this year’s Warriors over the size of the pre-3 ball Area of Play, or almost triple the area!!
- 27% — Change in Area of Play of this year’s Warriors over the ‘15-’16 NBA
Opponents defending this vastly expanded area of play have a hard time keeping up. After all, the Warriors successfully make baskets after moving the ball around a space almost three times as large as it was back in the day.
[Note about how average shot distances were calculated: Data for shot distance is available from HoopData.com for the years 2006 through 2013. The average 2PT make across the NBA ranged from 7.3' to 8.1' during those seven years. Basketball-Reference.com has extensive shot data going back to before the pre-3 ball era, albeit offers no distance data. The above stats use those shot numbers, assuming that 2PT makes are from an average of 7.5' and 3PT makes from 23.5', the farthest distance of the 3PT line. While 3PT shots from the corner are only 22' from the basket, marksmen like Steph Curry often shoot from well beyond 23.5', so 23.5' seems a reasonable estimate for the average 3PT shot.]
Ball Beats Man
The Warriors exploit the fact that ball beats man from point A to point B. IOW, no matter how fast the man, a crisp pass moves faster. Couple this with the Warriors use of a larger area of play, and opposing defenses get crushed.
Unfortunately, I’ve not been able to find statistics on the number of passes made by NBA teams. However, we can gain a proxy measure by tracking the number of assists. (Assists are passes that lead directly to made baskets.)
This year’s Warriors utilize an assist on 68% percent of their made baskets, compared to 58 percent for the NBA overall. Interestingly, the assist ratio hasn’t budged much over the years, making these Warriors true outliers.
The opposite of assists are so-called isolation plays, or “iso’s”. Great scorers like Kobe Bryant or Carmelo Anthony or Michael Jordan get the ball, their teammates step back and stand around, and the great scorer single-handedly beats the defense to score. This “hero ball” slows down the game.
The Warriors emphasis on ball movement over hero ball exploits ball speed over human speed, especially when executed over a larger area of play.
In short, they have physics on their side.
The result is beautiful, flowing basketball that is new school in every way.
