The Golden State Warriors are a very good team, albeit one that may be underachieving slightly if you ask their fans. Stephen Curry is tearing up the league from beyond the arc while averaging a career high in points per game. Andrew Bogut has played over 40 games, a feat he couldn't accomplish in either of the last two seasons. Andre Iguodala has been an excellent addition, scaling back his role on offense and serving as the team's do-it-all defender on the perimeter of the NBA's third-best defense.
Steve Blake trade will shore up one of the Warriors’ biggest weaknesses
The trade deadline didn’t feature any trades worth much commotion. The Warriors made the best low-key move, though, acquiring Steve Blake and drastically improving an area they desperately needed help in.
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Still, they haven't been able to pull away from the crowded Western Conference. Every little bit will help, and that's what made the trade deadline move to acquire Steve Blake a brilliant one. The deal directly addresses the team's biggest need at the cost of excess wing players who wouldn't break the rotation once the playoffs arrive.
That biggest need: Golden State has serious offensive issues when Curry isn’t in the game.
An 18-point difference with Curry sitting is a huge dive, enough to break the team and cause leads to disappear. For comparison’s sake, the Warriors’ 90.9 offensive rating when Curry is on the bench is 5.5 points per 100 possessions lower than the Philadelphia 76ers’ offensive rating, the worst in the league.
One should expect some drop-off when Curry leaves the game, especially with Jarrett Jack now in Cleveland, but not like this. Golden State failed to find a passable solution to replace Jack last summer, as Toney Douglas proved to be a major disappointment. The Warriors' first trade of the year, which landed them Jordan Crawford and MarShon Brooks in exchange for Douglas, was an admission of how poorly that signing worked out, but Crawford hasn't been able to make much of a difference either.
For 10.5 minutes per game, Golden State’s offense goes from a screeching electric guitar solo to an acoustic guitar with broken strings. Blake’s three-point shooting and ball-handling ability should help raise the bench’s competency enough to lessen the reliance on Curry.
Blake will help the Warriors offense by simply making the right decision with the ball in his hands.
That level of bench play was there last year. The Warriors averaged 98.5 points per 100 possessions when Curry was off the floor last season, which isn’t great, but is far better than what they average this season. Specifically, they scored 99.4 points per 100 possessions when Jack was on the floor without Curry, according to NBAwowy.com.
Blake doesn’t excel at creating his own shot, but he’s great at making the right pass and reading his options. This will open up the floor for Golden State’s spot-up shooters even when Curry sits. Blake isn’t limited to just waiting at the top of the arc for someone like Klay Thompson to curl off of a screen, either. He’s great at working out of the pick-and-roll and finding the open man once the defense reacts to the play. Blake’s also shown he’s able to keep his dribble alive while driving to the basket and picking out his open teammates on the perimeter. He thrived under Mike D’Antoni prior to tearing a ligament in his elbow, and his career-high 7.1 assists per game is proof he can deliver the rock to its destination.
But Blake can also play well with Curry, allowing the Warriors to replicate one of their best two-man lineups last season. The Warriors averaged 108.6 points per 100 possessions when both Curry and Jack were on the court last year, the second-highest offensive rating for any duo who played for a minimum of 200 minutes together, according to NBA.com.
Now, Blake can step in and play the Jack role. Blake has experience playing with another ball-handler, splitting minutes with Steve Nash, Kendall Marshall and whoever else the Lakers have needed to patch in at point guard over the past two seasons. Playing next to Curry on a team that isn’t scraping its way to victories should take the pressure off Blake to do too much.
Teams will have to respect Blake's three-point shot. He'll be able to take advantage of close-outs and can drive-and-dish to any of the Warriors' long-range threats.
And when that pressure is off, Blake can fill in as another three-point threat on the floor. There’s no such thing as too many shooters on a team, and the Warriors just added one who’s shooting 40 percent from beyond the arc this season and has four seasons of 40 percent or better three-point shooting under his belt.
This is important for reasons beyond putting three points on the scoreboard. If a defender aggressively closes out on Blake when he catches the ball from the perimeter, he can drive right by him and force mistakes from the opposing defense. This will potentially create a better look for an even better shooter in Curry or Thompson.
Add it all up, and while the Warriors may not have hit a trade-deadline home run, they definitely drilled a line-drive single by acquiring Steve Blake. Sometimes all you need is a hit to advance a runner from third.
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