Golden State Warriors Have Ushered In A New NBA Era

The Golden State Warriors did more than become the first team to win their first 16 games when they thrashed the Lakers; they struck the death knell of hero ball.

The 2015-16 Golden State Warriors are officially the best regular season team, ever–through the first 16 games. The Warriors demolished the Los Angeles Lakers on Tuesday night in front of the entire NBA world, and became the first team to ever begin an NBA season 16-0.

That’s huge for both Golden State and the entire NBA, but it wasn’t the most important aspect of the game the Lakers and Warriors played. There was something even more potent in the air than the Dubs reaching 16-0.

There was a profound paradigm shift in the entire National Basketball Association on Tuesday night, the end of an era that had dominated the Association for decades. Hero ball is officially dead in the NBA.

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There was an obvious shift away from isolation-focused offenses in the last half-decade or so, but hero ball lingered on. Memories of Kobe Bryant dominating entire seasons by simply beating his matchup in one-on-one basketball every single night had seemed impossible to dispel–what player doesn’t want to hit a game-winning shot over their man?

So despite even popular opinion eventually turning against it, isolation offense and hero ball had stuck around. Until the Golden State Warriors, in typical incredible fashion, annihilated Bryant and the iso-happy Lakers and became the first team to ever win their first 16 games.

Hero ball has been put down once and for all. Ironically, Kobe himself has gone from the biggest proponent to the eventual destroyer of isolation-focused basketball. In this disastrous last season, Bryant has attempted to defy both Father Time and the new NBA, by ignoring conventional wisdom and continuing to chuck shots.

The entire Lakers’ organization has done the same. Los Angeles stockpiled iso scorers this offseason. Lou Williams and Nick Young both rely on isolation for a large bulk of their scoring, and all three of those aforementioned hero ballers get significant minutes in L.A.

As a result, they’re 2-12 and got absolutely outclassed by the Warriors on Tuesday. Los Angeles never really had a shot at winning against the Dubs, who simply played a better brand of offensive basketball.

That Golden State offense is so good not because they force Stephen Curry the ball, but because they force it to no one. Whoever’s open gets the shot in Golden State.

Curry won the MVP award last season, and he deserved it. He led the Warriors to 67 regular-season wins and, eventually, an NBA title. But Curry doesn’t lead by dominating the ball and doing all of the offensive work himself–the Warriors are at their best when no one player is the focal point.

Curry took 25.1 shots per 100 possessions and had a usage rate of 28.9 last season, when he was selected as the NBA’s best player. Kobe Bryant is taking more shots per 100 possessions and has a higher usage rate than Curry did last season even though he may well be the worst starter in the NBA.

Kobe currently ranks 305th in true shooting percentage, and 16th in usage percentage. Having an awful shooting season is one thing, but refusing to stop chucking shots despite making almost none of them is about the easiest way to hurt a team. That’s hero ball on display.

This game itself showed the difference in the two styles. Without even going into how terrible Kobe was from the field (1-for-14, his worst shooting performance ever) it’s possible to see how differently the Lakers operate. Kobe took 14 shots, and recorded just two assists. That’s seven shots per assist.

Curry took 21 shots, but ended with nine assists–more than the Lakers’ starting five combined. That’s just more than two shots per assist. Even though Curry led all players in the game in attempted field goals, he still focused on distributing the ball as well.

The difference in mindset is striking, as is the difference in results. There was a time when dominating the ball and doing everything for a team was good enough to win championships, but that just doesn’t get the job done anymore.

Golden State led the NBA in assists last season, on the way to becoming champions. The season before, the San Antonio Spurs won it all and also led the Association in assists. The Warriors currently lead the NBA in assists, and also in wins.

This is the new NBA. Isolation scoring can be an asset as a last ditch effort, but it cannot be a team’s primary offense anymore. The last few seasons had been evidence of that being true, but the Golden State Warriors have officially driven the point home by becoming one of the best teams in NBA history through a philosophy of ball movement.

The Warriors won 67 games last season, and there’s no way to tell just how many wins they’ll claim this year. Golden State is a juggernaut not because they have the MVP in Steph Curry, but because Curry is just as likely to use his unbelievable ability to set up a teammate as he is to take the shot himself.

The difference in eras was profound when the Warriors thrashed the Lakers. Golden State made 45 shots, 32 of them assisted. Los Angeles made 31, only 16 of which came off of assists. The Lakers had half the assists the Dubs did and lost by nearly exactly the difference in assisted points, 111-77.

As soon as Kobe Bryant chooses to end the misery that is his 2015-16 season and retire, the last great iso scorer will be gone. But the NBA moves fast, and despite Kobe hanging around has closed the book on hero ball.

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It doesn’t work anymore. Ball movement and analytically selected, high percentage shots are not the future. They’re the now. Trying to utilize hero ball in the modern NBA is like bringing a knife to a gun fight: the results are not pretty.