Golden State Warriors: Depth looking formidable with DeMarcus Cousins set to return

For much of the 2018-19 season, depth has been a major issue for the Golden State Warriors. That issue seems to be resolving itself.

Stephen Curry had 11 points on 4-of-15 shooting. Klay Thompson had nine on 4-of-12. It was Game 1 of the 2016 NBA Finals, and the Golden State Warriors won by 15.

Referencing the one playoff series that the Warriors have lost — in infamous fashion, no less — over the last four seasons seems like a strange way to illustrate a positive point. That is, until you remember that Golden State was the dominant team early on in those Finals, despite what has been viewed in retrospect as a star talent disadvantage.

Kevin Durant was not yet in Oakland. Curry was playing on a bum knee. But Golden State got 16 points from Draymond Green, 13 from Harrison Barnes, 10 from Andrew Bogut, 12 from Andre Iguodala, 11 from Leandro Barbosa and 20 from Shaun Livingston.

Curry and Thompson improved as the role players regressed over the next six games, but the fact that the Warriors came within four points of winning an NBA championship in a series that was utterly dominated by LeBron James and Kyrie Irving is a testament to just how devastating their depth was.

A lot has changed in the three years since. The arrival of Durant marked the end of the Barnes and Bogut era, while Iguodala and Livingston have gotten progressively worse as they move through their 30s. The team has hit on some gems (David West and JaVale McGee softened the loss of Bogut and Festus Ezeli), while whiffing on others (Swaggy P and the Israeli Igniter could not hold a candle to the Brazilian Blur).

Diminished resources and mixed free agent success are not the only reasons for the drop-off in bench production. Durant’s integration into the offense meant less shots to go around for others.

This has become truer with each passing year. As Durant, Curry and Thompson’s appetite for validation in the form of banners has been satisfied, their hunger for shots has grown. After taking 52.4 and 51.1 combined shots during their first two seasons together, the trio is totaling 58.2 attempts thus far in 2018-19.

There is some question of cause and effect here, as a declining supporting cast does force the big three to take on a greater load. But for those who watched the Warriors’ egalitarian offense move the ball for years under Steve Kerr, the shift to a “my turn, your turn” offense has been undeniable.

Want further proof? The Warriors are making 44.0 shots per game this year, the most in the Durant era (due primarily to the rule change-induced, league-wide increase in pace). Yet they are averaging fewer assists (28.8, down from 29.3 last year and 30.4 in Durant’s first season) and taking less shots at the rim (24.8, down from 26.1 and 29.8), two metrics that are heavily correlated to the defensive attention that the team’s three perimeter studs command.

Scoring, of course, is not the end-all, be-all of depth. With such historic offensive talent at the top, in fact, it may be the least important area. And while the narrative has been all season that Golden State’s roster is thinner than ever (in large part because scoring drives narrative), the team’s role players are slowly but surely finding their respective niches.

Since replacing the injured Damian Jones as the starting center, Kevon Looney has averaged 7.6 points, 6.5 rebounds, 2.2 assists, 0.8 blocks and 0.7 steals in just 23.3 minutes per game, while shooting 64.9 percent from the floor.

He’s not a vertical spacer in the mold of McGee or Ezeli, nor is he the pick-and-pop artist that West and Marreese Speights were. He does more little things than the lot of them, however.

What he lacks in lateral quickness on defense, he makes up for in positioning and strength, and has the length and instincts to break up passes into the post. He’s a high-level box out guy, and has recently picked up a clever way to turn his lack of scoring acumen into a strength: Looney, whose man regularly plays several feet off of him, is sprinting out to set screens for Curry, Durant and Thompson before his man can recover for the switch. It’s a wrinkle that does not show up in the box score, but is reflected in Looney’s 116.1 offensive rating — third-best on the team, after Curry and Durant.

Quinn Cook is proving that his hot March and April was no aberration. He’s in the 85th percentile among guards in terms of effective field goal percentage (55.0) and 87th in 3-point percentage (42.7). His catch-and-shoot percentage (51.5) makes him especially intriguing as an option with the starters, either in Curry’s place or alongside him in offense-only lineups.

Golden State turned in its one other viable shooter off last year’s bench in Nick Young (37.7 percent on 4.1 3-point attempts per game) for two in Jonas Jerebko (37.0 percent on 3.1 attempts) and Alfonzo McKinnie (36.9 percent on 1.9 attempts).

Neither has quite as versatile a jumper as Young, but having two spacers more than makes up for it, especially considering Jerebko’s size. Both also run laps around Young in the non-scoring areas of the game, from Jerebko’s motor and physicality to McKinnie’s defensive effort and uncanny offensive rebounding rate (3.5 per 36 minutes, second in the NBA among non-big men).

Iguodala’s scoring is down to a career-low 5.3 points, but he’s at a five-year high in 3-point percentage (36.2) and is averaging a career-best 1.2 blocks per 36 minutes, helping to make up for the team’s lack of rim protection and his own loss of footspeed.

Although Draymond Green is hitting an acceptable 35.0 percent of his 3s since Dec. 22, he has become a new level of non-scoring threat this year. He’s still at 27.0 percent overall from deep, with a true-shooting percentage of 49.5. Still, he’s No. 10 in the NBA in assists (7.3), No. 3 in net rating (+13.1) and is making a strong push to win his second Defensive Player of the Year award.

And then there’s DeMarcus Cousins, the All-Star big man coming off a torn Achilles that Golden State needs far more than any indignant fan or media member anticipated last summer — and perhaps far less than it would seem at this juncture.

Cousins is an omnipotent scorer. There has never been a player at his size (6’11”, 270 pounds) who can shoot from the perimeter, put the ball on the floor and finish inside with his combination of finesse and power. For a team whose fourth-leading scorer is Cook at 7.8 points per game, Boogie will no doubt be a welcome addition.

However, there are questions as to whether Cousins will be a net positive while playing alongside the starters. He is only a better shooter than Jerebko and McKinnie in the sense that he can shoot over anyone and attack a closeout, but those skills are far less important when it comes to pure floor-spacing, and he won’t contribute in the effort categories that those two have thus far.

He will certainly be far better than Looney at taking advantage of openings around the hoop, but far worse in every aspect of defense. His passing will fit nicely with Curry, Thompson and Durant’s respective off-ball games, but will it be worth taking the ball away from Green — a far better, lower-turnover facilitator who does very little as a floor-spacer — in order to run things through Boogie?

Most of all, there’s the question of how close Cousins is to the player he used to be. All accounts say he has looked terrific in his rehab, but even a slight loss of agility and footspeed could mean trouble for a player of his size.

None of this is to say that Cousins will not be a key member of Golden State’s rotation. He can make up for some of his defensive shortcomings by dominating the glass, and if he’s willing to accept a role as a clear No. 4 option, he’ll elevate the starting lineup’s offense to never-before-seen levels of unstoppability. Moreover, Kerr will likely stagger him to play with bench units in the middle sections of games. There, his skill as a shooter, ball-handler, post scorer and passer will be extremely beneficial, even if he is not the force of nature he once was.

The best part of it all? Kerr has options. He’s adding a guy who averaged 25.2 points, 12.9 rebounds and 5.4 assists per game last season to a team that is good enough to win the title without him.

The surprising thing about that statement is not that it’s true, but that the Warriors’ depth has as much to do with its veracity as do their stars.

Stats courtesy of Basketball-Reference.com, NBA.com and CleaningTheGlass.com.