Details analysis: Why is Durant s version of the Warriors "Death Five" unsolvable in today s NBA

If you want to choose the most successful team in the NBA in recent years, it must be the Warriors. In the past period of time, the Warriors have won four championships, including one in two consecutive championships. Except for the Warriors, other teams have only one championship, including the Cavaliers, Raptors, Lakers, Bucks, Celtics, Nuggets, and Thunder.

The Warriors' success is inseparable from the "Five Smalls of Death". After Cole took office as head coach of the Warriors, his main focus was "Death Five Small Small".

The first generation of "Death Five Little Little" are Green, Barnes, Iguodala, Thompson, and Curry. However, in the 14-15 season, although Cole had developed this style of play and did not use it on the table, it was used as a "strange move". That season, the Warriors' starting lineup was still Bogut, Green, Barnes, Thompson and Curry's regular season first- and four-small lineups.

This "strange move" is usually used when the Warriors cannot start the game or fall behind in big scores. The effect is very obvious. This is also one of the main reasons why the Warriors were able to win the league's first record that season.

And in the finals, the Warriors were once behind the Cavaliers 1-2. Kerr took out this system directly, removed Bogut in the fourth game, replaced Iguodala with the starter, and directly used the "Death Five Smalls" to win three consecutive victories, reversed the Cavaliers, and won the championship.

I have to admire Cole's overall view. This overall view is not only reflected in Cole's creation of this style of play, but also in that Cole has always been hiding this style of play and will not be used unless necessary.

This is a kind of protection for this set of playing styles, because the "Death Five Smalls" seem powerful, but there are still loopholes and shortcomings. Once used too much, flaws will inevitably be found.

However, in the 15-16 season, Cole was injured and Walton replaced the head coach. Walton did not have the overall view of Cole and often used the "Death Five Smalls", which eventually helped the Warriors start with a 24-game winning streak and set a record of 73 wins. The price is that "Death Five Smalls" is no longer a secret tactic, and has been directly studied by all teams in the league, which has also laid the groundwork and hidden dangers for the twists and turns in the Warriors' playoffs.

In fact, the core tactic of "Death Five Smalls" is to keep running and passing the ball on the offensive end, create simple shooting opportunities, and then use shooting to solve the battle! The Warriors are all willing to run, Curry, Iguodala, and Green have passes, Curry, Thompson and Barnes have shots, and each performs his own duties, just right.

But the disadvantage is that it lacks a strong inside defense. Once it encounters a strong inside, it will be very difficult.

In addition, there is also a "barrel principle" on the offensive end. The shortest board is Barnes' shooting, because in this system, Curry passes and shoots on the offensive end, Thompson shoots, Iguodala passes and shoots, Green is passes, Barnes shoots, and the weakest is Barnes' shooting.

So, in the Western Conference Finals, the Warriors were once struggling to face the Thunder with Adams and Ibaka, and were once behind 1-3. If Thompson hadn't had the huge burst of touch in the sixth game, the Warriors would have been unable to enter the finals.

In the finals, the Warriors once led 3-1, but the Cavaliers in desperate situation chose to let Barnes go, but Barnes lived up to expectations. In the last three games of the finals, Barnes basically had no defense, but his shot was 5 of 32 shots, which is one of the main reasons why the Warriors lost.

The Warriors' first generation of "Death Five Smalls" is not serious. The problem of insufficient inside line is not serious, because it is difficult to find a team with two excellent inside lines in the NBA today, so Green + assisted defense can appropriately limit the opponent's inside line. So the biggest problem is Barnes’s shortcomings.

And when Barnes is replaced by Durant, this problem no longer exists.

Durant's version of "Death Five Little Little", even if Durant is regarded as a pitcher, his stability is stronger than Barnes, not to mention that Durant is still a scoring expert. While Durant made up for Barnes' shortcomings, he also added a new tactic to the "Death Five Smalls" -

If it really can't be opened, Durant's singles stand-up!

Therefore, Durant's version of "Death Five Smalls" is absolutely unsolvable on the offensive end. In today's NBA, no team can fight against the full version of "Death Five Smalls".

As for the defensive end, today's NBA, no team can have the advantages in the inside to make up for the shortcomings in the outside.

Therefore, Durant's version of the Warriors' "Death Five Smalls" is indeed unsolvable in today's NBA.

If put in history, those teams with high-quality inside and outside can play, such as the Lakers in the OK combination, O'Neal, the inside, can beat the Warriors' inside, and Kobe from the outside can also completely tear the Warriors' defense. For example, the team-type Spurs have Duncan in the interior and Ginobili and Parker in the outside. They can still play against the Durant version of the "Death Five Smalls". In the 2017 Western Conference Final Spurs once led the Warriors by more than 25 points, which is proof.

So, Durant and the Warriors system are indeed a perfect match. In today's NBA, no team can defeat them except injuries.