
How a prominent VC is helping reshape winning strategy for basketball - grellas
http://www.wsj.com/articles/the-golden-state-warriors-have-revolutionized-basketball-1459956975
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vannevar
The premise of the title would be much more believable if the team's success
weren't so heavily reliant on one guy who is a statistical outlier in his
unique ability to shoot 3s. I suspect the Warriors' "winning strategy" could
be largely duplicated just by luring Steph Curry away from the team.

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grellas
Good point and would agree - without that one key player, the team does often
play pretty much just like every other team. No doubt though that the game is
changing from a day where big post-up players dominated to one in which most
every team emphasizes 3-point shooting. Perhaps the Warriors are ahead of this
curve apart from dependence on their mega-star player or just in giving him a
setting in which he could best thrive.

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vannevar
Yeah, I would've been convinced if the article had shown that the Warriors
were winning with a higher number of threes taken across the board and with
players that shot the average or slightly better from three-point range. The
thing about a real 'systems' team like the San Antonio Spurs is that they
don't need any particular player to put up crazy numbers, and they frequently
have a bunch of players in or near the low double figures rather than
consistently having a couple of players (often the same two) combining for 50
or more points.

