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It's easy to say Jimmy Butler needs to hunt his shot more when looking at the Golden State Warriors' dreadful offensive woes without Stephen Curry versus the Minnesota Timberwolves.
Sure, only nine shot attempts from Butler in a must-win Game 4 situation to avoid falling behind 3-1 is not ideal. And maybe there were opportunities where Butler could have been more aggressive with getting his individual offense going. But as Steve Kerr pointed out after the 117-110 loss to the Wolves, it's asking a lot of Butler to take on this defense when the spacing isn't right.
“[Butler] wasn’t as aggressive tonight,” Kerr said after Game 4. “But I didn’t see a lot of openings either. Ideally, we could put more shooting around him to open up the floor a little bit. But with Steph out, we’re not going to be able to do as much of that.”
The Warriors' offensive struggles don't start with Butler's subdued shot hunting. He got the Dubs' 33 points in a tightly contested Game 3, and the team still lost. It starts with the fact that the players the Warriors have depended on to space the floor are in a deep shooting slump.
Taking stock Warriors' theoretical shooters
Other than Curry, who's been unavailable this series, and Buddy Hield, the Warriors are a team built on theoretical shooters. When those shooters are on, they've looked like a championship-level team. When they aren't, they've struggled to reach 100 points in a lot of these games.
To put it bluntly, Brandin Podziemski, Moses Moody, and Quentin Post haven't been able to knock down enough jumpers in this series. These three young role players were a big part of the Dubs' post-trade deadline surge because of their shooting. But other than Podziemski's six 3s and 26 points in Game 4 of the Houston Rockets series, their shooting has evaporated.
In this series, Podziemski's shooting 17.6% from beyond the arc. Meanwhile, Moody and Post have been borderline unplayable due to their poor shooting in the Rockets series, with only two made 3s between the two of them. They're all young and untested in the playoffs, but the Warriors knew they'd need to rely on their shooting entering the postseason. And while there were encouraging signs they'd be able to sustain that hot shooting, they haven't. Which is why, even without Curry, the Warriors are down 3-1.
It's a strange situation the Warriors have found themselves in. While their theoretical shooters have struggled mightily this series, their interior threats have looked great versus the Wolves. Jonathan Kuminga and Trayce Jackson-Davis, two players who fell out of the Dubs' rotation before this series, have been great. Even Kevon Looney found some buckets here and there on the offensive boards.
But as much as their scoring has been needed, it doesn't solve the Warriors' lack of spacing issues. Because when Kerr is forced to play lineups where Hield is the only genuine 3-point threat next to Butler, Minnesota's more than willing to load up on Butler. Whether that's stunting a second guy at Butler's drives, or collapsing in on him when he gets into the center of the defense, the Wolves are daring anyone else to beat them.
Where does the Dubs' offense go from here?
However, if the Warriors want to get back in this series, it starts with everyone being more decisive. Among the playoff teams still remaining, the Dubs have the most shot clock violations with 17 this postseason. Those shot clock violations come down to the Warriors turning down open looks. And this doesn't even include the possessions where one Warrior tosses a hand-grenade pass to another at the end of the shot clock.
The Dubs have been passive without Curry, and they know it. Draymond Green talked about that problem in his post-game press conference.
“Everybody has to shoot,” Green said. “You get the opening, you gotta let it go. I think sometimes we’re passing some up. Without Steph, at times, the first good look will be the best look. When you’ve got Steph out there, you can turn down looks because… he causes so many dominoes to fall. But when he’s not, you turn down that first open look, it may not open up again.”
And they'll have to figure that out without Curry once again. With the two-time MVP ruled out of Game 5, the shorthanded Warriors face elimination on the road in Minnesota. It may be too late to fix the offense and save the season. But crazier things have happened, and that usually starts with shooters catching fire.
