With Andrew Wiggins out of the Golden State Warriors’ rematch against the Minnesota Timberwolves due to an ankle impingement, Steve Kerr was forced to concoct a fresh starting lineup that covered multiple bases — one that had enough offensive juice and the right combination of personnel to slow down the Wolves’ offensive attack centered around Anthony Edwards.
When asked about Hield’s rejuvenation against the Wolves — in which he scored 27 points on 18 shots (7-of-13 on threes), 75% True Shooting, and was a team-best plus-17 — Kerr added that his decision to include Hield and Payton with Curry was born out of consultation with the Warriors’ analytics department.
“Our analytics department really gave it a good look,” Kerr said. “Pabail Sidhu (Warriors Vice President of Basketball Analytics and Innovation) does a great job. I asked him yesterday, ‘What do you think (we should do)?’ He said, ‘Maybe try Buddy and Gary in the starting lineup.’ He gave me some numbers and we know that Gary and Steph are off-the-charts good together. But the three-man combination, you get your two best shooters and best perimeter defender on the floor at the same time. I give Pabail a lot of credit, it was a great suggestion… We started Draymond at the five, I’ve said I don’t really want to start him at the five. We have a lot of interesting and difficult decisions but we’re learning a lot about our team, for sure.”
Indeed, the numbers have looked good with Curry, Hield, and Payton on the floor this season. The Curry and Hield duo, in particular, has worked wonders offensively. Heading into the second game against the Wolves (in non-garbage time, courtesy of Cleaning the Glass), the Warriors have looked like world beaters on both ends of the floor:
371 possessions
122.1 offensive rating
97.5 defensive rating
plus-24.6 net rating
Adding Payton to the Curry-Hield pairing reduces the number of possessions; not a lot of instances this season have involved all three of them together prior to tonight’s game. But the numbers have nevertheless remained stratospherically good, if not slightly better:
- 170 possessions
- 120.6 offensive rating
- 92.3 defensive rating
- plus-28.3 net rating
The on-off data provides Kerr with logical backing behind his decision to start Hield and Payton next to Curry, but a surface-level understanding of what has ailed the Warriors is enough to justify his decision. With no Wiggins — and Kuminga needing to slot in at the four in order to coexist with Green — it was left to Payton to guard Edwards. Furthermore, a Warriors offense on life support was in dire need of defibrillation, and the lowest-hanging fruit available to them in that regard would be to pair Curry and Hield from the get-go.