Star Power vs. Flow

With the Warriors and Cavs facing off in the finals for the 3^rd straight year, it’s been fun being able to watch two completely different styles of basketball facing off against each other.

On one hand, you have the ‘Flow’ of the Golden State Warriors motion offense where the set screens, get ball and player movement, and ball reversals in looking for great shots and scoring opportunities by taking advantage of defensive breakdowns.

 On the other side, you have the Star Power of the Cleveland Cavs where every offensive decision is made by one of the stars.  They spread the court and breakdown the defense and create scoring opportunities by taking advantage of their 1 on 1 matchups and ball-screens. 

Flow

The Golden State Warriors have really made a name for themselves because of their style of play and offensive flow.

By playing what most would call ‘team ball,’ they look to make plays for others, and much of what they do consists of attacking off the ball.  They force you defend 3 v 3.  They force you defend specific actions away from the ball.  They force you to communicate and decide how you want to guard their different actions.

The constant action and constant screening that they perform puts pressure on the defense’s ability to communicate and work together while dealing with the conditioning and physicality of the game.  They wear teams down.

Their great scorers are never stagnant.  They seek to take advantage of every defensive mistake by constantly looking for each other, screening for each other, and passing to each other.  When the defense has a breakdown in communication, it leaves open scorers.  Over time, your defensive breakdowns and their ability to read the defense and take advantage of your mistakes are what make them so successful.

Star Power
The Cleveland Cavaliers have 2 of the best 1 on 1 players in the world in LeBron James and Kyrie Irving.  Star Power is when you put the ball in the hands of your stars and you hope that their talents and decision making will over power your opponents. 

As Kobe states in the video, star power when every offensive decision is made by one of the stars.  They may make a play for themselves, make a play for somebody else, or make the play that leads to the play for someone else.  If the play that leads to the play doesn’t end in a shot, then the ball will find its way back to the star and the process resets to again until they get the shot that they want.

It’s easy to manage because the ball stays in the hands of the stars that command double teams, thus creating opportunities for their teammates.  It can be very effective if the stars make the right reads at the right times, the teammates make timely shots, and the stars make the right plays in the end.

This puts a lot of pressure on the stars and the others because some of the others aren’t able to get into rhythm without consistent ball and player movement.