It’s tempting to say that the Golden State Warriors were always supposed to be this great because of their talent. You could put Stephen Curry, Kevin Durant, Klay Thompson, and Draymond Green in any system and they’d thrive.

But as Gregg Popovich so eloquently noted recently, that’s doing the Warriors a huge disservice:

“On offense, no team is more unselfish, finding the open man. ... They get credit for that. Coaches are always trying to get their team to do that, but they’ve got a multitude of people who are unselfish in that regard and play a beautiful game, and on top of that play D on the other end. “So they deserve a lot more credit than ‘well they’re talented, they’re supposed to win.’ That is disrespectful to them in my book. They’re way, way more than just their talent.”

One of the best illustrations of those qualities comes via a piece by Chris Herring of FiveThirtyEight.com. In it, Herring explained how the Warriors set screens differently than any team in the league, which allows them to function in a system best described as organizational chaos.

Herring was kind enough to join us on the latest edition of the podcast to explain how he reported that piece, what it says about the Warriors’ culture, and why no other team is able to duplicate it. It was an illuminating conversation for anyone curious about how writers bring Xs and Os to life and connect the nitty-gritty details of what happens on the court to the larger philosophies of teams.

We also briefly discussed the matchups that could decide the upcoming NBA Finals we all expect between the Warriors and Cavaliers. (Sorry, Celtics fans).

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