Golden State's Bench Is Old, Shallow, And Still Pretty Good

168 NBA players are receiving "regular" minutes off the bench this season–that is, at least 10 minutes per game, in at least half their team's games, while coming off the bench in at least half of their appearances. Some of these players are young, like Jamal Murray, Dragan Bender, and Brandon Ingram. Some are in or nearing their physical primes, like Eric Gordon, Patrick Patterson, and Iman Shumpert. And some are just plain old, like Vince Carter, Manu Ginobili, and Jason Terry.

Some teams, such as the Philadelphia 76ers, have entire bench units that consist entirely of young players. The oldest guy the Sixers bring off their bench for regular minutes is Hollis Thompson. He's 25. There are other teams, like the New York Knicks, whose bench unit consists almost entirely of players in their physical prime. Five of the six players that get regular minutes off Jeff Hornacek's bench are between 26 and 28 years old, with Willy Hernangomez, 22, as the lone holdout. Some teams have polarized benches, like the Grizzlies, who feature four guys between 20 and 25 mixing in with old heads like the aforementioned Carter and Zach Randolph.

Then you have the Golden State Warriors, whose bench is old, shallow, and still pretty darn good.

Steve Kerr only really gives consistent minutes to two bench players: Andre Iguodala and Shaun Livingston. Iguodala, the final component of the Death Lineup–or whatever we're calling it now–and de facto fifth starter is 33. Livingston, who like Iguodala has played more minutes than starting center Zaza Pachulia, is 31. They're the only two getting at least 15 minutes a night.

Ian Clark (25), Patrick McCaw (21), and David West (36) each play between 11 and 14 minutes per game. But McCaw's numbers are misleading: he has played fewer than five minutes as often as he's played 15-plus, though, and gets most of his burn during garbage time. He's a "regular" bench player by our definition, but he's also not really in the regular rotation.

That leaves four guys–Iguodala, Livingston, Clark, and West. Three of them are among the 25 oldest bench guys in the league.

While that may seem strange, it's actually not. Many of the league's best teams have benches that skew old. This makes sense, because the guys that are willing to take less money to come off the bench behind star-laden groups are usually the kind that have made a bunch of money and been in the league awhile.

Sort each team's regular bench contributors by minutes-weighted age, and only six teams have sub units older than 29, on average. The Sacramento Kings are the lone outlier in the group in that they're not able to be counted among the best teams in their conference. The other five are the San Antonio Spurs, Cleveland Cavaliers, Los Angeles Clippers, Grizzlies, and Warriors. Go back to the list of the 25 oldest bench players, and only the Cavs and Clippers join Golden State with three players on it.

The Warriors aren't even an outlier in not having anyone in their physical prime coming off the bench. As mentioned earlier, the Grizzlies' bench is set up that way as well, and the Clippers' "prime" bench guys are former Warrior Mo Speights and Wesley Johnson. So it's not that unusual. What is strange about the Golden State rotation is the age of the players in the circle of trust. The only three teams in the NBA not giving at least 20 minutes a night to any bench players under age 30 are the Warriors, Washington Wizards, and Minnesota Timberwolves, and the latter two squads are on the list because they're the only two teams giving at least 30 minutes a night to all five of their starters.

On the surface, there's no real issue. Golden State didn't give 20-plus minutes off the bench to any under-30 guys either of the last two years, and things worked out just fine: they won a championship and were a Draymond Green kick in the nuts away from doing it again. There's not even really an issue lurking beneath the surface, either. Sure, the bench behind Iguodala is much thinner this year than either of the last two. There's no Speights or Festus Ezeli or Leandro Barbosa or Brandon Rush or David Lee or even Andrew Bogut, who–like Pachulia–started but played less often than Iguodala. But the Warriors have just been so good with their four best guys on the floor (you know who they are) that it hasn't even mattered what they've done in the other minutes–and they've still killed teams in those other minutes.

The following chart shows Golden State's Net Rating (points scored minus points allowed per 100 possessions), broken down by whether Stephen Curry, Klay Thompson, Kevin Durant, and Draymond Green are all in the game together or not:

That group of four players has been on the floor together for about 35 percent of Golden State's total minutes this season and has unsurprisingly demolished the opposition. The Warriors have played 65 percent of their minutes with either one, two, three, or none of those players on the floor together, though, and have still outscored their opponents at a rate that would rank as the fifth-best in the league. Add it all together and you have a team that has outscored its opponents by 12.1 points per 100 possessions overall–the best mark of any team in the last 20 years, including last year's squad that won 73 games, as well as the 1996-97 Chicago Bulls squad that won 72 and is considered by many to be the best team of all time.

The only possible issue that could arise with Golden State having just a few dependable bench players (and all of them being old) is if the specific skills the Warriors depend on them for go by the wayside. On that front, there have been some minor–again, MINOR–concerns.

There are certain matchups where West just can't play, which necessitates either going small nearly full-time (a perfectly fine option, so long as Green can physically handle it) or turning to reclamation project JaVale McGee (not quite as desirable an option, as fun as it has been to see him contribute to actual positive basketball). West has shot absolutely lights out on a steady-ish diet of easy looks and has dished out a surprising number of assists, but he also has turned the ball over like crazy (24.2 percent of his possessions, which is legitimately insane) and ranks in the bottom-half of bench rim protectors (45th out of 85 challenging at least 2.5 shots per game, per SportVU data).

In short, West is a useful piece, but also not necessarily someone that Kerr seems likely to give more than spot minutes against an opponent like the Cavs. That limits Golden State to mostly bringing guards and wings off the bench, which means Clark has to play a bigger role than he's used to and/or Golden State has to go small almost full-time.

Livingston is shooting only 40 percent out of the post this season, down from 50 percent a year ago. His hit rate on jumpers between 10 and 16 feet from the basket is down from 52 percent to 46 percent this season as well, and it's down from 42 percent to 23 percent on shots between 16 feet and the three-point line. Combined, those distances account for over 60 percent of his shot attempts. He has made up for it by shooting at a super-human rate on shots inside 10 feet, but if he can't get close enough to the rim–like he couldn't at some points during last year's playoffs–then his shooting drop-off becomes a problem.

Some of Livingston's mid-range shooting struggles likely stem from Kerr taking the ball out of his hands with the second unit more often to let Durant run the show. Defenders can sag farther off Livingston when he doesn't have the ball, which is part of why 10 percent of his shots have shifted from inside 10 feet out to the 10 to 16-foot range. Taking the ball out of Livingston's hands also neutralizes some of his abilities as a playmaker, as well as his ability to take advantage of the shifting geometry of the floor by seeing passing angles that most guards can't spot out of the post. It's a small price to pay in order to have the ball in KD's hands more often, but smart teams can make it work to their advantage for a few minutes at a time.

Iguodala is shooting only 27.5 percent on catch-and-shoot threes this year, down from 40.9 percent last season and 35.7 percent the year before. He's on track for the worst overall three-point shooting season of his career (30.3 percent) just as threes are making up a greater percentage of his shot profile than ever before. He's not really out there to shoot—even in the Death Lineup, his usage rate is only around 9 percent—but he does need to knock down open looks when called upon or teams will start Tony Allen-ing him. There's enough shooting and passing talent elsewhere on the floor, and Iguodala is a smart enough player, to make that kind of situation work anyway. But it's a whole lot easier if he just makes his shots.

The real potential concern with Iguodala would be if his defense slips even a little. He's still their best option against LeBron James in another Finals rematch; and that's true against Kawhi Leonard or any other wing star they'd see on the way there, too. There hasn't been too big a drop-off this season, but it seems fair to say he's not the same guy he was two years ago when he won Finals MVP mostly on the back of the ridiculous job he did making James' life a lot more difficult.

Luckily for the Warriors, they have a failsafe if any of the issues with their bench guys–old or young–crop up at the wrong time. Can't manufacture enough spacing? Throw it to KD. Steph can't shake free off the ball? Put him and KD in a screen and roll. Need to go small for extended periods of time? Durant showed in last year's playoffs that he can play like a 7-foot Green for stretches of the game. Iguodala not forcing LeBron into difficult enough shots? Try KD instead.

The Warriors knew when they signed Durant that they'd have to thin out their ranks of real bench contributors, putting more pressure on the ones they kept around. But they also knew that those guys would only need to do very specific things, at very specific times, in order to accomplish their ultimate goal. Because of the strength of the top four they've created, they are still on track to do just that, even with minor slippages from their most important subs.

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