A brief history of the Warriors "rubbing" opponents the wrong way

On the court, of course -- courtesy of a simple baseline inbounds play they ran exclusively against the Lakers last Saturday.

If you cared enough to pay attention to everything that went on during the Golden State Warriors’ 125-108 preseason win over the Los Angeles Lakers (I know I did — to a certain extent), you might’ve noticed a particularly intriguing on-court sequence during the late stages of the second quarter.

At first glance, it’s a ho-hum baseline out-of-bounds (BLOB) set with a not-so ho-hum result. The eye-popping pass from Dario Šarić to a cutting Moses Moody was the meat and potatoes, but the seasoning that melded it all together can’t be ignored.

That proverbial seasoning first manifested — as it always does — from the mind of Steve Kerr, who typically passes it on to whoever his on-court playcaller is at that moment. In this instance, that role was played by rookie Brandin Podziemski.

It was fortunate that NBC Sports Bay Area’s production crew decided to focus on Podziemski at that very moment:

Now, why would Podziemski rub his chest while simultaneously voicing out the word “rub” itself? It’s certainly not a request for a teammate to rub his chest or stomach — that would be an invasion of several boundaries that are way beyond basketball players’ job descriptions, at least on the court.

The actual reason is much simpler: Podziemski was calling out a staple BLOB play the Warriors call “Rub.”

Rub BLOB

“Rub” is named as such because the primary option of the set is to find the inbounder (the 3 in the diagram above) on a cut underneath the rim after inbounding the ball to a passer (the 4 in the diagram). The 2 sets the screen for the inbounder (often called a “rub” screen) and the 4 looks for the 3 if he’s open underneath.

If that option isn’t open, the action flows into screen-the-screener action in which the initial screener (the 2) then goes off an exit screen set by the 5. If defenders are laser focused on taking away the primary option, they may get caught off guard by Plan B, which can generate an open look on the perimeter.

While the primary option wasn’t open after Podziemski called out “Rub” — Rui Hachimura was ominously lurking nearby, ready to close the passing lane and deflect or intercept the pass to Gary Payton II, who was the inbounder — Moody, the 2 in this situation, was ready to come off of Šarić’s exit screen. But that option was also taken away by the Lakers, courtesy of excellent screen navigation by Max Christie.

Moody, however, wasn’t about to give up. In an exquisite display of rapid decision making and a refusal to settle for stagnant basketball, he and Šarić linked up on what was arguably the best pass-cut sequence of the game:

Another intriguing aspect of “Rub” during this game was that the Warriors opted to almost exclusively run this during BLOB situations, which is unusual given that teams usually prefer to mix it up. They have other BLOB sets such as “22,” “Hawk,” “Circle,” etc. — but “Rub” happened to be the chosen one for this particular night.

Not that it’s a new set that Kerr was trying out to test its potency — “Rub” has been part of the BLOB playbook for a couple of years now. It’s not exclusive to the bench mob, either; it would be criminal for Kerr not to use the floor-warping talents of Steph Curry to sow discord among defenses.

It’s easy to see where Curry would slot in: as the screener for the inbounder. Whoever’s defending Curry has the natural inclination to not detach from him at any cost — at the risk of letting someone who Curry screens for get wide open underneath the rim.

Not switching off of Curry to stay true to the former will almost always result in the latter, which is a concept not exclusive to “Rub” — but arguably where it’s at its most potent:

Lines of communication between the two defenders guarding Curry and the inbounder have to be open and clear, especially when it comes to switching the action. If there is zero communication, no switch occurs and the inbounder finds himself underneath the rim with no resistance.

If there is communication — i.e., the intent to switch is there — the execution must be pristine. Like a game of telephone, the message has to be clear from the beginning to prevent distortion and confusion.

But if there’s garbling from the start — e.g., Curry’s man intending to pass Curry off to the inbounder’s man, who fails to get the message and stays home — then this happens:

If it’s not enough that the inbounder is considered the most dangerous player on the floor during inbounds situations, Kerr has the option of dishing out more pain by having one of humanity’s greatest shooters of all time inbound the ball in “Rub.”

Whenever it’s Klay Thompson inbounding, the primary option then turns into a Thompson cut down the middle with Curry screening for him near the baseline and the big near the elbow who the ball is inbounded to handing it off — collectively termed as “Gut DHO” action.

Rub Gut DHO

Just like with Curry, if there’s no switch and Thompson’s defender opts to chase and navigate around the screen and the handoff, Thompson often finds himself open beyond the arc.

Even if Thompson’s defender manages to run him off the line, it still gives up a makeable mid-range look to Thompson, who won’t miss looks like this one quite often:

There’s also a bit of correlation between “Rub” and locational comfort. A look at the tracking data during the 2021-2022 season would tell you that Payton shot 39.2% on corner threes and 40.0% on left-corner threes, albeit on low volume. The shorter distance (22 feet) compared to above-the-break threes (23.75 feet) transforms Payton into a respectable shooter who defenses largely choose not to respect — and “Rub” has a built-in quirk that allows him to saunter his way toward his sweet spot.

When Kerr ran it as the exclusive BLOB set against the Lakers last Saturday, he ran it for good reason: because it works a lot despite how simple and *rudimentary* it is relative to most inbounds plays that pile layer upon layer of window dressing and misdirection.

In some ways, “Rub” is the epitome of the K.I.S.S principle (Keep It Simple, Stupid). If it’s easy to implement and it has a high success rate, you should keep calling for it until defenses wise up — which is why, with players that aren’t the starting lineup, with some on two-way contracts and training camp deals, Kerr opted to keep it simple.

While also teaching one overarching principle: If you screen for others, good things will happen all around.

And if you keep making good decisions on and off the ball — and you have a particular knack for rubbing opponents the wrong way — you might find yourself in Kerr’s rotation if you’re a lock for a roster spot, or a place in the roster if you’re from the outside looking in, whether it’s on the Warriors or another NBA team looking for players who can stick and thrive.