I didn't mean a "super elite 7 foot guy". That won't happen. Guards don't think twice about going to the basket against Warriors., even as good as the Warriors can be defensively in the paint. Even a backup rim protector could help. Green and Loony seem to always be battling against bigger opponents. The Kings being the exception. They both excel in the paint but too often appear to be at a disadvantage. Kerr just doesn't think getting a Big as necessary.
In the aftermath of a blowout elimination loss in the Western Conference semifinals, the Phoenix Suns fired coach Monty Williams on Saturday night, sources told ESPN. New Suns owner Mat Ishbia made the decision to dismiss Williams
Ishbia has fully taken over the franchise's basketball operations, including the negotiation of the February trade for Kevin Durant and now the dismissal of Williams. Suns general manager James Jones called Williams on Saturday night and delivered the news to him, sources said.
Ishbia had never warmed to Williams as his coach and decided quickly after Thursday night's loss to the Denver Nuggets in Game 6 of the Western Conference semifinals that he would fire him, sources said.
The carousel continues. Every coach who has been in an NBA finals in the last 8 years has been fired, except Kerr and Spoestra. Every coach who has won in the last 8 years has been fired, except Kerr. Not saying the Suns shouldn't move on from Monty, but more a comment on the endless Kerr hate. Every coach ends up hated. Almost none get 4 rings. Careful what you wish for.
I’m interested in who the Kerr haters think should replace him. I don’t think there’s anyone out there who is available that would realistically be a better option. This is a team that deserves and would expect no less than the top tier— guys like Spoelstra, Popovich, and I say Kerr, who won more in his extended beginning than the other two. These are the only kind of coaches whom the OG’s would really respect as being above them in rank and as their rightful leader, but if I’m missing anybody else who is available then yeah, I’d love to hear who they are, and who is worth seeing Kerr go to a rival team—because he no doubt would have his pick of them who would snatch him up in a heartbeat (outside of yeah, the Spurs and Heat, though I could even see Pop thinking, “woah, Steve’s available? I’ve finally got a worthy successor and can retire if he wants it!”)
And by the way “a coach who has a willingness and ability to adapt their system to the personnel they have, doesn't discriminate on the basis of age, and knows how to develop young talent AND turn 15 separate guys into a team” sounds great. But yeah, what’s the name of this coach who is available?
I’m totally with you regarding not catering to the vets’ preferences. I’m saying they *need* to be kept in check, and I don’t know any other coach who could do that. That’s what I meant about respect. Kerr’s got more rings than these dudes, and you risk replacing teacher with a sub who’ll get run over if you don’t get someone with proven pedigree.
Kerr just coached this squad a year ago to a a championship. He might’ve done a little more before that too, but ignoring anything past the last two years if we have to, you just don’t throw him out at this point because he had one season you’re not happy with. And what I should’ve asked for in my original post were specific names of viable alternatives. That’s what “Kerr haters” never seem to include in their “Fire Kerr” comments. And I want to point out that neither of your replies to me above did either. But that’s what I’m interested in hearing: names of actual people that would supposedly do better in Kerr’s seat.
Listen, I just wrote my original reply way up there—before you ever jumped in to respond to me—asking which coach the “Kerr haters” would replace him with. If you’re not one of those you didn’t have to respond, but you did. But no answer to the question. I asked it again, still no answer.
I won’t argue with the latest stuff you wrote, 1) because it’s bedtime for me, 2) because maybe I don’t necessarily disagree, and 3) the more that’s written that doesn’t include an answer to my original question, the less I’m interested.
I think without specific names, it’s just yelling at clouds territory for me. Like, I could say, “what this team needs is another superstar” and it might be close to the same thing. Who is available, whom we can realistically get, and will actually improve on what we have now?
Without an answer, it’d be a discussion that goes nowhere interesting for me, because we might as well be asking for an 8 footer who can shoot from half court with a FG% of 76 because yeah, that’d definitely help the team but ain’t realistic either, unless said player can be named and actually gotten.
Naming a coach is significantly less hard than that and would move all these discussions forward and then we could argue the merits of replacing Kerr with someone real.
I hope that makes sense.
There’s coaches out there who are more available now due to recent firings, so it’s a bigger pool to choose a name from. Can someone just throw one out? If they can’t, then it’s just too easy for me to lump then all in together and shorthand as “Kerr haters” whether that’s a fair term to apply or not, and keep it moving.
Anyway, good night, and no hard feelings hopefully, but yeah, hope this all makes sense. Call me evasive, but I feel the lack of specific answer to my question in the first place is evading also. So that might be all from me. I really do have to sleep too though. Will check for a name tomorrow if you wanna provide one and maybe we can take it from there, but if not, all good. Take care
The Suns, league sources say, are expected to explore the feasibility of trying to lure Tyronn Lue away from the Clippers after tonight's abrupt dismissal of Monty Williams as coach.
Genuinely surprised the Lakers didn't night night us at the end of game 6. There really wasn't much animosity in this series outside of the flop talk though. Both top dogs from each team respect each other way too much.
I wouldn't be surprised if some of the Warriors players are friends with the Lakers or have respect towards one another. For example, Curry and Patrick Beverley are still friends.
Here’s chat gpt’s version of events: “In a shocking turn of events at a recent basketball practice for the Golden State Warriors, tensions ran high as guard Jordan Poole allegedly disrespected head coach Steve Kerr. According to witnesses, Poole was talking back to Kerr and throwing insults his way.
"Poole was acting like he was the star of the team, talking crap to Coach Kerr like he was nobody," said one anonymous player who witnessed the incident. "Draymond (Green) tried to calm him down but he just kept going."
It was then that Green, a vocal leader on the team, stepped in to defend Kerr. Witnesses say Green confronted Poole and told him to show some respect.
"Draymond was trying to reason with him, telling him he needed to respect the coach and the team, but Poole just kept talking trash," said another witness.
In a moment of anger, Green reportedly punched Poole, sending him to the ground. But the altercation didn't end there. Kerr, who had been watching the incident unfold, stepped in to defend his player and was also involved in a physical altercation with Poole.
"Coach Kerr wasn't going to let anyone disrespect him or his team," said a source close to the team. "He stepped in to protect Draymond and ended up throwing a punch of his own."
The incident shocked other players on the team, who were not used to seeing such violence at practice.
"It was crazy, I've never seen anything like it," said one player. "We all respect Coach Kerr and Draymond, and it's just sad that it had to come to this."
The Warriors have yet to release an official statement on the matter, but sources say that Poole has been disciplined for his behavior. As for Green and Kerr, they are expected to face consequences as well.
This incident serves as a reminder that respect and discipline are key components to any successful team, on and off the court.”
Hope I'm not reposting. Mentioned Moody's response earlier.
Shayna Rubin
@ShaynaRubin
Some insightful responses in exit interviews about how the bench’s experience was the biggest difference between this and last season. Lot of learned lessons the hard way.
Beli as a passing Center that could shoot a bit. OPJ as a smallball Center and the perfect Power Forward for Kerrball. Allowed them to more easily play JK since they could space the floor in the front court for him.
This year they got smaller with DDV and JMG being a big whiff. So went from Beli and OPJ as the backup front court to even smaller Lamb and JK.
This is before considering they gutted their wing depth by replacing the likes of JTA and DLee with teenagers in PBJ and Rollins.
That’s not how this works… Bjelica was a Euroleague MVP, Otto had earned a 9 figure contract, etc. they had established their place in the league and were fighting to hold on… our younger guys this year we’re trying to show they can do more than asked of them
Did you see how close AD could get to the basket before even considering shooting? And how difficult it was for the Warriors to go to the basket and then thinking twice when AD was there in the paint. Sure it worked great when pulling him out of the paint on P&R's but playing w/o a Big leaves little room for error. And then, when your stars are shooting bricks, you'll lose. Staying with just Draymond at 6'6" and Loony at 6'9" is a disadvantage you can't count on.
Getting a super elite 7 foot guy is not easy. That's why Warriors used a number 2 pick on a gamble on Wiseman, and it didn't work out because he's still bad. People acting like if Warriors still had Damion Jones he would just shut down AD. No one that the Warriors could realistically get would stop AD. It's like saying, how come the 19 straight Western conference teams the Warriors dominated over 8 years didn't just think of getting a guy who could shut down Curry?!
I kind of thought teams with bigs would be a problem. Warriors were fortunate they didn't face Giannis, Embid last year's championship. It only took AD for the Warriors to realize it this year.
Last year we played Jokic, the MVP big, and JJJ, this years defensive player of the year big… and beat them. We’re just fine against bigs. We even outrebounded the Lakers most of the games. It’s not as simple as we can’t handle bigs…
I feel like Kerr is a bit under appreciated. Yeah, his rotations were frustrating, but he and his staff were responsible for solving the issue of attacking AD in the paint (ended up scoring more paint points than the Lakers for most of the series) and dealing with the Sabonis DHOs/Fox PnRs against Sac and held a historically great offence to just league average. The core may have played way too many minutes and others didn't get much of a chance (What was the point of signing Lamb?), but I feel like he did try his best to set up the team for success on the court. He was just limited with his personnel and team chemistry was a mess.
It's not Kerr's fault if Steph and Draymond are throwing blind passes into the stands or players are failing to inbound the balls in their own half. What is he supposed to do if his only backup PG fouls on every drive and refuses to slow down no matter how much he tells them to hit singles. At the end of the day Kerr can only give instructions and it's up to the players to execute.
It helped their strategy a LOT that Andrew was a shell of himself… and that Steph and Klay couldn’t hit the broad side of a barn when they got open looks… and that the Lakers made 50% of their 3s and got to the line a ton because we couldn’t hold up at the POA… that allowed Lakers to really set their defense
1. If Klay makes that good look he got at the end of the first half and Reaves doesn’t get a heave, 6 points net
2. If we don’t give up 2 backcourt TOs. +4 points net
3. If Loon doesn’t get the ball bonked off the backboard and out of bounds. +2 points net
3. If Klay hits one of those two wiiiide open 3s on that possession late in the third. +3 points net
4. If Steph doesn’t flub the wide open finger roll. +2 points net.
That’s 17easy points that would have made it a 1 point game with 3:45 left, instead of pulling the starters with a 18 point deficit. That was a winnable game if we play just a little better.
I don't think Steve can be blamed for turnovers and the effort of players in games, but I do think he holds some of the blame for not pushing the right buttons, or adjusting within the game at times this postseason. From Game 1 vs Sac and his Steph rotations. Playing DDV and Poole too much, when they were killing the team. Game 1 vs Lakers, not starting small from the beginning or going small sooner to seal the win. Going away from GP2 completely, and Wiggs pnr in the 4th quarter of Game 4 in the Lakers series. Playing 4 guard lineups that did not work constantly, even though he had a healthy forward on the bench. I like Steve, but like his team this regular season and post was not his best.
DDV's shots weren't going down but he did other things well. He wasn't great but I never felt like he was killing us. Without both DDV and JP we would have been short on guards who could initiate the offense when Steph and Dray rested so I think Steve had to play one of them, in which case I'd rather have seen more of DDV than Poole.
Kerr did great things, yes. But this series he got outcoached by a rookie! It was Lakers' supporting cast that killed the Warriors. He didn't prepare the Warriors support players or give them enough time to develop and flourish. It's the coach's job to put players in a situation they can succeed, if not those players shouldn't be on the team in the first place if the coach thinks they can't play. Ham pushed the right buttons, got Reaves, Walker, Vanderbilt, D.Lo roles where they succeeded. If Reaves and Walker are on the Warriors roster , I can almost guarantee Kerr wouldn't have played them. Also, Warriors should have found a way to play out of rotation some players like they always do in the past or punish them in a mismatch if they don't (Boston Finals last year), this time around Lakers played out Poole, Kuminga, J.Green out of rotation, Lakers pretty much dictated our rotations and Kerr picked incorrectly and lost. Warriors were supposed to spread the floor, out pace the Lakers and tire them out instead they got out hustled, punked and punched in the mouth...yeah like Green punching Poole!
Kerr should have pressed the "two greatest shooters of all time hit wide open threes" button harder.
The Warriors solved the Lakers in that series, unfortunately for them they outplayed the Lakers with that solution but still lost in Game 4 and then Wiggins (who was crucial to their strategy https://twitter.com/CrumpledJumper/status/1657053518744948741) broke his rib at the tail end of Game 5.
> If Reaves and Walker are on the Warriors roster , I can almost guarantee Kerr wouldn't have played them.
Since when is this even a criticism of Kerr. I remember last season when he was being criticized for playing too many guys like Bjelica. Regardless, what if I said I guarantee he would have played those guys. Now what?
> if not those players shouldn't be on the team in the first place if the coach thinks they can't play.
Once again people are mad at Kerr when they should really be mad at the front office.
And you know that how? How 'bout in exchange for Dray the Warriors get a younger player with a future who may not be a 1st team All Star player but gives you 18 ppg instead of 8, has a turnover-to-assist ratio of 5 instead of 3 and who doesn't lead the league in ejections and doesn't punch rising star teammates in the face. Plus he's a major f'ing distraction on the court with the refs. His value is way overrated IMO. And the reality is he only has probably one good year left.
The Warriors are not trading Dray. There are only three practical options: Dray opts in, and we negotiate an extension after that; or he opts out and we negotiate a new deal this summer; or he opts out and walks and we lose him for nothing but get salary relief (albeit we're still way into the luxury tax).
There's no way he opts in or signs a new deal just so we can trade him — unless we strike a deal with a contender where he wants to go, and he accepts a sign-and-trade for a lot more money to make it worthwhile. BUT teams receiving a sign-and-trade player are hard capped, and no contender is going to get far enough under the cap to do that.
I don't know. That's not the point of my comment. Dubs don't fall apart w/o Green, my point. Let's take Brook Lopez as a possibility. He doesn't fit b/c of contract disparity, but there are younger, taller, longer players out there. The issue is how much value does Green bring to another team and can Bob Myers pull it off.
From what I have seen over the last several seasons, the Dubs do in fact fall apart w/o Draymond Green!
During this year's playoffs they also fell apart w/o Kevon Loony!
Just my observations from television...
Granted playing both DGreen and KLoony is having 2/5 of the lineup with generally non-shooting threats and allows defenses to play accordingly. That is why the team seems to do much better when Draymond is aggressive driving to the basket.
That means the remaining 3/5 must provide the bulk of the scoring, and especially with outside shooting, which should open up the defenses.
For whatever reasons, it did not happen regularly enough these playoffs...
Mo Bamba is out there too… longer, taller, younger… but he isn’t a better player than Draymond either. I’ll point out:
Fox was killing our guards on dribble penetration. AD was killing Looney inside. Draymond “Unicorn” Green is the solution to both problems. Nobody else is doing that. And no 10 extra ppg is gonna make up for Drays defensive impact and offensive facilitation…
You could realistically make that argument. Actually, the best move, now that I think about it, is to add a Big as a shot blocker/rim protector/rebounder who can give Green and Loony a break, a seasoned player who could give you 10-12 minutes a game. That's actually what I wanted the Warriors to do before and after even trading Wiseman. It may have worked last year w/o a Big but not a 2nd time. Makes me realize how special the team makeup was last year. If I remember, during the season (near the end) there were a few decent Bigs that management bought out, waiting for a buyer. AD made it all perfectly clear.
Don’t fight fire with fire… we attacked AD the way we had to, but lost some coin flip games and missed a metric ton of makeable shots… and lost Wiggins for game 6
I didn't realize that next year is Kerr's last year of his contract. Blow it up, I say.
No Dray, Klay, GP2, Kerr and Bob. Hire a coach who will
- start Rollins, Poole, Moody, JK and PBJ and play them heavy minutes
- Change the system to be JK centric.
- Play rookies we get for Dray, Klay and Gp2 heavy minutes.
- Bring Steph, Wiggs and Loon come off the bench and play them as little a minutes as possible.Steph needs to learn to be humble and learn to live under JK's shadow. Dude couldnt even win a series against 38 yr old LeBron. Enough hubris.
i believe this is evident and obvious but did Kerr’s comment about this “not being a championship team” seem directed to the FO and ownership, ie, he wasn’t dissing the players themselves?
I would count Jordan Poole as a difference. If we got last year's Jordan Poole Steph wouldn't be our sole ball handler for the entire game. No Bjelica also hurt. He was semi playable in spot minutes in both the conference and NBA finals. JMG is completely useless on the court. Even when he's hitting threes he's only a net neutral. Add to that GP2 still looked hampered by whatever injury/illness he contracted. On the coaching side, we lost Mike Brown too. This year's team was a shell of last year's.
jp was the biggest difference. but he's still a championship player, and part of this championship team. kerr stating, "this is not a championship team," seems to pass the blame to roster choices. jp sucking was not a roster choice.
He's just saying that they didn't play well enough to contend for a championship. Not belittling players or the FO. They often executed poorly. They weren't disciplined enough to play smart. They didn't always play hard. These are the things he's referring to
Eh, JP was frustrated instead of hungry… Wiggins missed 4.5 months… all the youngsters had hoped for bigger roles and instead chemistry just got messed up…
It's hard to say anything else. The W's got beat in the second round, and they were pretty clearly not playing well enough to get through another round, much less two. Like they're not that far off, but they are off.
In my view Kerrs refusal to play Jonathan Kuminga was the difference in this series The last few months of the season Kuminga shot 56% FG, 44% from 3, 8 Reb, 2.5 Blks/Stls, 28 PTS per 48 minutes. He essentially played the Andrew Wiggins role., earning praise around the league for his defensive prowess and his ability to guard the other teams best players.
He is arguably the most athletic player on the team.....the most physical. One of the best on-ball defenders. He has a pretty good post up game. Especially against smaller players. So many times we've seen him ignite the team by making a highlight reel type play or dunk. Players feed off that. Sometimes thats all it takes to get other players like Klay and Poole going and spark a run.
I can't understand for the life of me how you can take a player like that and determine he isn't even good to get in the game. Especially w/ everyone else struggling.
Think of all the shots Reaves, Schroeder, Walker, even Lebron made with a 6'2 Curry, GP, Dante guarding them. Against a 6'7 Kuminga they likely miss a few more of those shots per game. Think of all the wide open shots the dubs missed.... Kuminga easily could've made 3 or 4 of those shots.
Not to mention the extra rest Klay, Curry, Dray would've had per game to keep their legs fresh. Fatigue played a role in their late game and late series struggles. They've literally played an extra season of basketball due to all of their Championship runs. With some extra rest, maybe those open shots they missed start going in. And that 17 point 4th quarter turns into 23 or 24.
A few extra stops and a few extra buckets here and there was literally the difference between the dubs being down 3-1 w/ 2 home games left and up 3-1 w/ 2 home games left. And we'd be telling a completely different story. I'm so disappointed in Kerr.
Simplest explanation is the Dubs probably just didn't play well enough to win. I would have liked to see Kuminga play at least some stretch, just to see how he did, and make him feel more of a component of the team. But, if he had played 5+ min in games 1 or 4 and the dubs still lost, then people would be roasting Kerr that he didn't care at all about winning, he is just rolling out 20 year olds while all the winning teams have a short rotation, it's an affront to the prime of Curry. In short, if dubs lose, whatever Kerr did was wrong. If they win, it was right (or to many here apparently, he got lucky). Truth is probably a few bench minutes didn't determine the season.
The difference though? My friend, we just went through an all out blood bath against one of the best teams in the conference in Sacramento. Indirectly yes not getting Kuminga minutes hurt our overall depth but playing Kuminga this series wouldn’t have prevented Steph and Klay looking like they were shooting from quicksand as the series wore on.
"but playing Kuminga this series wouldn’t have prevented Steph and Klay looking like they were shooting from quicksand as the series wore on."
1st of all, that's an assumption, a really obvious one. IF JK was lightening it up in this series how it would have affected Poole and Klay's scoring would be debated as assumptions. You're using facts against assumptions, proving nothing. It doesn't work that way.
This loss is seriously Kerr's fault, and I am not a hater. He has made some horrible decisions that has cost games, both in strategy and who he uses and not uses in games. I couldnt agree more with Brad in CBS comments here: https://www.cbssports.com/nba/news/warriors-vs-lakers-why-steve-kerr-deserves-bulk-of-blame-for-golden-states-3-1-hole/
Brad's comment is stupid and if you agree with him then yes you are a hater.
This loss is seriously Kerr's fault, and I am not a hater. He has made some horrible decisions that has cost games, both in strategy and who he uses and not uses in games. I couldnt agree more with Brad in CBS comments here: https://www.cbssports.com/nba/news/warriors-vs-lakers-why-steve-kerr-deserves-bulk-of-blame-for-golden-states-3-1-hole/
I didn't mean a "super elite 7 foot guy". That won't happen. Guards don't think twice about going to the basket against Warriors., even as good as the Warriors can be defensively in the paint. Even a backup rim protector could help. Green and Loony seem to always be battling against bigger opponents. The Kings being the exception. They both excel in the paint but too often appear to be at a disadvantage. Kerr just doesn't think getting a Big as necessary.
In the aftermath of a blowout elimination loss in the Western Conference semifinals, the Phoenix Suns fired coach Monty Williams on Saturday night, sources told ESPN. New Suns owner Mat Ishbia made the decision to dismiss Williams
Ishbia has fully taken over the franchise's basketball operations, including the negotiation of the February trade for Kevin Durant and now the dismissal of Williams. Suns general manager James Jones called Williams on Saturday night and delivered the news to him, sources said.
Ishbia had never warmed to Williams as his coach and decided quickly after Thursday night's loss to the Denver Nuggets in Game 6 of the Western Conference semifinals that he would fire him, sources said.
https://www.espn.com/nba/story/_/id/37644346/sources-suns-dismiss-coach-monty-williams-4-seasons
The carousel continues. Every coach who has been in an NBA finals in the last 8 years has been fired, except Kerr and Spoestra. Every coach who has won in the last 8 years has been fired, except Kerr. Not saying the Suns shouldn't move on from Monty, but more a comment on the endless Kerr hate. Every coach ends up hated. Almost none get 4 rings. Careful what you wish for.
I’m interested in who the Kerr haters think should replace him. I don’t think there’s anyone out there who is available that would realistically be a better option. This is a team that deserves and would expect no less than the top tier— guys like Spoelstra, Popovich, and I say Kerr, who won more in his extended beginning than the other two. These are the only kind of coaches whom the OG’s would really respect as being above them in rank and as their rightful leader, but if I’m missing anybody else who is available then yeah, I’d love to hear who they are, and who is worth seeing Kerr go to a rival team—because he no doubt would have his pick of them who would snatch him up in a heartbeat (outside of yeah, the Spurs and Heat, though I could even see Pop thinking, “woah, Steve’s available? I’ve finally got a worthy successor and can retire if he wants it!”)
And by the way “a coach who has a willingness and ability to adapt their system to the personnel they have, doesn't discriminate on the basis of age, and knows how to develop young talent AND turn 15 separate guys into a team” sounds great. But yeah, what’s the name of this coach who is available?
I’m totally with you regarding not catering to the vets’ preferences. I’m saying they *need* to be kept in check, and I don’t know any other coach who could do that. That’s what I meant about respect. Kerr’s got more rings than these dudes, and you risk replacing teacher with a sub who’ll get run over if you don’t get someone with proven pedigree.
Kerr just coached this squad a year ago to a a championship. He might’ve done a little more before that too, but ignoring anything past the last two years if we have to, you just don’t throw him out at this point because he had one season you’re not happy with. And what I should’ve asked for in my original post were specific names of viable alternatives. That’s what “Kerr haters” never seem to include in their “Fire Kerr” comments. And I want to point out that neither of your replies to me above did either. But that’s what I’m interested in hearing: names of actual people that would supposedly do better in Kerr’s seat.
Listen, I just wrote my original reply way up there—before you ever jumped in to respond to me—asking which coach the “Kerr haters” would replace him with. If you’re not one of those you didn’t have to respond, but you did. But no answer to the question. I asked it again, still no answer.
I won’t argue with the latest stuff you wrote, 1) because it’s bedtime for me, 2) because maybe I don’t necessarily disagree, and 3) the more that’s written that doesn’t include an answer to my original question, the less I’m interested.
I think without specific names, it’s just yelling at clouds territory for me. Like, I could say, “what this team needs is another superstar” and it might be close to the same thing. Who is available, whom we can realistically get, and will actually improve on what we have now?
Without an answer, it’d be a discussion that goes nowhere interesting for me, because we might as well be asking for an 8 footer who can shoot from half court with a FG% of 76 because yeah, that’d definitely help the team but ain’t realistic either, unless said player can be named and actually gotten.
Naming a coach is significantly less hard than that and would move all these discussions forward and then we could argue the merits of replacing Kerr with someone real.
I hope that makes sense.
There’s coaches out there who are more available now due to recent firings, so it’s a bigger pool to choose a name from. Can someone just throw one out? If they can’t, then it’s just too easy for me to lump then all in together and shorthand as “Kerr haters” whether that’s a fair term to apply or not, and keep it moving.
Anyway, good night, and no hard feelings hopefully, but yeah, hope this all makes sense. Call me evasive, but I feel the lack of specific answer to my question in the first place is evading also. So that might be all from me. I really do have to sleep too though. Will check for a name tomorrow if you wanna provide one and maybe we can take it from there, but if not, all good. Take care
That wasnst just losing. That was horrid! Not hard to see that its the inflexible Kerr's fault, very much.
The Suns, league sources say, are expected to explore the feasibility of trying to lure Tyronn Lue away from the Clippers after tonight's abrupt dismissal of Monty Williams as coach.
https://twitter.com/thesteinline/status/1657565074595143682
Genuinely surprised the Lakers didn't night night us at the end of game 6. There really wasn't much animosity in this series outside of the flop talk though. Both top dogs from each team respect each other way too much.
I wouldn't be surprised if some of the Warriors players are friends with the Lakers or have respect towards one another. For example, Curry and Patrick Beverley are still friends.
Lonnie Walked posted a photo of Steph's signed jersey on his IG too
Hate to get all all TMZ, but apparently an uncredited report came out that Draymond punched Poole for being disrespectful to Kerr?
Here’s chat gpt’s version of events: “In a shocking turn of events at a recent basketball practice for the Golden State Warriors, tensions ran high as guard Jordan Poole allegedly disrespected head coach Steve Kerr. According to witnesses, Poole was talking back to Kerr and throwing insults his way.
"Poole was acting like he was the star of the team, talking crap to Coach Kerr like he was nobody," said one anonymous player who witnessed the incident. "Draymond (Green) tried to calm him down but he just kept going."
It was then that Green, a vocal leader on the team, stepped in to defend Kerr. Witnesses say Green confronted Poole and told him to show some respect.
"Draymond was trying to reason with him, telling him he needed to respect the coach and the team, but Poole just kept talking trash," said another witness.
In a moment of anger, Green reportedly punched Poole, sending him to the ground. But the altercation didn't end there. Kerr, who had been watching the incident unfold, stepped in to defend his player and was also involved in a physical altercation with Poole.
"Coach Kerr wasn't going to let anyone disrespect him or his team," said a source close to the team. "He stepped in to protect Draymond and ended up throwing a punch of his own."
The incident shocked other players on the team, who were not used to seeing such violence at practice.
"It was crazy, I've never seen anything like it," said one player. "We all respect Coach Kerr and Draymond, and it's just sad that it had to come to this."
The Warriors have yet to release an official statement on the matter, but sources say that Poole has been disciplined for his behavior. As for Green and Kerr, they are expected to face consequences as well.
This incident serves as a reminder that respect and discipline are key components to any successful team, on and off the court.”
😬
Draymond trying to get a teammate to stop yelling at Kerr? LMAO dude yells at Kerr all the time. Sounds like fake news
Well.. it is, its a made up story 👍🏼
Timeline doesn't make sense to me. Poole was being disrespectful to Kerr before he got his extension? Why would Poole do that?
Doesn't make sense to me, either. I wouldn't trust the report.
Wow… that would be a whole thing…
Anywhere to see a Moses Moody post game or exit interview? Cannot find on YouTube.
Try the nbc sports bay area website
There's one up on the Dubs website now.
Thnx
Hope I'm not reposting. Mentioned Moody's response earlier.
Shayna Rubin
@ShaynaRubin
Some insightful responses in exit interviews about how the bench’s experience was the biggest difference between this and last season. Lot of learned lessons the hard way.
https://twitter.com/ShaynaRubin/status/1657473176325210114
And from Wiggins:
https://twitter.com/ShaynaRubin/status/1657473592232226816
Bench was MUCH more experienced this year....
2022 bench experience (poole+gp2+otto+bjelica+kuminga):
38 playoff games combined (0+0+31+7+0)
2023 bench experience (poole+gp2+ddv+jmg+kuminga):
112 playoff games combined (22+12+13+49+16)
Bench last year fit a lot better.
Beli as a passing Center that could shoot a bit. OPJ as a smallball Center and the perfect Power Forward for Kerrball. Allowed them to more easily play JK since they could space the floor in the front court for him.
This year they got smaller with DDV and JMG being a big whiff. So went from Beli and OPJ as the backup front court to even smaller Lamb and JK.
This is before considering they gutted their wing depth by replacing the likes of JTA and DLee with teenagers in PBJ and Rollins.
That’s not how this works… Bjelica was a Euroleague MVP, Otto had earned a 9 figure contract, etc. they had established their place in the league and were fighting to hold on… our younger guys this year we’re trying to show they can do more than asked of them
You're comparing last year's vets to this year's young guys. JMG + DDV had earned money and playoff playing time.
Things to look forward to RS start (approximate dates):
June last week: Draft
July 1st week: California classic/Summer League
July 2nd week: Free agency
August last week+Sept first 10 days: FIBA world cup. I wonder if Dray and Klay will play. I doubt Steph plays
Oct mid: Preseason begins
Oct end: RS begins
May 19: WNBA RS starts.
Did you see how close AD could get to the basket before even considering shooting? And how difficult it was for the Warriors to go to the basket and then thinking twice when AD was there in the paint. Sure it worked great when pulling him out of the paint on P&R's but playing w/o a Big leaves little room for error. And then, when your stars are shooting bricks, you'll lose. Staying with just Draymond at 6'6" and Loony at 6'9" is a disadvantage you can't count on.
Getting a super elite 7 foot guy is not easy. That's why Warriors used a number 2 pick on a gamble on Wiseman, and it didn't work out because he's still bad. People acting like if Warriors still had Damion Jones he would just shut down AD. No one that the Warriors could realistically get would stop AD. It's like saying, how come the 19 straight Western conference teams the Warriors dominated over 8 years didn't just think of getting a guy who could shut down Curry?!
I kind of thought teams with bigs would be a problem. Warriors were fortunate they didn't face Giannis, Embid last year's championship. It only took AD for the Warriors to realize it this year.
Last year we played Jokic, the MVP big, and JJJ, this years defensive player of the year big… and beat them. We’re just fine against bigs. We even outrebounded the Lakers most of the games. It’s not as simple as we can’t handle bigs…
I feel like Kerr is a bit under appreciated. Yeah, his rotations were frustrating, but he and his staff were responsible for solving the issue of attacking AD in the paint (ended up scoring more paint points than the Lakers for most of the series) and dealing with the Sabonis DHOs/Fox PnRs against Sac and held a historically great offence to just league average. The core may have played way too many minutes and others didn't get much of a chance (What was the point of signing Lamb?), but I feel like he did try his best to set up the team for success on the court. He was just limited with his personnel and team chemistry was a mess.
It's not Kerr's fault if Steph and Draymond are throwing blind passes into the stands or players are failing to inbound the balls in their own half. What is he supposed to do if his only backup PG fouls on every drive and refuses to slow down no matter how much he tells them to hit singles. At the end of the day Kerr can only give instructions and it's up to the players to execute.
Ham/lebron killed any kerr adjustment game 6 in the ad pnr by preswitching it to keep ad in the paint
Also in a game 6 elimination he had moody n klay guarding lebron, not to mention ran a poole green looney lineup lol
It helped their strategy a LOT that Andrew was a shell of himself… and that Steph and Klay couldn’t hit the broad side of a barn when they got open looks… and that the Lakers made 50% of their 3s and got to the line a ton because we couldn’t hold up at the POA… that allowed Lakers to really set their defense
1. If Klay makes that good look he got at the end of the first half and Reaves doesn’t get a heave, 6 points net
2. If we don’t give up 2 backcourt TOs. +4 points net
3. If Loon doesn’t get the ball bonked off the backboard and out of bounds. +2 points net
3. If Klay hits one of those two wiiiide open 3s on that possession late in the third. +3 points net
4. If Steph doesn’t flub the wide open finger roll. +2 points net.
That’s 17easy points that would have made it a 1 point game with 3:45 left, instead of pulling the starters with a 18 point deficit. That was a winnable game if we play just a little better.
I don't think Steve can be blamed for turnovers and the effort of players in games, but I do think he holds some of the blame for not pushing the right buttons, or adjusting within the game at times this postseason. From Game 1 vs Sac and his Steph rotations. Playing DDV and Poole too much, when they were killing the team. Game 1 vs Lakers, not starting small from the beginning or going small sooner to seal the win. Going away from GP2 completely, and Wiggs pnr in the 4th quarter of Game 4 in the Lakers series. Playing 4 guard lineups that did not work constantly, even though he had a healthy forward on the bench. I like Steve, but like his team this regular season and post was not his best.
DDV's shots weren't going down but he did other things well. He wasn't great but I never felt like he was killing us. Without both DDV and JP we would have been short on guards who could initiate the offense when Steph and Dray rested so I think Steve had to play one of them, in which case I'd rather have seen more of DDV than Poole.
Kerr did great things, yes. But this series he got outcoached by a rookie! It was Lakers' supporting cast that killed the Warriors. He didn't prepare the Warriors support players or give them enough time to develop and flourish. It's the coach's job to put players in a situation they can succeed, if not those players shouldn't be on the team in the first place if the coach thinks they can't play. Ham pushed the right buttons, got Reaves, Walker, Vanderbilt, D.Lo roles where they succeeded. If Reaves and Walker are on the Warriors roster , I can almost guarantee Kerr wouldn't have played them. Also, Warriors should have found a way to play out of rotation some players like they always do in the past or punish them in a mismatch if they don't (Boston Finals last year), this time around Lakers played out Poole, Kuminga, J.Green out of rotation, Lakers pretty much dictated our rotations and Kerr picked incorrectly and lost. Warriors were supposed to spread the floor, out pace the Lakers and tire them out instead they got out hustled, punked and punched in the mouth...yeah like Green punching Poole!
Kerr should have pressed the "two greatest shooters of all time hit wide open threes" button harder.
The Warriors solved the Lakers in that series, unfortunately for them they outplayed the Lakers with that solution but still lost in Game 4 and then Wiggins (who was crucial to their strategy https://twitter.com/CrumpledJumper/status/1657053518744948741) broke his rib at the tail end of Game 5.
> If Reaves and Walker are on the Warriors roster , I can almost guarantee Kerr wouldn't have played them.
Since when is this even a criticism of Kerr. I remember last season when he was being criticized for playing too many guys like Bjelica. Regardless, what if I said I guarantee he would have played those guys. Now what?
> if not those players shouldn't be on the team in the first place if the coach thinks they can't play.
Once again people are mad at Kerr when they should really be mad at the front office.
"Without Dray we’ll have a bottom 5-10 defense"
And you know that how? How 'bout in exchange for Dray the Warriors get a younger player with a future who may not be a 1st team All Star player but gives you 18 ppg instead of 8, has a turnover-to-assist ratio of 5 instead of 3 and who doesn't lead the league in ejections and doesn't punch rising star teammates in the face. Plus he's a major f'ing distraction on the court with the refs. His value is way overrated IMO. And the reality is he only has probably one good year left.
Wait… so youre saying i have to change my moniker??!!! ☹️
The Warriors are not trading Dray. There are only three practical options: Dray opts in, and we negotiate an extension after that; or he opts out and we negotiate a new deal this summer; or he opts out and walks and we lose him for nothing but get salary relief (albeit we're still way into the luxury tax).
There's no way he opts in or signs a new deal just so we can trade him — unless we strike a deal with a contender where he wants to go, and he accepts a sign-and-trade for a lot more money to make it worthwhile. BUT teams receiving a sign-and-trade player are hard capped, and no contender is going to get far enough under the cap to do that.
Who?
I don't know. That's not the point of my comment. Dubs don't fall apart w/o Green, my point. Let's take Brook Lopez as a possibility. He doesn't fit b/c of contract disparity, but there are younger, taller, longer players out there. The issue is how much value does Green bring to another team and can Bob Myers pull it off.
Draymond is way better than Brook Lopez though
From what I have seen over the last several seasons, the Dubs do in fact fall apart w/o Draymond Green!
During this year's playoffs they also fell apart w/o Kevon Loony!
Just my observations from television...
Granted playing both DGreen and KLoony is having 2/5 of the lineup with generally non-shooting threats and allows defenses to play accordingly. That is why the team seems to do much better when Draymond is aggressive driving to the basket.
That means the remaining 3/5 must provide the bulk of the scoring, and especially with outside shooting, which should open up the defenses.
For whatever reasons, it did not happen regularly enough these playoffs...
Mo Bamba is out there too… longer, taller, younger… but he isn’t a better player than Draymond either. I’ll point out:
Fox was killing our guards on dribble penetration. AD was killing Looney inside. Draymond “Unicorn” Green is the solution to both problems. Nobody else is doing that. And no 10 extra ppg is gonna make up for Drays defensive impact and offensive facilitation…
You could realistically make that argument. Actually, the best move, now that I think about it, is to add a Big as a shot blocker/rim protector/rebounder who can give Green and Loony a break, a seasoned player who could give you 10-12 minutes a game. That's actually what I wanted the Warriors to do before and after even trading Wiseman. It may have worked last year w/o a Big but not a 2nd time. Makes me realize how special the team makeup was last year. If I remember, during the season (near the end) there were a few decent Bigs that management bought out, waiting for a buyer. AD made it all perfectly clear.
What decent bigs were those? I remember bigs nobody wanted for good reasons (like Boogie and Dwight Howard).
Don’t fight fire with fire… we attacked AD the way we had to, but lost some coin flip games and missed a metric ton of makeable shots… and lost Wiggins for game 6
I didn't realize that next year is Kerr's last year of his contract. Blow it up, I say.
No Dray, Klay, GP2, Kerr and Bob. Hire a coach who will
- start Rollins, Poole, Moody, JK and PBJ and play them heavy minutes
- Change the system to be JK centric.
- Play rookies we get for Dray, Klay and Gp2 heavy minutes.
- Bring Steph, Wiggs and Loon come off the bench and play them as little a minutes as possible.Steph needs to learn to be humble and learn to live under JK's shadow. Dude couldnt even win a series against 38 yr old LeBron. Enough hubris.
Let's go. WGBC next year.
/s
Wooooo!!! 2020 was such a fun year all around, let's just do that forever.
That would be fun to watch… I think…
JK show lesgo
Sure, they could do that, but plan on ending with a 14-68 win-loss record.
Note rcknfn's sarcasm tag.
i believe this is evident and obvious but did Kerr’s comment about this “not being a championship team” seem directed to the FO and ownership, ie, he wasn’t dissing the players themselves?
Seems like the youth movement also lead to an overall less mature and focused team.
Ended up being too much to overcome.
Also, get a big body to soak up minutes please.
so last year's team was a championship team and this year's team was not? differences:
1. ddv vs otto... don't buy it. i like ddv better and don't think this small change effects much.
2. core has declined... this must be what kerr is saying, unusually undiplomatic of him.
I would count Jordan Poole as a difference. If we got last year's Jordan Poole Steph wouldn't be our sole ball handler for the entire game. No Bjelica also hurt. He was semi playable in spot minutes in both the conference and NBA finals. JMG is completely useless on the court. Even when he's hitting threes he's only a net neutral. Add to that GP2 still looked hampered by whatever injury/illness he contracted. On the coaching side, we lost Mike Brown too. This year's team was a shell of last year's.
jp was the biggest difference. but he's still a championship player, and part of this championship team. kerr stating, "this is not a championship team," seems to pass the blame to roster choices. jp sucking was not a roster choice.
He's just saying that they didn't play well enough to contend for a championship. Not belittling players or the FO. They often executed poorly. They weren't disciplined enough to play smart. They didn't always play hard. These are the things he's referring to
Eh, JP was frustrated instead of hungry… Wiggins missed 4.5 months… all the youngsters had hoped for bigger roles and instead chemistry just got messed up…
And Draymond and Steph said the same thing.
It's hard to say anything else. The W's got beat in the second round, and they were pretty clearly not playing well enough to get through another round, much less two. Like they're not that far off, but they are off.
In my view Kerrs refusal to play Jonathan Kuminga was the difference in this series The last few months of the season Kuminga shot 56% FG, 44% from 3, 8 Reb, 2.5 Blks/Stls, 28 PTS per 48 minutes. He essentially played the Andrew Wiggins role., earning praise around the league for his defensive prowess and his ability to guard the other teams best players.
He is arguably the most athletic player on the team.....the most physical. One of the best on-ball defenders. He has a pretty good post up game. Especially against smaller players. So many times we've seen him ignite the team by making a highlight reel type play or dunk. Players feed off that. Sometimes thats all it takes to get other players like Klay and Poole going and spark a run.
I can't understand for the life of me how you can take a player like that and determine he isn't even good to get in the game. Especially w/ everyone else struggling.
Think of all the shots Reaves, Schroeder, Walker, even Lebron made with a 6'2 Curry, GP, Dante guarding them. Against a 6'7 Kuminga they likely miss a few more of those shots per game. Think of all the wide open shots the dubs missed.... Kuminga easily could've made 3 or 4 of those shots.
Not to mention the extra rest Klay, Curry, Dray would've had per game to keep their legs fresh. Fatigue played a role in their late game and late series struggles. They've literally played an extra season of basketball due to all of their Championship runs. With some extra rest, maybe those open shots they missed start going in. And that 17 point 4th quarter turns into 23 or 24.
A few extra stops and a few extra buckets here and there was literally the difference between the dubs being down 3-1 w/ 2 home games left and up 3-1 w/ 2 home games left. And we'd be telling a completely different story. I'm so disappointed in Kerr.
Simplest explanation is the Dubs probably just didn't play well enough to win. I would have liked to see Kuminga play at least some stretch, just to see how he did, and make him feel more of a component of the team. But, if he had played 5+ min in games 1 or 4 and the dubs still lost, then people would be roasting Kerr that he didn't care at all about winning, he is just rolling out 20 year olds while all the winning teams have a short rotation, it's an affront to the prime of Curry. In short, if dubs lose, whatever Kerr did was wrong. If they win, it was right (or to many here apparently, he got lucky). Truth is probably a few bench minutes didn't determine the season.
That was perfect.
The difference though? My friend, we just went through an all out blood bath against one of the best teams in the conference in Sacramento. Indirectly yes not getting Kuminga minutes hurt our overall depth but playing Kuminga this series wouldn’t have prevented Steph and Klay looking like they were shooting from quicksand as the series wore on.
"but playing Kuminga this series wouldn’t have prevented Steph and Klay looking like they were shooting from quicksand as the series wore on."
1st of all, that's an assumption, a really obvious one. IF JK was lightening it up in this series how it would have affected Poole and Klay's scoring would be debated as assumptions. You're using facts against assumptions, proving nothing. It doesn't work that way.
I think you're missing my point. If any one of the examples I mentioned proved true, the Warriors likely win games 1 and 4.
Thats an assumption though. We don’t know what adjustments the Lakers make in game to counter. The reality was this:
@warriorsworld
23m
Klay and Poole just couldn’t score. These numbers don’t look real.
Game 3:
Klay 15pts
Poole 5pts
Game 4:
Klay 9pts
Poole 0pts
Game 5:
Klay 10pts
Poole 11pts
Game 6:
Klay 8pts
Poole 7pts
Yes your right. They are all assumptions.