This will be an attempt at a regular “dump” of notes and quotes from media availability, as I gradually decrease the amount of content I release on Twitter (more on that later, someday).
Literally every question asked on a Zoom call will be covered.
Please note: For now, I have decided that these articles will be subscription-only except for Warriors losses. Again, you must have a subscription to this website if you want all the content after wins. Subscribers also get free access to our Discord server, where I’ve been posting all the notes anyways.
So instead of tweeting select quotes from these Q&As, I’ll wait and gather all of my notes as they happen and paste them here. If you’re following the beatwriters on Twitter and still want the juicy quotes as the happen in real-time, you’ll still need to do that for now, unless at some point I decide to utilize Discord’s real-time audio capabilities. 👀🤔
Also, usually half of the notes and quotes below for each speaker, I post on YouTube in the Community tab, which is easily accessible on the YouTube app, just as a thank-you to all of their views over there and YT actually having a monetizable infrastructure (unlike Twitter and Instagram).
And, finally, no. I’m not at the games anymore due to the pandemic and Warriors PR limiting access to the “traditionals”: TV, radio, newspaper (TheAthletic counts as a newspaper). But with the coronavirus raging out there and our hospitals and health care workers suffering badly, I would rather just stay at home for now, anyways.
Smiley Down
First thing that happened was, while waiting for Steve Kerr to join the Zoom call, all the beatwriters suddenly tweeted about the status of Alen Smailagic. Here’s the one from Monte Poole:
Warriors announce F/C Alen Smailagic was diagnosed with a torn R meniscus. Will have surgery and be out a few weeks.
Kerr
The big takeaway for me was that the team is just fouling too much, even though they’ve been reminded about that. Also, the Ron Adams stat is like, wow! And so you’ll see a piece on this from Anthony Slater coming up, as he’s asking those questions about the 3-point defense:
Kerr thinks Wiseman will play Sunday
defensive 3s: not connected...leading league in fouls.
Draymond: looks like a practice game...“not a criticism...“needs a few games under his belt”
Kerr hasn't been surprised by bad defense connection, Wiseman missed games, “just at a very interesting growth curve...trying to tread water while figuring things out...what is surprising is the fouling...we talk about that...then mindlessly foul.”
[Missed a question about offense]
Wiseman Js: “We'd like to get him to the rim more often.”
Paschall: “Attacking with aggression...doing a good job.”
Spacing: “Gotta watch tape and keep practicing. I've gotta figure out what I can do on my end to generate more offensive flow.”
Paschall
“Play with passion and try to get the team going.”
“I'm good with playing small-ball center.”
Role for next few weeks: “Probably... I'm fine with it.”
Virtual fans: “It's our job and we have to just get used to it.”
Adjustments: “Guarding ball screens and just bringing energy and being able to adjust how Dame and CJ play.”
Defense: “I couldn't tell you. I feel like we gotta bring energy.”
Wiseman
Here's a video upload of Wiseman talking about his ankle:
Ankle: “It's good. It's not that bad.”
Ankle: “I thought it stepped on Steph's shoe.”
Defense: “Figuring out the defensive schemes.”
Draymond: “opened up the floor...he gives me great information.”
Ankle worse: “As I put it in the ice and took it off...it's fine now.”
Draymond after rust/impact: “his aura...strong personality is gonna bring a lot of energy...my game as well because I like to get up and down.”
Lillard challenge: “He's super, super-fast...it just comes with time and experience...(more) repetitions and I'll be fine.”
Opening jumper: “me proving that I can shoot...that was a fun moment to open up the game especially in my first year.”
J vs attacking: “just like being more patient because I go super-fast sometimes...when I more aggressive in the second half I was getting easy buckets... I'm super-agile.”
Steph
This was the first time ever in my entire “career” covering the Warriors (occasionally for GSOM 2010-2013, full-time season-credentialed 2013-present) where I’ve seen Curry walk away from a late question by a reporter, but I’m going to chalk it up to a combination of Andrew Wiggins already approaching the table (probably) and the bad loss — so, not strictly just because of the bad loss, which would’ve been surprising. Usually if there’s one extra question, Steph will actually stay longer and answer it, even if it goes against Raymond Ridder’s wishes (to catch a bus, for example). But I don’t usually read into things too much, just pointing it out and we’ll see, if there’s another bad loss tomorrow. Otherwise, probably just an anomaly.
Hard to watch: “Losing sucks.”
3s issue: “a lot of spacing in the league...even Chicago...3 or 4 guys (shooters)...we haven't gotten to that level yet...deflating...too much pressure on your offense.”
Fixing shots not falling: “Just keep shooting...that's not the killer for us now...busing any type of momentum.”
Draymond: “minutes restriction where you can't get a rhythm... it's hard.”
Small ball: “trial and error at this point.”
Draymond on the floor old days: “Just seeing him out there, we have a couple weird little routines we kinda got back to...take some games to get our rhythm back.”
Play POR again: “It'll be a great test.”
POR: “They understand who they are...find some more depth...They've figured it out.”
Wiggins
“CJ got off early. We just gotta get into them.”
Finding a rhythm: “Just keep playing. Keep hoopin'... it's gonna come. Be patient...shots are gonna fall. We're not worried about that.”
Experimenting: “find their groove, find what fits, what works.”
What’s harder to learn, O or D: “I would say offense because defense is just principles...offense, a lot goes into it.”
Next up: Warriors media availability after practice, with Kerr and one or two other players, which usually goes until 1:00PM PST. However, I think after this bad loss and game film, they’ll probably go over that time and we could end up having the practice Zooms as late as 2:00PM-2:30PM.
We just had Steph and Juan Toscano-Anderson after morning shootaround yesterday, so it won’t be either of them, and it’s likely that beatwriters will want Wiseman, especially due to his ankle, if I had to guess. But we’ll see. Thanks for reading, if you made it this far…
/fin
Question, can someone show me where I can find the Discord invitation?
Hard to watch: Curry looking dejected after the game.