Chris Paul starts Saturday, Klay moves to stretch 4, Podz and Garuba dominate(?!), and other Steve Kerr quotes from Training Camp

Also: Steph and Chris on D, GP2 in the rotation, and the open roster spots.

Here are some interesting quotes from Head Coach Steve Kerr after Training Camp Day 1 today.

Chris Paul and the other Saturday starters

When we play our first game Saturday, Chris [Paul] will start with Wiggs [Andrew Wiggins], Klay [Thompson], Steph [Curry] and Loon [Kevon Looney]. So that'll be the starting lineup. And I'm really happy about announcing it now because now I don't have to answer that the next four days.

It's hard to describe the feeling of having Chris Paul on our team, you know. He's one of the great point guards of all time. We've been competing against him for so many years. He's one of the guys that I've coached against where you just shake your head at how good he is and how particular he is about every possession, getting his team a good shot, getting himself a good shot, getting everybody organized. He's so smart. He's a winner. And so to have him on our side is amazing.

And, you know, I-- I think maybe the biggest benefit that he will bring to us is his ability to run an offense when Steph is off the floor. I mean, they're going to be great together, too. But the biggest problem we've had since I've been here is the non-Steph minutes. Even when we had Kevin [Durant] and that group that won back-to-back titles, our non-Steph minutes, our whole goal was to just put a great defensive team on the floor. And win the game, win those minutes with defense. We've never really generated great offense with Steph on the bench. And Chris will help us do that.

Surprise winners of scrimmages

We did scrimmage, yeah, at the very end. We had maybe 20 minutes of scrimmaging, three teams, short games. The guys were pretty tired 'cause we put 'em through a lot in the first two hours of practice and then finished it up with the scrimmaging and guys are getting shots up and lifting now and it's a good day.

Well, with Draymond out, we put the other five guys [the starters listed above] on one team and then we separated the next two to white and red. The team that dominated was the red team. They had Brandin [Podziemski], Jerome Robinson, Usman [Garuba], Rudy Gay, Rodney Magruder. They swept three games, so they were fantastic.

Who looked good?

Nah, it's too early. Yeah, I mean, everybody is in really good shape. That's the main takeaway. Everybody's in good shape, good spirits. Really a lot of teaching today and everybody took to it well. Very productive day.

Chris Paul and Steph Curry on defense

They're both really good defenders. They obviously don't have a ton of size. What we found playing against Chris was on switches, he's just a rock. He's a brick wall on the block and so you know people can try to post him down on the block but it's not easy to score on him down there. But it'll be matchup based, who's guarding whom, what's our pick and roll coverage, who's out there with those guys, so those things are all to be determined.

Klay as the ultimate stretch 4

If we play that lineup that I talked about Saturday to start, which I'm anticipating doing, as I said, barring injury, Klay would guard the 4 man. He's so physically strong. He's so used to guarding post-up players after switches. So we're thinking Klay can guard as a four this year. We're going to put him in coverage where he's having to defend pick and roll as a four. That would be a different job for him. But we're planning on doing some of that and seeing how he does.

Paul Ball vs Kerr Ball

When Steph's on the bench, you're going to want to have Chris running the show. How do you envision that unit playing?

One of the things with having veteran players is they dictate a lot of what happens during a possession. So I don't anticipate having to be standing up making calls a lot. We're going to run plenty of pick and roll because Chris is one of the best pick and roll players in the world. But he's also showing that he's very interested in incorporating himself into some of the stuff that we already do: our split game and our movement. And he's such a smart player that he's already figured out ways to be effective. So I kind of look at it like we're going to lean into him, but he's also going to lean into us. And we're going to meet halfway. And the offense will form as we get a feel for combinations and patterns.

Using Gary Payton II

The first order of business in camp is to reestablish our top 10 defense. And Gary's one of the best on-ball defenders in the world. So having him healthy on the roster right away, I anticipate we're gonna reestablish our defense easier because of his presence. And in theory, that should lead to a better start to the season than we had a year ago.

Gary's gonna be in our rotation. In the rotation you're gonna play with a lot of different people. I anticipate bringing him off the bench like we did two years ago, but I anticipate him playing a lot of minutes and very important minutes. He could be in there down the stretch of games if we're rolling and he's playing well and he's gonna play a huge role for us.

Filling the open roster spots

As far as the the two open roster spots right now, are you comfortable doing it closer to the regular season?

We've been in this position a lot and we usually let it play out over the course of camp so why not take every day that you can to evaluate. I know two years ago Gary Payton was in that spot with Avery Bradley. They were both worthy of winning that final spot. Ultimately we gave it to Gary and he helped us win a championship so this is a great process for us to be able to really evaluate over three weeks before we have to make a decision. Justin Holiday made our team seven, eight years ago in the same manner. Ian Clark, I think Quinn Cook maybe too. So we've had guys who've really been effective for us who made the team in camp and it's a really valuable tool for us to be able to have given that we do have these two open spots.