Kuminga “downhill…off the ball is even more important…run through…unstoppable” - KERR; Durant/USA

[@LetsGoWarriors]

00:00 Hey, Steve. Assuming he's available. Do you view tonight as a good opportunity to get Draymond maybe some more minutes at center given Phoenix's situation at center? 00:12 STEVE KERR, PREGAME: Definitely a possibility. 00:16 Steve, I know you talked about Schroder's game last night, but obviously the shooting percentages are what they are. It's been five games, I guess. Do you like the shots that he's taking? Do you like the shots that he's getting? Or is i a maybe he's getting some different shots than what you think (inaudible)? 00:35 Typical come to a new team midseason, no training camp. You don't get the terminology right away. You don't get the experience with your teammates. So he's still kind of feeling his way through, but he's so much more valuable to us than just a shooter. I mean, we put him on James Harden most of the night last night. He's an excellent on-ball defender. He's a a point guard who can get you organized. And his shooting, traditionally, has been a little streaky and it's - so I'm not worried about that at all. I do think he's got to get more comfortable just with what we're doing and vice-versa. And that'll come. Hardly any practice time in the last week. And so everything is just happening game-by-game. And that's not easy when you just arrive and get thrown into the fire. But I always trust the track record. Not a very small sample size, so he's gonna be fine. 01:36 Are you ready to play? It looks like you've been warming up. 01:38 Yeah, we're down a few guys tonight, so it's getting loose. 01:41 Yeah. they're not that desperate, come on. Any sense of whether Draymond would be available or what's sort of the latest? 01:54 Draymond would be available. He's going to warm up and see. Moses is out, but Draymond will warm up and hopefully be ready to go. Steph is ready to go. 02:06 And how do you view, I mean, it's pretty rare to have six straight games in, I think, 10 or 11 days in a row at home, obviously comes at a time where you probably need it. I mean, trying to sort of stabilize things, how do you view sort of the opportunity of this homestand to have this many in a row at home? Excuse me. And you guys haven't been, I think, you're 7-7 at home, so you really haven't been able to gain the traction like you have in the past. 02:28 Yeah, it's an important stretch for us, for sure. We've kind of come back from that hot start. We've cooled off, obviously, considerably and we're kind of back in the pack again, but you look at a big-picture-wise, we're only a couple a couple of games out from being in the four or five seed, whatever it is, five, I think. So we'r re not in a bad spot at all. This is all about us really rediscovering our identity. Last night was a good start in that direction in terms of the intensity defensively, the havoc we caused. That's what we did early in the season, which led to a lot of offense in transition, open threes. So the game is connected. Our defense has to help our offense and vice-versa. 03:20 Coach, going back to Paris coaching Kevin (Durant), how there was a time where people were wondering if he was going to play or not, how did you evaluate things at that time and feel comfortable playing them? And 2) how has this game evolved in any way since his days here? 03:40 So the Paris part, you're referring to his injury. Yeah. Yeah, that was - he was injured in Vegas, I think, after the first practice or two. And as soon as we got the report from the training staff that it was likely a two-week injury, we knew it was a no-brainer to let him heal on his own, And even if we only had him for the last two games, he's Kevin Durant. So there was never a moment where we didn't think we were going to be without him. We just didn't know exactly when he was going to come back. But he's the greatest American Olympian of all-time on the men's side. The style of play suits him perfectly. I think the USA Basketball culture, the camaraderie with his fellow stars, I think he loves all that. And so coaching him in Tokyo and then again in Paris, and going way back to Oakland here, he is who he is. He's, to me, the greatest combination of size and skill that the league has ever seen and he's still going strong at whatever age he is now. He's still an unstoppable force. I don't think it's changed that much, frankly. I mean, I just feel like after the first four or five years in OKC where he really figured out where his shots could come from, how to sort of take advantage of the NBA rules and the flow of the game, to me he's been the same guy. Like, he's going to do what he does. 05:27 Quick follow-up on him. Obviously, he's one of the greatest scorers of all time. What aspect of his scoring ability stands out to you the most? 05:37 I think it's impossible to challenge his shot. I just - it's so rare when you see anybody actually bother the shot. And it's because of his incredible fluidity with his movement combined with his skill, combined with his length. He just has a knack for kind of wiggling free, getting to a spot and then rising up and then by the time he releases it, the ball's ten feet in the air. It's like nobody's going to get to that. 06:05 And speaking of Kevin, how do you embrace the challenge then of trying to defend against him? And is it kind of special for you that when you get it - it's like a homecoming when you get a guy like Kevin coming back here. 06:16 Yeah, it's always great to see him. He had had so much history here. It wasn't a long history, but it was a rich history. Three years, three finals, two finals MVPs. That's never forgotten. And a lot of great times and a lot of stress as well and everything in between. But that's kind of the beauty of a championship quest, when you're on top of the mountain and you're fighting off all comers, there's so much that goes into it and so much emotion. And in the end, you always have those memories together. And now I've got a couple more great memories with two gold medals, watching him in Tokyo and in Paris and coaching him. Yeah, I've been very blessed to have that opportunity, that's for sure. 07:13 How tough is it for you to try to defend him when you say he's up there? 07:18 Yeah, I mean, I think everybody tries to do the same thing. You just try to knock him off his spot and not let him get comfortable. And that's - so you've got to do a lot of work early. You can't let him just walk into shots. You've got to be ready for help, but then you've got to be ready to rotate because he's good passer. And so there's a reason, like I said, the reason he is who he is. He's unstoppable. 07:46 Steve, Jonathan last night, four dunks, five layups, attacked the rim like you want to see, but how do you get that kind of offensive force from him consistently when you guys are whole, when you have Steph, you have Draymond, because it seems like it's been a little easier for him without those guys on the floor? 07:58 Yeah, it's like you were in our coaches meeting too. No, that's the question. The downhill, both on and off the ball. Off the ball is even more important. What I saw from JK sprinting the floor, sprinting the wings, running through the catch, BP had a cross-court pass to him that JK was running forward, caught it and laid it in. At times that play is a catch on the perimeter. We need that run through and when he does that, it's unstoppable. I thought last night was his best game since he's been here at that particular dynamic that you're talking about, the force and the pace of his running and his movement and constantly going towards the basket. He had the baseline cut when Wiggs found him, the bounce pass for the dunk. So that's the next step for JK and for us. How can we get him to do that consistently? And can he do that when he's on the floor with Steph and Draymond and not getting the ball as much? I know he can. I thought last night was a great indication of that. And so we're going to keep plugging away. And I have no doubt he's gonna get there. This guy is - he works hard and he's talented. He wants it. It's just nothing more than experience and feeling all this stuff. But it's doesn't happen right away. [👇transcript continues in Reply Comment below👇]

[@LetsGoWarriors]

09:38 Sort of a natural follow up to that, he had 14 free throw attempts last night and you guys historically, I don't think, have gotten to the free throw line enough for a lot, as much as you want to, right? How much of a asset can that be when he gets to the line that much and, I mean, he made most of them, 11-for-14? 09:54 Right, right. And so there's kind of a domino effect of everything. Steph being out meant he had the ball in his hands way more than he would normally. So can we get the ball in his hands more, even when Steph and Draymond are on the floor? If so, what does that require? It requires awareness and understanding of what Steph's gravity, what's he doing on the weak side, moving the ball quickly. So it's all part of the growth of JK and of our team, and for us as a staff, trying to get that balance between giving JK the space and the opportunities, but also, leaning into Steph and the movement and the flow. And putting all that together is the biggest challenge, but that's that's what we're shooting for. 10:49 There's one more coming, a question. Is there a model of a player that you can either mention to him or you guys talk amongst themselves that he can, okay, do kind of that? Aaron Gordon is someone, maybe, because of the way he plays off of Jokic, the way it's a secondary move that turns into a primary move. Do you have other examples of something in your mind that right now when he's on the floor with Steph, could be some kind of model for him? 11:15 Not really. We talked about it a little bit early in his career, but I think he's very unique to himself and every player kind of has to find his own game and his own identity. And it's, again, it's not easy when you get thrown into the fire in the NBA without having a lot of experience either in college or growing up. And so this whole process has been largely based on exactly what you're talking about, who is he? What is he as a player? Last night, to me, was the example of who he's gotta be with the force, with the constant sprinting, using that incredible athleticism when he doesn't have the ball. And we talk about it. We're going to keep hammering that home. If he can get consistent with that, I have no doubt he's going to take off. And I'm excited about that. 12:13 With one of those plays you mentioned with him running through the catch, I think I know what you're talking about, but I feel like Utah was really good at that a few years ago with (coach Quin) Snyder. Are there ways to manufacture that kind of advantage with scheme? 12:28 Yeah, yeah. And we work on that all the time. And that's - he's probably more capable of using that dynamic than anybody because of his power and his force. Jordan Poole was pretty good with that, running through the catch. No matter how fast the guy who's guarding you is, if you're running this way and I'm running that way, I can create separation. But you add to that a world-class athlete like JK, with that force of momentum coming downhill, running through the catch, it's pretty dynamic. So yeah, we work on it. We work on it a lot.

[@peterogudo1375]

Why don't the Warriors start JK and shift D-Shroeder to the bench: Steph Wiggs JK Dray & Trace

[@LetsGoWarriors]

@@peterogudo1375 it’s pretty obvious to me: 1) you just won a tough game with JK off bench, if it ain’t broke don’t fix it, and 2) the problems this year have firstly been turnovers - which is on Steph Dray Wiggs Dennis btw - and secondly SCORING WHEN STEPH IS ON THE BENCH. It’s a lot easier to have JK’s rotation be with the second unit especially with Steph out. Now, my question to you is, are you just complaining and being whiny and projecting your miseries of life through thumb-typing on social media apps that have no accountability and are ADDICTED to throwing Warriors decision-makers under the bus from the peanut gallery thereby CHOOSING a path of SEPARATION, OR are you NOT one of those people and you are emotionally regulated enough to return your brain to a state of learning, a state of creativity, a state of joy, a state of TOGETHERNESS with what Steve Kerr and his staff are doing with JK? We shall see, in your inevitable reply… 🫶💙💛