Speaking to Tim Kawakami of The Athletic on his podcast earlier this week, Warriors head coach Steve Kerr noted that Golden State is in a unique position as a title-defending team that has question marks in the rotation beyond its top six players (Stephen Curry, Klay Thompson, Andrew Wiggins, Draymond Green, Kevon Looney and Jordan Poole). He said he’s looking forward to players having to earn their minutes.
“The beauty of it is everything has to be earned,” Kerr said on Wednesday. “I talk about how unique each season is — that’s what makes this season unique. The first three times we came back from winning championships, the rotations were really set. We had a deep roster, we had veteran rosters, we kind of knew exactly who was going to play and what combinations would form.
“This is very different. It’s rare, I think, for a championship team to come back with a lot of young talent that has a chance to compete for playing time. I like that dynamic. I think competition is good. It brings the best out of everybody. I don’t even really have a rotation. I just look at it as we’ve got six guys who played integral roles in us winning the title. We know who they are. We know what they do. And then everybody else is ‘go’ time. It’s right there for you; you’ve just gotta go earn it.”
Kerr also touched on several other topics with Kawakami, including Jonathan Kuminga, James Wiseman, rookies Ryan Rollins and Patrick Baldwin Jr., tweaks to the coaching staff, and more. Regarding Kuminga, Kerr said the organization is pleased with his progress entering year two.
“JK’s had a really good summer, he’s done everything we’ve asked of him. He’s traveled some, he played for his national team this summer. He’s been working really hard,” Kerr said. “I know there was that weird report that came out, I think Stephen A. Smith said something about JK. And honestly, Bob (Myers) and I, when that came out, we called each other and asked, ‘Where did that come from?’ Because it made no sense. JK’s been great, he’s done everything we’ve asked of him. He’s working hard. I enjoy coaching him. He’s right where he needs to be, and just gotta keep getting better every day.”
Here’s more on the Warriors:
- Anthony Slater of The Athletic explores what Andre Iguodala‘s return means for the Warriors. Iguodala announced he was returning for his 19th and final season earlier today. In addition to being a locker room mentor for young players like Poole, Kuminga and Moses Moody, Iguodala also showed that he can still provide a lot of on-court value, even his minutes were limited due to nagging injuries. As Slater notes, Golden State was plus-114 in Iguodala’s 603 minutes last season.
- In a separate story for The Athletic, Slater poses four roster questions entering training camp, including how Wiseman and Kuminga will work together. While both Wiseman and Kuminga have tantalizing potential, spacing might be an issue when they share the court, Slater writes.
- If free agent addition JaMychal Green can fill the void left by Otto Porter Jr.‘s departure, that would be ideal for the Warriors, according to Monte Poole of NBC Sports Bay Area, who breaks down what fans can expect from JaMychal in 2022/23.
The only difference between Warriors and Lakers is that Lakers are a present team and Warriors are a future team
Two years ago
ESPN future team ranking is that Lakers are 1 and Warriors are 14
In other words Lakers are the best future team in the nba in 2020
I think someone needs to wake Sillyman up. It is 2022, not 2020. The Lakers are a team of the past.
giants74. dude makes 0% sense. I can’t even decipher what he’s ATTEMPTING to say
The Warriors are a future team? Two things. They won the championship last year and they are a contender for the championship today. That’s present.
Those kids have proven nothing at all. Maybe Jordan Poole is a great player but that’s about it. The future is as murky as any team with young guys. Looks good on paper but they’ve done nothing so far.
This season is gunna be so much fun from game 1 on, cant wait to obsess over the Warriors again! Best team in pro sports! As long as Curry is playing, they are winning easily and if he doesn’t they might still win anyway!
Haha us A’s fans have been waiting all summer for the Warriors’ return
Yes I don’t understand all the “winning will be easy” talk. I guess someone doesn’t realize the work and the effort and the grind and the trauma to the body and everything else these players fight for to get to that level.
Then with the new season starting everyone is on the same footing and you have to claw and fight and grind and put your body through trauma and work all over again.
They’re simply nothing “easy” about it and I think that’s an affront to the time and work Steph Curry has put into this to get to this level. It’s a serious slap in the face to the Warriors to make that kind of a statement.
That type of statement separates fanboys from hoops fans.
@tball I agree but also I watch most of the rebuild games too, Nick Allen is so fun to watch!
nobody’s winning “easily”…see? that kind of thinking ………
@Larry Brown
Did you already forget the 2016-17 Golden State Warriors exist? That year was EASY. OR are you just being massively asinine in that playing a game of basketball isnt “easy”, in which case: you need to go outside and touch grass, that is a totally useless point to make here. You are clearly just a mindless hater then.
Let me guess, you arent a GSW fan? Must suck to be you, your knowledge of basketball is much lesser for not understanding just how incredible this team is.
@A’schavinUK
You think playing ANY sport at a championship level is easy? And they’ve been doing it for how long (minus the injuries they accrued from the grueling schedule)? And you’re saying other people don’t have an understanding? Lol.
I dont think its easy – its “easy” compared to there being other teams as good as GSW currently are trying to win at the same time as them. They smoke everyone easily, thats the “easily” – ffs are GSW already in yall’s heads so much youre nitpicking the verb tone??? lmao
You said it was easy. (That year was EASY”)
And then you follow up with: “are you just being massively asinine in that playing a game of basketball isnt “easy”.
You said it was easy. Now that you’re being called out for something so dumb, you’re reversing course on “what you meant.”
Kerr should do all he can to rest his starters throughout the season to be healthy at playoff time. If they are, they should repeat as champs.
You shouldn’t worry about that Kerr has always rested players over regular season record except their 72 win season. I doubt Iggy will play more than half the games this year just to save him for the playoffs. Green, Thompson, and Curry will be sitting on back to back games. What will be toughest for Kerr is enough playing time for the younger players.
Curry isn’t resting on all back to backs – the NBA will not let that happen, they need the money he brings in. If he gets hurt then yeah obviously, but if he’s healthy he will play every single game and just sit the 4Q when the game is blown out like usual from 2016-2019.
@A’sfan
They rested Steph in multiple back to backs last season (every road B2B except 1), and will do it again this year even with the higher qty of TV games.
Steph Curry barely played any regular season 4th quarters from 2016-2019 + Kerr absolutely loves to give massive minutes to any G League scrubs he has available to him, he prefers to play bad players over his good ones. Kerr will bench Kuminga for no reason for some infuriating PG who stinks and causes GSW to lose the game, like he just did with Chiozza all last season until Myers told him to knock it off and play the actually-good players he drafted.
TBH Kerr should be running Kuminga, Moody and Poole into the ground, give them all 35 MPG while they are young and can handle it.
It worked out last year. Not sure why you don’t want to keep older players rested for regular season games. lakers are a good example of not resting older and injured players. LeBron was playing way too many minutes the first half of the year. AD was thrown in to play long games when he wasn’t 100% healthy. Regular season is just playing for home court advantage.
It worked out last year because Curry was playing all the games and making everyone else look good. Its always about Curry, man. Cmon you know this by now.
Why are you comparing this absolutely stacked for real GSW team to last years extremely flawed Lakers team that I said wasn’t making the playoffs from day 1?? They arent even remotely close in talent level + Lebron is way older + AD is way more made of glass.
Not sure why you are acting like curry+green+klay are 40 years old??? Dude, Draymond isnt even injured. Still gotta play the 82.
Green had injuries last year. Back injuries are the tough to get through so you will see him resting but since they have players that can step up in his place it will not be a big factor. Curry needs to be protected at all cost since with a healthy Curry they are pretty much unbeatable. The young players need playing time so keep players at 32 to 34 minutes a game.
I agree, but despite how much you want the regular season to not mean anything, its literally why Curry is the highest paid player in the league – he has to play those games if healthy.
If Kuminga, Moody, Wiseman and Poole produce, then they will play more minutes. That would be the best of all possible worlds; younger players show what they can do, and the older vets stay fresh for the playoffs. It could happen, but its kind of a pipe dream. Best laid plans…. Remember, the west is really loaded this year.
Litterally the two most annoying fan bases above
I’m a Bay Area local but
Man
Bandwagon clash as seen above
Win a ring then talk.
Oh come on now Grizzly fans are annoying. Especially with that stupid song. ja is the most arrogant player in the NBA and that says a lot.
The West is loaded. Utah might have disappeared from contention but the Wolves got better. Memphis is young with length and shooting. Phoenix still has an open window. Lakers could finally put it all together with Russ and a healthier set of super stars. Denver had a two time MVP and gets some studs back this year. Dallas lost a guy but added a big. I think 5 teams can win it in the West. But health will have a lot to do with it. Like every year it’s who plays best at the end and has the healthiest team.
And you didn’t even mention the Clippers and NO.