This has happened every year after the 73-9 season for a simple reason: Kerr knows that the regular season is a very long training camp for the playoffs.
Take teams like the Suns last year. Absolute beast in the regular season because they built a team that is versatile enough to play well against many styles of play, and their starting five create a lot of synergy.
Things change a lot during playoff times. Games are more intense and thus more rotation is required, and coaches/players have the time to really study their opponents and create counters to their style of play. Versatile teams fall to specialized teams, teams with a strong starting five fall to deep teams, and teams with innovative plays dominate those who relied on the same strategy the whole season.
This is why Kerr looks like an idiot every regular season and a genius every playoff. He is purposefully putting players from the third unit to play, and young players to live stressful situations during the regular season. He’s not just relying on the strategies he has used for almost a decade, but creating and testing new ones and allowing players to develop.
So I wouldn’t worry too much. People complained about poole/wiggins playing too much/shooting too much last season, and then during the playoffs everyone was surprised they developed tough skin and basketball IQ in the playoffs. It’s not a coincidence.
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This has happened every year after the 73-9 season for a simple reason: Kerr knows that the regular season is a very long training camp for the playoffs.
Take teams like the Suns last year. Absolute beast in the regular season because they built a team that is versatile enough to play well against many styles of play, and their starting five create a lot of synergy.
Things change a lot during playoff times. Games are more intense and thus more rotation is required, and coaches/players have the time to really study their opponents and create counters to their style of play. Versatile teams fall to specialized teams, teams with a strong starting five fall to deep teams, and teams with innovative plays dominate those who relied on the same strategy the whole season.
This is why Kerr looks like an idiot every regular season and a genius every playoff. He is purposefully putting players from the third unit to play, and young players to live stressful situations during the regular season. He’s not just relying on the strategies he has used for almost a decade, but creating and testing new ones and allowing players to develop.
So I wouldn’t worry too much. People complained about poole/wiggins playing too much/shooting too much last season, and then during the playoffs everyone was surprised they developed tough skin and basketball IQ in the playoffs. It’s not a coincidence.