#[Source via The Athletic’s Tim Kawakami – “Steve Kerr on the Warriors’ moves — ‘We sensed we needed a shift’”](https://theathletic.com/4634490/2023/06/24/steve-kerr-warriors-chris-paul/)
### Kerr on the Warriors’ Offseason Objectives:
>“We’re going to be a lot different,” Kerr told me. “The last thing I’m going to do is say anything about a team that just won a championship a year ago and then fought through a difficult season. Made a helluva run at the end of this year. I’ve loved this group that we’ve had the last couple years.
>“But the **biggest point is that we sensed we needed a shift. Didn’t mean we needed an overhaul, but we needed a shift of some sort**. I think everybody in the organization sensed that. And it feels like we’ve made a pretty significant shift without giving up our identity and our sense of who we are as a team. I think, all in all, it’s a very positive shift.”
### Kerr on How Adding CP3 will Help the Offense:
>“If you think about the Lakers series and maybe the last game of the Sacramento series, we pretty much ran high pick-and-roll a hundred times, over and over and over again,” Kerr said. “Steph is obviously lethal with that. But it also limits what you’re capable of in terms of generating offense elsewhere and it puts a lot of stress on Steph’s shoulders. We’re obviously going to be more capable of running that style if we want. But also of getting Steph off the ball. **One of the most powerful forces we’ve had on this team is Steph’s versatility playing on or off the ball**.”
>
>The idea is to **give the Warriors another way to challenge the defense.** Paul can run his style of offense with the second unit (maybe igniting Jonathan Kuminga’s rim-running game) and then he can possibly close halves alongside Curry and Klay and let them both sprint around screens away from the ball while Paul probes and pressures the defense in his own way.
>
> “**One of the things Steph said … I thought his most revealing quote after the Lakers series was that we didn’t have enough variety in the ways that we could score**,” Kerr said. “And everything was high pick-and-roll with Steph. That whole series. We just couldn’t create enough. When we’ve **been our best, this team has had a lot of good passing, a lot of connectors, a lot of guys who understood how to play with Steph and free him up and use his gravity** to slip for layups or create shots on the other side of the floor. We have to maintain that type of variety in our game somehow. We lost some of that this year. So hopefully we can regain some of that next year. … **When we had to have a bucket, we’ve leaned on the high pick-and-roll, Steph/Draymond. It’s our best play. That’s our 98-mph fastball. But if you throw that down the middle enough, somebody’s hitting it into McCovey Cove. And that’s what happened against the Lakers**, we just didn’t have the variety. We didn’t have the changeup, as Steph said.”
### Kerr’s Thoughts on Brandin Podziemski & Trayce Jackson-Davis:
> “**I like the fact that both have a lot of college experience**,” Kerr said. “I think that’s really helpful. Trayce played 120-something college games. It’s meaningful. It just means you’re ahead when you get here. Means you’re further along than you would be otherwise. The **guys the last couple years are doing a good job, they’re putting in the work. But they have to catch up to the level that an older player** already is at. We feel like we’ve got a really good, competitive group. And there’s going to be spots available. Everybody will have a fair shake to earn playing time.”
### Money Stuff:
>So they’ve just cut a lot of future money with the Poole and Baldwin subtractions. (I’m told that the Warriors are now forecasting something close to $420 million in payroll commitments next season, which is a bit more than was suggested earlier this week, but, of course, things change. Next season it could drop down to $320 million or lower, if they want.)
by NokCha_
21 Comments
I’m fully bought into Chris Paul establishing himself as a Warriors legend at 38 years old. Don’t give a damn. 13ppg, 9apg on 44%/38% from 3 and one of fhe greatest floor generals ever with Klay, Wiggy, and Curry? Let’s do the damn thing
i honestly think they relied too much on the high pick and roll. it’s frustrating to watch draymond hold the ball while steph runs around three screens and everyone else is cutting but draymond is just waiting for steph to get open. that’s not how we played the last few championship runs. strength in numbers
CP is gonna make everybody better and give us renewed motivation. It will fuel everyone and I’m sure the goal on Steph’s mind right now is to win a chip for CP. it’s gonna bring us closer together and chemistry will be sky high
We aren’t going to compete this year. This roster is even worse than last year’s, idk what other moves we will make but unless it’s something major then this ain’t it. We got younger, smaller and worse from the 3pt line all major problems we had last year lol
Talk about pressure in terms of u got Steph and klay moving off the ball and it frees up the foul line where cp3 is money with the midrange. This is gonna be fun 😈
Addition by subtraction.
Excited to have him but curious how a ball controlling CP3 is going to fit in motion offense.
Ok I’ve thought about it. Chris Paul is going to help the young guys get better. So with that we’re kinda setting up for the future, but also we have three years to compete and let’s enjoy the shib outta it.
HE SAID EVERYONE HAD A FAIR SHAKE TO EARN PLAYING TIME HHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHAHA
Does CP3 have enough motion left in him to run the motion offense?
Even the biggest CP3 hater (like myself) will tell you that he’s a great PG. he’s elevated every team he’s been on
Seems like the FO and Kerr and finally getting on the same page
He’s right, we needed them to do more than run it back, and they had to shake things up. This was a safe move that way.
But now they’re short one baby Steph and we got another opinionated vet all star we have to worry about buying in, or if he’s starting, etc.
This makes me wonder if they made a mistake in trying to make Poole play more or less like Steph. Draymond said early in the season that the second unit wasn’t running set plays as much as they used to–that they were continuing with the motion offense and the new guys (Wiseman) were struggling to make it work. When Poole was good, people talked about how Steph-like he was, but maybe that wasn’t the best thing to ask him to do. It contributed to that lack of variety on offense.
As the roster stands right now, we are maybe a 500 team. I suspect Green is moving on and asking MM & JK to now become go to guys, feels like a rinse and repeat from last year. So it remains to be seen who else they pick up to fill the open spots. Hopefully it’s not Anthony Lamb again, we have seen that show already.
So they been knew they were trading Poole when Mike Dunleavy said he was a Warrior for the long term. Cold game.
> without giving up our identity
But part of our identity is hating on CP3! What will we do now? I guess we still have Dylan Brooks.
INTERESTING if .CP3 starts..
1st team: CP3, steph, GPII, dray, Wigs; 2nd team: Ty. Klay, Kuminga. Looney, and Moody
We definitely needed a playmaker off the bench. And CP3 is one of the greatest playmakers and floor generals of all time. And his midrange game is elite.
But we still need a big or PF who can space the floor off the bench, and I don’t want to rely on a rookie for that when trying to contend. Hopefully we get someone in free agency. I think that’s the last piece we need, aside from filling out our reserves.
He set the single season win record for each franchise he’s played for. 74-8 season incoming
Get ready to hear the word “shift” 10,000 times between now and september