Kerr details his POV on playing younger guys+JK: “If you think about it, JK’s time with us, I played JTA, Lamb, simply because they were better players. They werent more talented players but they understood the game better. I know much to the anger of some of our fans, FO & ownership” (via Kawakami)
by NokCha_
28 Comments
Oh boy. This thread is going to be interesting.
Haters will completely ignore this and continue to blame Kerr. But he’s absolutely spot on.
I mean anyone who has played basketball at a competitive level knows why he played role players alongside Steph. Kuminga wasn’t ready even though he had natural talent on his own. He needed to grow as a player and as a player around Steph.
He’s finally figuring that out. Kerr is spot on
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Look, I get Lamb made less defensive mistakes and spaced the floor a bit better than Kuminga would have. I just think knowing Lamb wasn’t going to be a part of the team long term and seeing how well Kuminga played during Wiggins’ absence should have counted for more than it did.
Doomers gonna be big mad
B.s.
Kerr is a long term thinker:
-weird lineups.
-not calling timeouts quickly.
-“letting the players figure it out” (at times).
-saving defensive or offense strategies until it’s necessary.
-his stubbornness with young players.
These things are frustrating to fans and other spectators, but they can be great LONG TERM. It’s just how he thinks. It’s worked for us 🤷🏻♂️.
The problem isn’t that he played better players last year. The problem is the inconsistency of his coaching. He’s been great recently but it took him damn near 50 games to bench klay and lessen looney and klays minutes despite how slow they looked with heavier minutes. He kept playing saric at the 5 when TJD has been better at center. When Wiggins was playing like one of the worst players in the league, kuminga was literally out of the rotation until he saved us that one game in the second half.
Lamb is so skilled. Where is he now
Frankly, I don’t buy Kerr’s comments about Lamb and JTA being better players the last two years (there’s very little actual evidence of that, not even from the shooting standpoint that Kerr brings up — JK shot better from 3 than JTA in ’22 **and** Lamb in ’23), but at this point it doesn’t really matter. As long as he recognizes JK’s importance to the current team, it’s all good.
Basketball isn’t just having five best players on the court and they gonna ball out, there are roles and game plans, it’s a team game. Just look at how ass the Clippers were before Westbrook volunteer to get benched.
I think what brought it to a head this year was seeing his vets play like crap but not face any consequences of that. But you rather lose games and wait for them to be better than give the young guys an opportunity. I have criticized Steve Kerr this year but he is the best coach for this team and I’m glad he got an extension. I think Moody has been cost a lot of money though and perhaps a career in the NBA
Kerr likes to experiment and is stubborn. Remember in 22 when he messed up with Steph minutes and we were having a bad a stretch of games and he still he didn’t change back his minutes until later.
He’s that kind of coach.
> “I knew he was frustrated,” Kerr said of Kuminga. “We had a great talk the next day. He came into my office. He’s a very respectful young guy. For the first two years, our conversations were very much one-sided. I couldn’t get him to respond. So I would tell him what we needed. And he didn’t say a whole lot.”
This is really interesting. Whole thing was a good read. Definitely felt like the most candid interview Steve’s ever done about his coaching and thought process.
When he says kuminga wouldn’t respond when talking to him does he mean that literally? Sounds very rude haha
He’s right. Everyone wanted to rage about Lamb last year (yes he’s a POS outside of basketball) but Lamb was very clearly better than Kuminga at the time in just about every way besides jumping
Kerr might not be having his best season but he’s also having his toughest season in terms of difficulty. We’ve come to the crossroads as a team of where the young guys are overtaking the OGs and kerr is seeing this for the first time. He’s made some mistakes for sure, but I think he’s done pretty with all of the injuries, suspensions, drama, tragedies being considered
This is gaslighting of the highest order. Anyone who watched the games last year knew kuminga could contribute to winning basketball when actually allowed to play through the tiniest mistakes. Hell it was still even happening 2 months ago
Kerr: multiple championships as players & coach and watched enough basketball to know.
Dumbass nerds who have only seen GSW championship years: RUH RUH RUH
He’s not wrong about Kuminga understanding the game better and doing what the team needs him to do. But still, we could’ve won the last Denver matchup if JK was not rotting on the bench in the last 18 mins
I mean I get that development takes time but would it kill Jim to say yeah maybe I should have played him a bit more to help further his development.
Anyways all is well that ends well so long as Kerr is now on board with playing the young guys and we are being labeled as an athletic defensive first team that attacks the paint well you won’t here any complaints from me.
Managing the personalities as well as what’s best in your opinion on the floor is no easy task I am sure and Kerr has earned that contract. Glad that he has shown he can adapt and glad that he will continue to be the coach of Steph and the Warriors. Hopefully he signs another extension in 2 years.
Yeah, the “Kerr held Kuminga back” narrative is pretty pervasive. Mainly from people who haven’t played the game themselves, don’t understand that playing the complete game is important, or know much outside of sweet dunks or the ridiculous threes Steph takes and makes. Like, we can all see how ridiculous Kuminga’s gifts are, we all want him to be a great player, it’s fun to finally see him playing a good overall game..
Not to discredit Steves’s POV because he makes a lot of valid points but had there not been any injuries or guys missing time would JK have had the same breakthrough he’s having now? Klay declining and Wiggins being a ghost of himself on the court in addition to Dray missing time forced Kerr’s hand to rely on JK more. I’m sure Kerr’s coaching helped but so did just giving him more opportunity to play.
anthony lamb knows the game better hence why he’s no longer playing in the nba
People will defend Kerr on Kuminga. But the truth is that Lamb isn’t in the NBA, and the front office thought Kerr was fucking up too. It isn’t just us.
Ooof this surely triggered all the haters lol
That is not the way you develop young players. Kerr’s philosophy significantly slows the growth of young players. Playing JTA and Lamb over JK accomplished nothing. It only slowed JK’s growth. Which is probably why FO and owners ship was unhappy with it.
Think about it. Even this year JK didn’t start to bloom until things happened that forced Kerr to play him. If it was up to Kerr and his “philosophy” JK would have wasted another year on the bench. But suspensions, injuries and poor play by wigs and Klay finally lead to Jk playing and actually playing is what triggered his recent growth.
Kerr did not do a good job with JK. He would still be wasting away on the bench if circumstances hadn’t forced Kerr to play him. He would also be much further along if Kerr had been playing him.