The Warriors are thankful to return to home after going 0-5 on what Klay Thompson called a “road trip from hell,” writes Kendra Andrews of ESPN. The defending champs are frustrated to be 3-7 — and winless on the road at 0-6 — but they believe they’re close to a turnaround. Coach Steve Kerr pointed to a 2-9 stretch last February and March, noting that even the league’s best teams run into adversity.
“There are times in the NBA season when things can go off the rails a little bit,” Kerr said. “A big part of being a great team, being a solid organization, is just understanding how to work through that.”
Kerr is placing an emphasis on boxing out and defending without fouling, two areas of concern that have cost the team in close games. Transition defense, where Golden State led the league last season, also needs improvement as the Warriors are 25th in points per shot allowed in transition and 23rd in field goal percentage allowed in transition.
“We just need to bring more of a sense of urgency,” Thompson said. “We had a long run last year, but 2022 is over. It’s time to kick into high gear and play that championship level of basketball that we’re used to. I fully expect us to do that. We know how good we are in this building. So I think we’re going to be off to a fresh start.”
There’s more on the Warriors:
- Jonathan Kuminga has been promoted to a rotation role after scoring 18 points in 38 minutes Friday night, per Anthony Slater of The Athletic. Kerr has been giving frontcourt minutes to James Wiseman and newcomer JaMychal Green, but it appears Kuminga is now the priority.
- The Warriors are in the unusual position of trying to develop several young players while defending a title, Slater adds. Kerr talked about the difficult adjustment to the NBA now that players are spending less time in college. “What’s changed is we are now doing the work that college coaches were doing back then,” Kerr said. “But you don’t have the advantage of allowing a guy’s confidence to grow playing against inferior competition. You’re throwing him right into the deep end. It’s sink or swim for a lot of these guys. I don’t blame anyone for taking the money. It’s a lot of money. If a guy doesn’t come out and gets injured and has thrown $10 or $15 million away, how do you reconcile that? So it’s a really difficult situation. But I’d say for the league now and these players coming in, it’s not at all an ideal setup for success.”
- Free agent center Dwight Howard said he would be a perfect fit for the Warriors during a recent appearance on Shannon Sharpe’s podcast. Howard said Golden State needs another center and he would welcome the opportunity to serve as a mentor for Wiseman.
All other current NBA coaches have this team 9-0 right now.
Before they signed Jerome and Lamb to 2-way, Kerr said “We are going to struggle to find ways to use everyone, there’s a roster crunch” but then when the team is fully healthy, he chooses to play both the 2-way players over the lottery picks for no reason whatsoever. Just STEALING Moses Moody and Jonathan Kuminga’s playing time for no reason at all – these 2-way scrubs wont be on the team next year, just like Chiozza isnt on the team this year – and it results in losses. Infuriating.
Its staggering how dumb Kerr and the fans defending Ty Jerome are. Hey dummies: the proof is in the losses. If Jerome plays no minutes without a 20+ point lead like how all other 2-way players are used, then GSW are 9-0. Instead Kerr has him in the 6th man spot and is giving him 30 minutes, all of which GSW plays very badly and starts giving up the lead/losing the game.
Kerr pouts and gives up technicals in late and close games, he has no respect of this team because he simply hates winning at this point, he has won too much and now is actively chasing L’s. Why god, why. Fire this absolute clown immediately, Lacob+Myers, its long time gone for his nonsense.
is this going to be a weekly rant, A’s? we get it. change the record
It will as long as Kerr keeps enraging me. I refuse to align with anything that failson Elon Musk does, so I dont have a twitter, just here.
Interesting how there’s a MUTE button there for you for this very reason!!!
Kerr doesn’t “enrage” me….sorry! this is sports. fentanyl “enrages” me. stolen Valor “enrages” me. child predators “enrage” me. I’ve been a warriors fan since the day Clifford Ray saved that dolphin. its nice feeling like part of a dynasty and for decades I thought……….just let me win it once. just once. so…no. he will never enrage me, but…good luck with that, sir.
We should have had 6 rings if we had anyone but Kerr coaching.
SMH. You lost all respect as a warrior fan. First the team never had a real pre-season. So blame that on the front office not kerr. They went to Japan and just did PR with the media over there never getting to see what the second team had.
They lost 4 important pieces to the bench and added 2 rookies and 1 terrible vet in Green and a injured player to the bench. Trying to get rookies and second year players in rotations is hard.
What you can complain about is Kerr’s bad play calling at the end of the game. Everyone in the stadium knows they will throw it to Curry so why make him make a shot double teamed. Kerr needs to design better last second shots that doesn’t involve Curry throwing up a prayer.
Ok, so you say I lost your respect as a Warriors fan but then you didn’t refute anything I said, and then added in a point I agree with at the end?? You didn’t mention playing Ty Jerome over Moses Moody and even alongside Curry and Poole, so, whats up? You just going for cheapo homer poster thumbs up here? You’re better than that.
So maybe I triggered you by speaking a truth you don’t want to admit is true, and therefore went into argument mode? It’s fine. Kerr is garbage and always has been and we would have won 6+ rings without him so far. Keep making excuses though, weird you didn’t make those same excuses for him being mid 5/10 at all other NBA jobs, but yeah when he’s paired with Curry, MJ and Pop he suddenly is “elite”? No.
I refuted what you said. Jerome or lamb is not the problem both has played well. Kerr’s only problem is his late second selection of being Curry make it or lose.
Kerr is not garbage. There is no way the could have won against the Raptors with Thompson and KD out. I said from the beginning of the year that the west is so strong there is no super team. Warriors need to get the chemistry to play together which they have no had. The bigger problem is the sloppy play from a few players.
To be fair Kerr pretty much has to give the ball to Curry in crunch time. He’s the only playmaker on the team that’s hitting his shots. Poole, Thompson and Moody have been shooting poorly. Outside of Curry, Wiggins is the only perimeter player that seems to be able to get a bucket. Jerome’s shooting well but it’s at a low volume.
2 games on the road that a bucket could have won and both times Curry was doubled team with no quality shot. If the 2 best defensive players are guarding Curry that means somebody is open. So throw it out using a screen and let a Thompson or Wiggins take a easier shot. If you were a opposing coach you would double team curry too.
Jerome and Lamb have NOT played well, they are literally causing the losses simply by existing. They are NOT NBA talents. They are G Leaguers and are getting cooked, hence losses. Moses Moody gets those minutes and GSW is at least 6-3.
Disagree, the Raptors barely squeaked by us. A better or elite coach like Pop would have had GSW win 4-0 so no Klay injury would even have happened. Kerr is a negative coach, he’s literally the Michael Scott of the NBA.
BandwagoninUK
Imagine feeling the need to come here and write daily angry diatribes. Such bizarre behavior.
If you could tell a dubs fan back in the baron davis days that in 20 years you’d have 4 rings and still people writing garbage like that nobody would believe you
@ghostrobot we should have 6 rings by now, we dont because Kerr sucks. If you watched the games you would know. His rotations been awful since day 1 but Curry bails him out over and over.
Diatribes is being kind. Rants of lunacy is more accurate. I think Ty Jerome must have done something to him personally considering how obsessed he is with the guy.
He is literally the only person in the normal world who thinks Kerr should be fired and he thinks he is the voice of reason.
Give Dwight a role !!
Nets IS a good fit for Dwight
Couldn’t be any worse than the Draymond Green triple single. What a stupid looking open-mouthed, puzzled look the guy has on his face when he isn’t talking!!! Hard to respect that as anyone, let alone a young player. Dude is clearly a psychopath, and the Law of man on the frontier is to shoot what you do not understand
Not the biggest fan of Green myself but the guy is one of the top defensive players in the history of the game. His impact goes far beyond his numbers and I’m not talking about the impact of his fist in Poole’s face or his knees in Stephen Adams’ or LeBron James’ nuts
Not gonna get any easier tonight via the KANGZ!
Overall not worried a bit. It’s not like Warriors have season ending injuries. Championships are not won in Oct or Nov. 2022 Warriors are developing and will have plenty time to make any roster adjustments in the 2nd half of the season. Let’s just hope that at least one of our young trios will break out soon!
Also, I agree with this, as infuriatingly bad as GSW is playing right now (as in: they play excellent then Ty Jerome comes on and has a -13 in 2 minutes like he had tonight and GSW lose by 10), at some point it will be too obvious how dumb it is to play 2-way players so much in important games and Kerr will give 30+ MPG to Moody and Kuminga, like he should always have been doing and always do every game.