Why Warriors fans may have to wait awhile for a trade to materialize
[GSW-TOR videos/interviews/transcripts]
Thanks to a recent post by Rona Moody on her Instagram story — she’s Moses Moody’s mom btw — I was able to move past last night’s middle-school-like giveaway game where the Warriors vets (and Will Richard, surprisingly and unfortunately) coughed up a seven-point lead to the Toronto Raptors in the final 1:43 of regulation:
Of course, the San Francisco 49ers winning on the last possession helped, too, then Austin Scott of KNBR helped even more by posting this parallel Brock Purdy move to one Wardell Stephen Curry against Rudy Gobert back in the day:
Finally, our wonderful LetsGoWarriors Discord server (VIP membership), where there came more re-affirming news of Giannis Antetokuonmpo — a nice distraction which is still relevant to Golden State’s trade market.
Incidentally, Yossi Gozlan tells me that our mutual Third Apron video podcast will be released tomorrow.
Michael Scotto of HoopsHype on SportsNet reaffirmed that Milwaukee is telling the market that Giannis will not be traded, but also Scotto mentions Anthony Davis is in an “evaluation” period for Dallas:
There was also a good article about the Bucks’ situation by Jamal Lewis on ESPN and relevant excerpts can be found on our Discord server, even the free version.
This got me thinking that if the Bucks and Mavs are in holding patterns, then so are the Warriors. And probably Jonathan Kuminga.
It also got me thinking how last season, with all the Jimmy Butler rumors, everything ended up last-minute right at the trade deadline of February 5th.
Why? Perhaps it takes two desperate teams to tango. Joe Lacob is famous for his don’t-make-a-decision-until-you-absolutely-have-to mantra, and I can see it happening this time around, too.
As with everything, I could be wrong, but DubNation may need to buckle up for — not 10-11 more games as I unfortunately already recorded on Gozlan’s pod, but even possibly beyond the 19 games through the end of January, as I also posted on Discord (that the Dubs have 19 games to play in those 33 days 😬).
Maybe the good news is, it’s hard to imagine Kuminga getting another 19 straight DNPs.
Below are the videos and transcripts from Toronto (Steph, Brandin Podziemski and both the pregame and postgame for Steve Kerr). Most everything prior to this, in terms of transcripts, should hopefully by now be removed from any paywalls…
00:00 What — how would you classify the problems with their run-and-jump presenting you guys down the stretch there?
00:06 BRANDIN PODZIEMSKI, POSTGAME GSW-TOR: I think it was just our spacing off it. We honestly haven’t worked on teams running, trapping like that, especially in the back court, so I think it’s just, we just gotta fix our spacing when it comes to our alignment when there’s two people on the ball.
00:19 You seeing any — is there a through line or a thread with these close late game losses that you’re noticing?
00:29 Tonight, I think defensively down the stretch, it was impacted just by our offense and the turnovers. And I think the times we did get stops, we just didn’t come up with the rebound. Obviously, Scottie had 25 boards, but a bunch of times where we got that stop we needed and couldn’t come up with the board, and then we’re just kinda in scrambled mode, so it’s hard to play defense that way.
00:49 How frustrating is it losing games like this with the turnover margin being that you guys are on the other end of that time and time again?
00:55 As a competitor you wanna win every game and I think we were 5-11 or something like that, 6-11. We easily could be 11-6 and it just changes the perspective and outlook on our team.
01:10 On the glass, they get you guys on the glass. Where did you feel their presence in that respect?
01:15 They just got a lot of guys. Every time, every shot goes up, they go and you’re not surprised about the offensive rebounding numbers, guys being in the right place at the right time. When you go all the time, some of them are bound to land your way and so they did a great job consistently going.
01:31 Flip the page quick, what’s the mentality going into Brooklyn?
01:33 Gotta win. Don’t let one turn to two. We just won three in a row, had a slip-up tonight, just get back on track, win tomorrow.
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01:42 How would you describe how the last seven minutes and change of regulation and overtime played out?
01:50 STEPH CURRY: It was tough. Thought we did enough to win, gave ourselves a good cushion. Just couldn’t get a rebound, too many turnovers. They turned up the pressure and we just didn’t have enough answers down the stretch. Obviously credit them, they made enough plays, got to all the loose balls, the offensive rebounds, extra possessions and then you get down to the last possession, it can kinda go either way.
02:24 Just with the turnovers, how deflating is it to continue to lose games the same way with turnovers like this?
02:33 We win as a team, we lose as a team and the idea of securing possessions and just getting the shot up at the rim, we all have to figure out how to do that. 20 turnovers isn’t gonna cut it. They got 14 extra shot attempts. It’s hard to win those type of games, no matter how well you play, despite that.
03:00 Monster night from Scottie Barnes. What makes him such a challenging person to go up against on both sides of the floor?
03:10 He plays at his own pace. He’s a huge presence out there and he’s a great playmaker, even if it’s kind of untraditional. He takes advantage of mismatches. He got him extra possessions all night, nine offensive rebounds all by himself. He was just relentless on the boards, so you gotta try to be as physical as he is and meet that force and he obviously did that the whole game.
03:46 Steph, what did you make of the play, end of regulation when you got the turnover against Jamal Shead, kind of swung through. They made the call. Did you feel it was appropriate or--?
03:57 That’s two games in a row where that’s happened and it’s — I talked to Bill Kennedy afterwards and I have — it is a bang-bang play because I felt like he was in my space. And it’s a normal kind of rip through where it’s twice the ball has actually hit the person, not my elbow, or not anything else. So the way the rules are, you can press up as close as you want and it’s not a foul — or it’s a foul on me if I swipe through trying to create space, so the way it’s written, it is what it is. I’ll make the adjustments, but it is weird that there’s two games in a row that’s happened.
04:43 Are there discernible differences in late-game execution in, I guess, the struggles that you guys are having this year compared to how you were able to finish late-game execution down to stretch the last 31 games of last year?
04:56 I’m not sure. I feel like there are different reasons we’re getting into close games, especially like tonight. We came out last three minutes of the fourth and a stretch there in the — sorry, last three minutes of the third and a stretch in the fourth where turnovers led to — took a double digit lead to four or six. And then you give, especially on the road, you’re giving a team life. And there are a lot of ways to get to a clutch time situation down the stretch. Either it’s back and forth all night or big swings and at the end of the day, when it comes down to that, we did play well enough to win. Just there was offensive rebounds that gave them easy points and life and got their crowd back into it. We talk about our team. We’re not a team that has a huge margin every night to play around and give teams possessions. That’s always going to come back to haunt us.
06:05 The Raptors are a team that tries to apply a lot of ball pressure, create deflections, steals. What makes them so difficult to move the ball around against?
06:16 It’s the nature of the way the league is going. You have a couple guys who are on-ball defenders using their length, athleticism. And then you have guys on the back end who are able to play passing lanes or, again, use their length to cut off angles and all that type stuff. And it’s a identity thing. Teams have tapped in that as a difference maker. It takes a lot of energy to do, obviously, but I think there’s like a six- minute stretch throughout the game, collectively, where it turned the momentum their way, so it’s credit to them.
07:01 Does it still feel special after all these years, given your ties here, the time you spent as a kid and stuff?
07:07 Absolutely. Being at the practice facility yesterday, old stomping grounds with me and my brother, got up a lot of shots, same sights and sounds in this building, see a lot of people who I met back in that ‘99 to 2002. And then obviously my wife’s family out here, so it means a lot to come back and be able to play.
07:33 Obviously, you had the nod to Kobe with your sneakers today. I’m curious how much influence his sneaker free agency, that run, has had on your sort of run that you’ve had here?
07:44 Only to the point that I know he did it and had that moment in between homes, if you will. And I don’t know like the full run of what he did, but it was a consideration when I had this opportunity, for sure.
08:01 Steph, as a basketball player, you have accomplished everything, multiple championships, MVPs, gold medals. What keeps you going? What gets you motivated at this stage of your life and career?
08:13 I just have so much fun playing a game. I love my teammates. I love the fight to win games every single night. And yeah, you obviously want to win at the highest level, again, and have that experience, but nights like tonight, just that back and forth, when it’s all said and done, you’re gonna miss it, so I’m trying to get the most out of it.
08:36 Next one’s for Sam (Gordon), before the flight.
08:39 How are you feeling after 41 minutes? Do you think you’ll play tomorrow?
08:42 I’m feeling great. I don’t know how to answer the second part yet.
00:00 Did Seth make the trip?
00:02 STEVE KERR, PREGAME GSW-TOR: No.
00:03 And then, do you know, did that the irritation to that first immersion practice or game, or just not sure?
00:08 Not sure.
00:09 Offensively last few games, what have you liked? What goes into sustaining the rhythm you feel like you guys might have found?
00:14 Take care of the ball, get spaced, make simple plays.
00:21 Coach, yeah, lately, one of your coaches have been talking about how they learn from European coaches. In your case, is there any specific European coach that you learn from or any defensive or offensive concept that you like?
00:38 Not really. There’s not any one particular coach or team. I think the trends kind of travel around the world now because of our access to seeing every, any game we want to see, so some of our coaches watch a lot of European games and bring ideas to me, but we all watch NBA games. We’re influenced by each other, but like I said, I think every league in the world influences each other.
01:12 Yeah, and a quick follow up and related to your background as a coach, yeah, Steph Curry and you two, you explained a lot of times, how you show to your players videos of the Barca attack in 2014 to give the players a sense of how you wanted to play. My question is, how did you come up with that idea? How did you come to the conclusion that the best way to explain to the players, the style that you wanted to play, was showing those videos?
01:44 You’re talking about the soccer clips or the--? Yeah, I think players like seeing other sports and if you watch basketball clips every single day, you tend to get bored with that and do something a little different. Sometimes it’s helpful, but I think there are a lot of connections between soccer and basketball and just the way we wanted to play, ball movement, crisp passes. I was watching a game one day and realized there’s a connection.
02:17 And was that a Barca game? Any--?
02:19 The Barca game, yeah.
02:20 Do you remember or which game?
02:23 I don’t remember which game, but I was just impressed with their passing and we were a passing team and the connection made sense.
02:31 Steve, Darko (Rajakovic) was wearing his “brate” shirt tonight because you guys were in town and--
02:36 What shirt?
02:37 Is that the brother t-shirt?
02:39 Ah, brate. Yeah.
02:39 Yeah, brate. And he says you guys have a tradition postgame to get together and toast the memory. How important of a relationship is that kind of thing among coaches?
02:51 Yeah, I think we’re a very small fraternity in the NBA and all the coaches know each other and there are different things that bond us all. And obviously Deki bonded, Darko and Jama (Mahalela) and me and our staff. And so yeah, every year now, both games, we do a shot of rakija, which is Serbian brandy, after the game to toast Deki.
03:22 Steve, it’s been — 2015-16, Steph hit 400 threes, 402, and at the time it was a pretty big deal. He won MVP, but in 10 years since no one’s come close. And I’m just wondering at the time, did you recognize that as this is a crazy thing that’s going on or maybe 10 years since, do you think anyone’s gonna crack 400 again?
03:47 It’s a good question. The three-point attempts are way up. Obviously, more and more players are shooting threes, volume threes. That season stands out because, like you said, 10 years ago — and people are taking way more threes, but nobody’s come close and it’s a reminder of how great Steph is. It’s also a reminder that he stayed healthy all that year and it’s harder and harder to do that as you get older. But yeah, even in a league that is raining threes, Steph still stands out and what he accomplished that year. It’s pretty remarkable.
04:31 Coach, you took over as Warriors coach back in 2014. Knowing what you know right now with your knowledge and experience and championships, what advice would you give to your younger self?
04:47 Just coach Steph Curry, if you get a chance. Stay with that guy. That’s — yeah, I followed my own advice on that one. And that’s a good question. I think it’s funny because I came in that year and we played a little differently and a lot of teams in it and everybody said that we were really innovative. It didn’t feel innovative to me because it was things that I had already learned with Phil Jackson and Gregg Popovich. If anything, some of the stuff we were doing, I went back 30 years to 20 years to bring back, but today we are doing the opposite. We’re following other trends around the league, so I think what I’ve learned is that the league is constantly changing and, as a coach, you have to constantly be aware of what’s happening. Best example of that is two years ago, you wouldn’t have ever been able to convince me that we should crash on offensive rebounds and, now, I know differently. And it took our younger coaches to bring that suggestion to me. It took watching film, it took experimenting. Two years ago we crashed too much and we crashed on everything and we got a lot of offensive rebounds, but our transition defense was bad. And then we figured out a better formula, when to crash, when not to, how many guys to crash. And so even having that discussion 10 years ago, I wouldn’t have even entertained it. And so what I’ve learned is that, 10 years into my coaching career, having been a part of championship teams, great teams, I was learning something I never knew before and something that was changing and I think that’s just the case forever. Life’s always changing, things are always changing. The game is always changing and you have to be a lifelong learner and you have to embrace everything that’s happening.
07:03 I know they’ve been used relatively sparingly this year, but what are your thoughts on the early returns for the double-big lineups that you have gone to?
07:10 The beauty of having Al and Quinten is that they can both step out and shoot threes, so if you pair either one of them with Trayce, you can get a dive man and a space shooter, so it can work. And then it gives you, obviously, more size, more presence in the paint and gives you a different defensive look, so I like it. So far we haven’t done it a ton, but we’ll probably do more.
07:37 Has it just been situational so far, depending on opponent?
07:40 Yeah and depending on health, but also just bodies, just number of people who can play and who I’m trying to play. It’s not easy to get to those lineups without eliminating other people from the rotation and that’s not easy either.
07:58 And then follow up on health, I imagine Al out tomorrow, Melt back?
08:03 Yes. Yeah, Melt will play tomorrow. Al will not. Yeah. They’ll both be on — Al for the rest of the year will be on the no back-to-back program. Melt, for the time being, until Rick (Celebrini) tells me otherwise.
08:15 Coach, I believe you coached Brandon Ingram for Team USA, brief stretch there. What was your experience like with Brandon at that time and what have you noticed about his time here in Toronto, scouting this game for a second?
08:26 I enjoyed coaching him. He did a great job for Team USA and handled things well. Those are always interesting tournaments, seven weeks and things can change quickly, but he was a great guy to coach, very quiet, but a determined player and skilled. And I was happy for him to be traded here. It seems like he’s really taken to the role here and to the team and he’s playing well.
08:57 Was it difficult to explain to him that year that like, obviously, it’s Team USA, you may not get as many minutes in that sort of situation?
09:04 Yeah. I mean, I think at the end of the tournament — he was starting early on in the games and then we decided to go a different route. And those are always tough conversations, whether it’s with Team USA or the Warriors, but there’s always circumstances that lead to tough decisions. And so those are hard conversations, but you have to have them and you always hope that people handle them the way Brandon did.
09:33 Hi Coach, you guys have three games in the next five days and this is like your third last game of this year. It might be a little bit like too early to ask, but what’s your New Year resolution?
09:46 What’s the message to--?
09:48 What’s the New Year — what’s your New Year’s resolution?
09:51 Oh, New Year’s res — I don’t do that. Yeah, sorry. Sorry to — yeah, I just — it’s all a waste of time. Everybody quits their diet on January 3rd, anyway, so.
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10:02 Turnovers?
10:02 STEVE KERR, POSTGAME GSW-TOR: Yeah, just turnovers and end of the third and end of the fourth, we just got scattered. I’ve gotta get us better organized during those stretches. That’s on me. They turned up the pressure. We didn’t handle it well and they scored 35 points off our turnovers. That was the game.
10:19 How deflating does it feel?
10:21 Yeah, it sucks. We’re on a little bit of a run, got a chance for some momentum. We controlled the whole game and we let it slip.
10:29 What went wrong on the glass tonight?
10:33 Barnes obviously just dominated the boards and, whether we were big or small, it just seemed like he was getting every rebound. Yeah, he was great.
10:45 Did you think about starting overtime big?
10:50 Not really, Al was done with his minutes. He was on a minutes restriction and, I mean, we thought briefly about Quinten, but I felt better starting the way we did and we went to Quinten a couple minutes in. We were down six, I think, so yeah.
11:09 You mentioned Quinten. What did you see from him and what did you ask him to improve, moving forward?
11:15 Who?
11:16 Quinten. Quinten Post.
11:18 Quinten.
11:18 Quinten, Quinten, yeah.
11:20 He’s doing great. He’s having a great season, improved his defense dramatically. He’s a really good player. He’s just — you gotta keep working, keep playing, but we’re lucky to have him.
11:33 What are the optimal possessions you’re looking for down the stretch? What does an optimal crunch time possession look like?
11:39 Take care of the ball, get spaced, get the ball to Jimmy or Steph and let them attack, one way or the other, whether it’s a screen or, an iso. But we’ve — I kicked myself. I tried to run a little back door play where Steph’s setting the back screen for Jimmy late in regulation and we were gonna bring Steph off of a split cut if the back cut hadn’t worked. And I put Draymond in a tough spot and that was on me. I needed a better call in that situation to get the ball to Steph or Jimmy and give them space.
12:19 Draymond with 21 points. It had been a rough stretch of games for him. Is there something to take away from just the way--?
12:23 Draymond was great tonight. He played his tail off, great energy, great defense, so he did everything he could to help us win. Like I said, I feel like I let us down tonight.
12:36 Buddy back in the rotation. Was that just for today or--?
12:38 Well, Melton was out and we needed those minutes, so Buddy was back.
12:42 Trayce scratched late, was he--?
12:44 I’m sorry?
12:44 Trayce, was he scratched?
12:45 No, he was fine. We had him in the lineup plans, but because of the way the game was going and the way they were guarding Steph, we felt like we had to have space with our bigs and so that’s why we stayed with Al and QP.
13:00 41 minutes for Steph, do you expect him to go tomorrow?
13:02 I expect him to, but it’s a tough one to — and Jimmy 37 (minutes played), Dray 33 with the back-to-back. Yeah, brutal loss. Brutal loss, but we gotta bounce back. Thank you.
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