How Draymond has Looney’s back on defense and more
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The Golden State Warriors had morning shootaround earlier today in Denver and Steve Kerr and Kevon Looney were interviewed. Btw, we have full coverage of postgame from the LA Clippers game on our YouTube channel.
Below is what Kerr covered. Full transcriptions are on our private Discord server, which is free for paid subscribers of this website. Obligatory button:
• What to expect from James Wiseman tonight from the Santa Cruz Warriors G League game in Stockton, both in terms of minutes played and oncourt performance.
• Status of Otto Porter and Andre Iguodala.
• Quinndary Weatherspoon
Looney discussed guarding Nikola Jokic and went into detail on Draymond Green’s defensive impact:
• *Get up extra for matchup vs Jokic:* “…study a little bit more…see where you’re at as a defender…”
• *Jokic uniqueness:* “That he’s really playing the point guard…used to playing (centers) in the post, maybe pick and rolls…he might be the one initiating…great passer and that kinda causes you to not get any help…great scorer as well…pick your poison…”
• *What Draymond brings defensively:* “…covers up a lot of our mistakes…amazing help defender, great rim protector so we’re allowed to be a lot more aggressive — and he’s probably the best communicator in the league…”
• *Covers up mistakes:* “…when I’m in pick and rolls and I gotta switch onto a guard, I know I have the utmost confidence I can press up into the guard and I know he’s gonna have my back. Guys are able to be aggressive off the ball because of they get back but they know Draymond’s probably gonna be there to help at the rim. Those small things that — it takes or physicality to another level because we know we got somebody back there that’s covering up. He’s talking and you just get an extra confidence boost when you hear somebody on the back line talking. A lot of times I try to talk but a lot of times I’m in the action so having another big back there, another voice that’s s as smart as him is calming for us.”
• *Important to get back to No. 1 defense heading into the playoffs:* “…that’s our identity. Our offense is good but our defense is great…even last year when we started turning the corner towards the end of the season was because of our defense and this year we started the year off because of our defense so we gotta get that back. We’ve been harping on it…”
/end