Here are my Top 3 quotes from Steve Kerr and De’Anthony Melton’s Thursday availability ahead of the Memphis Grizzlies, with the complete, edited transcripts of both interviews below for paid LGW subscribers.
1. Melton on the excessive fouling: “(Austin) Reaves and Luka (Doncic) was 19-for-19 from the free throw line. The game before that, we let Dame (Lillard) shoot 13 free throws. So right now, it seems kind of like a thing with us, so we just don’t want to make it reoccurring. I think not fouling will help us be more aggressive.”
Melt said Frank Vogel brought those numbers up during film review, so with Ty Jerome coming off 45 points, his trips to the line are something I’ll be watching tonight.
Of course, Zach Edey at the oversized 5 a la Walker Kessler is my primary watch —I have a forthcoming plea to Steve that I’ve been saving for that. Here’s a hint:
2. Kerr on Jerome: “He’s a great pick-and-roll player. And he helped us as a two-way guy. He helped us win a lot of games that year. I trusted him completely. Kind of an old-school point guard, never turns it over, seems to generate good shots for his teammates and for himself, and very confident in his midrange floater.”
Lol smh: Jerome was 12-for-15 on two-pointers against the Utah Jazz the other night. On our Watch Parties I’ve advocated for Brandin Podziemski emulating Chris Paul’s offensive game — meaning, a ton of buckets come from the elbow jumper or float game, so that threat becomes evident the moment the elbow is reached. Jerome’s toolbox is like that, too.
3. Melton on the offense: “We call it ‘flow’ and we’re just trying to figure it out and figure out the best situations that, for our team to get going. And I think also we have so many options that sometimes we may be trying to do two options at once or thinking, people’s mindsets are different from everybody else’s sometimes.”
I’m pretty sure that first quarter at Crypto with one Wardell Stephen Curry II humming along with Draymond Green was “flow”, but I think they need Podz (listed as questionable at the time of this writing) with his and Gui Santos’ slip cut action, or Melt and Brandon Williams keeping their turnovers to one apiece, max, for the “flow” to carry over to the non-Steph minutes.
Want the rest of the quotes? Become a paid LGW subscriber and scroll down for the complete Kerr and Melton transcripts, including their thoughts on Yaxel, foul baiting, the center rotation and the challenge ahead. 🫶💙💛
