Kerr on Trayce Jackson-Davis next to Draymond

[off-day interviews/transcripts]

In the off-day interview with reporters the day before Game 4, Steve Kerr praised Trayce Jackson-Davis’ athleticism and said, “We liked Trayce’s size and finishing… He’s traditionally played very well next to Draymond (Green).”

Jackson-Davis only played 11-plus minutes in Game 3, even though he started, and by comparison, Kevon Looney ended up with 18 minutes played and fouled out. Trayce only committed two fouls.

Will we see more TJD and less of Loon? Well, actually, I think the rest of what Steve said (transcript below) reveals the answer.

I’d actually love to see a starting lineup that includes both Jonathan Kuminga and Trayce. That would move Buddy Hield to the bench, but despite the fact that Kuminga gave up that ferocious dunk to Anthony Edwards with poor point-of-attack defense, imo JK needs to be the defender on Ant for the meat of the game, just as a similar-sized body.

Maybe in clutch late-game situations you can have Gary Payton II or Jimmy Butler switch onto Edwards.

As for offense, there’s been a lot made about JK playing next to Butler — all favorable including from Jimmy — but there would be no three-point spacing with the starting lineup I proposed above (before Game 3, I proposed JK instead of TJD).

Well, Kerr actually addressed that, too, top of mind, yesterday: “We have to put two-way lineups on the floor. We gotta get stops. As I said, we've gotta win this game and this series with our defense, so the challenge is you put your best defensive lineups on the floor and you may not have a ton of spacing, so then, how do you counter that? You counter it with pace and energy and offensive rebounds and second-chance opportunities, force turnovers, get out in transition.”

There’s even more in the transcript, below the paywall 👇 that addresses the half-court sets with, presumably, no spacing.

That would actually be pretty amazing if Steve started a Warriors lineup that had no three-point shooter 😳 but we shall see. These are all tough decisions that we shouldn’t be arm-chairing if we haven’t rewatched the tape like members of the coaching staff would. Bonus video from pregame Game 3 and then off-day Zoom call below…

00:00 Hi, Steve. You've been through literally every scenario in basketball. I'm curious if you can draw upon — is there any scenario where you were tied 1-1 in a series, a star player was injured, kind of this particular scenario you're in, that either as a player or a coach that you can draw on?

00:13 STEVE KERR, PREGAME G3-MIN-GSW: I think you draw on everything. Every year is different, but there's always injuries. There's always circumstances, suspensions, the other team's missing guys. I mean, you're right. I mean, we have seen everything here, in the last decade and so you draw on that and you just think about the current circumstances and your current roster and you figure out a plan. And that's what we're doing today.

00:44 Seemed like in Game 2 probably the most productive group was the one that started the second half with Kuminga at the 4. What did you like about that lineup on either end of the ball?

00:55 Well, transition was good. JK got out ahead of the play a couple times and that was good. I thought we made a good push there at both ends and we made a good run and then kind of lost our focus after that run. I think we cut it to seven and turned it over a couple times and missed a switch. They got open for a three, but that was a good run and we obviously looked at that and then we looked at the first game when Steph went down and some of the combinations we had out there that were successful in that game as well. And so those things all inform us what we can do tonight.

01:40 You mentioned that the formula's changed, clearly, and asked Jimmy what the formula can be. He said it's attack. I know it's simplified, it's general, but can it be as simple as some guys just have to go put their head down and try to make something happen?

01:53 You're talking about Jimmy himself or — ?

01:55 Jimmy himself. I think he was talking about himself and others. He was talking about everybody, Kuminga going at Gobert down the sideline there. Can you do that? Just say, "Hey guys, let's see what you can do with a little more aggression with ball"?

02:09 Yeah. Well, the key is you have to gain an advantage. If you don't gain an advantage, they're really athletic and long and you're trying to beat 'em one-on-one without a whole lot of spacing and that's tricky, so how do you gain an advantage? That's our challenge. You can do that in transition with playing with great pace, which is part of what we were able to do during the good stretches of Game 2. You can do it with pick-and-roll with certain combinations, certain actions, trying to create defensive mistakes and those are all things that we have to do more consistently tonight. Once you gain the advantage, yeah, then you can attack and then you have some openings.

02:52 Steve, so much of what you guys have done with Steph for years is movement-centric. How closely can you mimic any of that without him when he is the ultimate driver of it? And is it one of those things where you have to kind of just change your philosophy offensively?

03:05 Well, you can't suddenly install a new offense in one day. I know that, but we obviously will lean into Jimmy and play through him. We're still gonna run similar actions, but Steph is one of one and a lot of the stuff that he creates is not replicable because we don't call a ton of plays. We run pick-and-roll with Steph, he comes off, gives it up and starts flying around. There's no call for that. It's a concept more than anything and so it's not really about play calls, it's about playing with pace and energy, playing through Jimmy, having the correct spacing and then getting stops. We have to win this game with our defense. The Wolves have a great defense. We've been No. 1 in defense in the league since the Jimmy trade. I felt like we won the Houston series with our defense, so this game really starts on the defensive side for us.

04:09 Steve, we know the numbers didn't play out great with Jimmy and JK together on the floor in the regular season. Did you maybe build some confidence that they can compliment each other, after the second half after last game?

04:20 Yeah, I thought they played well together and I've said this a dozen times, without Steph, we have to completely rethink things. We found a great formula when JK was injured and Jimmy arrived and we started winning. We put ourselves in this position, but now without Steph, I don't care about any of that stuff, so we will absolutely have those guys out there together. And we've spent a lot of time in the last couple of days really thinking about the five-man combinations for the full 48 minutes and you map stuff out, but sometimes you have to change on the fly. You can't really, I don't know that we've ever followed exactly our rotation strategy, but we do have some ideas and those guys will play together.

05:11 Steve, you just reiterated the need for the defense to kind of lead the way. What, from Game 1 to Game 2, didn't you do as well that maybe you feel like you need to get back to in this game to set that tone?

05:23 Loose balls, rebounds. There were a couple plays in the first half where they just, we had the loose ball if we wanted and we just sorta lazily put one hand — we gotta go get every loose ball. We're not gonna get them all, but we have to go for them all and a game like this, that just sets a tone. And so we have to set a tone with our energy and our force, more than anything,

05:51 Steve, Draymond not only got the tech, but there was obviously an ugly incident with the fans in the arena and he seemed pretty emotional after the game and I'm just wondering, do you need to talk to him before this game, talk to him about turning the page or — you have a lot of experience with Draymond. Do you, will he just handle that on his own?

06:14 We talked about it yesterday and he's in good spirits. The fact that the Timberwolves, handled it so well, security, I think, all was really meaningful. And we talked about it yesterday and he's ready to go tonight.

06:31 Steve, is there a — over here — is there a shelf life on zone defense during the course of a game? Can it be effective for any more than, say, 10 or 15 possessions, do you think?

06:42 Rarely. Rarely. I think it's a change-up rather than a fastball. It's just, although, watching Cleveland yesterday, they must have run 20 possessions of zone and had a lot of success. So there are exceptions. There are games where — I would say the Houston Game 7 — we probably played 20 possessions of zone or so, so there are exceptions, but generally it's more change the rhythm, change the pace a little bit and it's probably not more than 10 possessions, but if it's working you stay with it.

07:18 Steve does Trayce have a maturity, a makeup, that just — his role diminished this season, but he seems to have stayed ready and you have a lot of guys like that on a team with depth, but, what has he shown you in terms of just being ready when called upon?

07:36 He's very, very mature, very practical. When you talk to him about his role, he's always very understanding and in the two years that he's been here, he's just shown himself to be incredibly mature and stays ready and he's done a really good job of that. Obviously, he fell out of the rotation in January, probably, but every day he's staying ready and playing in the low-minutes games that we have with our younger players and our two-way players. And so Trayce is a pro.

08:12 I know you've said all along the depth is such a benefit, but also sometimes hard for the coach, but in a time like this, I mean, aren't you thrilled with all the different guys who've been unselfish and able to step in at different times?

08:28 Yep, you have to have that and we've had a lot of guys who've done a great job of staying ready. Buddy's a great example. He was out of the lineup in terms of a starter being a starter and then obviously put him in the starting lineup and the way he stayed prepared and the games he had, Game 7 Houston, Game 1 of this series. Buddy, he's been great, so we're lucky to have the professional players that we do.

08:57 Steve, is it an added wrinkle as you try to find offense without Steph, knowing that this around specifically any isolation you play is kind of playing into the teeth of what they do best defensively?

09:07 Yeah, I mean that's the balance, right? That's the trick, is it's not like we're throwing five three-point shooters on the floor and spacing the floor and we're gonna have a lot of lineups out there that don't feature a lot of spacing, so we have to execute. We have to make sure we get spaced, to make sure we're setting screens, make sure we're playing with pace and those are all things that if you don't do, the Wolves are really good about kind of lining you up and staying in front of you with all those long athletic guys and then Gobert's behind the play and they make it really tough.

09:48 Steve, over here. I know — I understand why you're following up on Dalton (Johnson)'s question about Jonathan and Jimmy and looking at it in a fresh way, but why do you think they struggled together in the regular season and why do you think they played so much better together the other night?

10:04 Well, I think, number one, they play the same position, so Jonathan is a really high-usage player, 92nd percentile, I think, in the NBA. Jimmy's a really high-usage player. Steph actually isn't because he gives up the ball and flies off of it so much, but it was really about the formula that we found after we got Jimmy, with JK out. At the end of the season, when JK came back, I think, for the last 10, 12 games, I think we played him about 18 minutes a game and we really tried to fit him in as a role player playing with and behind those guys and it frankly wasn't great. J K's a guy who really needs the ball, but Jimmy's Jimmy, we're gonna give Jimmy the ball and so when we did play them together, it wasn't great, but like I said, without Steph, things change and we'll see what it looks like.

11:10 I know Steph's official reevaluation's coming a week from the injury, but do you expect him to just stay completely off of it until that week's done or is he even starting to do gradual things?

11:23 That's a really nice question. Good way of trying to sneak in an update before the actual update, so I respect that you asked that, but we'll have an update after a week, right Raymond (Ridder)?

11:37 Good job.

11:37 Thank you. Every once in a while I listen to Raymond.

11:43 Steve, are you willing to share your lineup today?

11:46 No.

11:46 Okay. That's fine. And the other question is, without Steph, what are the challenges to get the spacing you like? I mean, even with Buddy out there, what are the challenges? Well, the challenge is we have to put two-way lineups on the floor. We gotta get stops. As I said, we've gotta win this game and this series with our defense, so the challenge is you put your best defensive lineups on the floor and you may not have a ton of spacing, so then, how do you counter that? You counter it with pace and energy and offensive rebounds and second-chance opportunities, force turnovers, get out in transition and if you are in the half court, you have to execute, so even if you don't have traditional shooting, spacing, you still have to be spaced and we've had some possessions where you — we got a few guys whose tendency is to crowd the paint. If you have three different guys crowd the paint then it's 1984, but we don't have Kareem to throw the ball into for a sky hook, either, so that's where it gets a little tricky and that's where the natural tendencies of players who are gonna gravitate towards the paint, they have to stay spaced and we can run some actions to counter what the defense is doing, if we do that.

13:12 One of the most underappreciated things about Steph is how he's able to keep everyone — the levity and keep everyone grounded. How have you guys been missing his personality? Obviously, he's still there, but has anyone really stepped up to kind of keep this team happy and enjoying the game?

13:27 Steph's still here. Nothing changes with the vibe the last few days, with Steph being injured. The vibe is the exact same. The guys are prepping and together and laughing and they play basketball for a living. Life is good, so the vibe's good.

—

00:00 Okay. That's fine. And the other question is, without Steph, what are the challenges to get the spacing you like? I mean, even with Buddy out there, what are the challenges?

00:10 STEVE KERR, PREGAME BEFORE G3-MIN-GSW (CONT.’D): Well, the challenge is we have to put two-way lineups on the floor. We gotta get stops. As I said, we've gotta win this game and this series with our defense, so the challenge is you put your best defensive lineups on the floor and you may not have a ton of spacing, so then, how do you counter that? You counter it with pace and energy and offensive rebounds and second-chance opportunities, force turnovers, get out in transition and if you are in the half court, you have to execute, so even if you don't have traditional shooting, spacing, you still have to be spaced and we've had some possessions where you — we got a few guys whose tendency is to crowd the paint. If you have three different guys crowd the paint then it's 1984, but we don't have Kareem to throw the ball into for a sky hook, either, so that's where it gets a little tricky and that's where the natural tendencies of players who are gonna gravitate towards the paint, they have to stay spaced and we can run some actions to counter what the defense is doing, if we do that.

1:24 One of the most underappreciated things about Steph is how he's able to keep everyone — the levity and keep everyone grounded. How have you guys been missing his personality? Obviously, he's still there, but has anyone really stepped up to kind of keep this team happy and enjoying the game?

1:31 Steph's still here. Nothing changes with the vibe the last few days, with Steph being injured. The vibe is the exact same. The guys are prepping and together and laughing and they play basketball for a living. Life is good, so the vibe's good.

—

2:04 Is 48 unrealistic for him? He kinda like hinted at the idea last night. I assume you don't want to do that, obviously, but he seems like he would probably accept that if that happens.

02:16 STEVE KERR, OFF DAY BEFORE G4-MIN-GSW: Oh, he wants 48. I mean, he begs for 48, basically, I mean, not explicitly, but he's constantly looking at me if he's on the bench, trying to make eye contact to go back in. He's such a gamer, such an incredible competitor, so I probably have to protect him from himself a little bit.

02:43 Coach, how did you feel about Kuminga's game, specifically as a rebounder? Him and Podz combined for 14 and that was the first game in this series the Wolves out-rebounded you guys, so how do you keep that going?

02:54 I thought Kuminga was great, just the energy, the effort, sprinting the floor, just the extra efforts and, of course, the scoring. I mean, we needed all of his points, so really fantastic effort from JK and really happy for him, the way he stayed ready through the last couple of weeks where things hadn't gone his way and we're gonna need him, obviously, going forward.

03:28 Steve, how difficult do you think it'll be for Jimmy and JK to duplicate or replicate what they did in Game 3? I mean, they put up 63, they did it on pretty good efficiency, but there wasn't a whole lot around them.

03:42 Right, right. Well, my experience is that they probably won't combine for 63 tomorrow, but that other people will fill in some of those gaps and every game is just different and unique, so you just, you kind of move forward and you look at where you can attack, what you can do better, and then different guys step up, but I'm very confident that both JK and Jimmy will play well. But to expect 63 points combined again is probably unrealistic.

04:18 First half, you guys did a tremendous job on defense. It was a pretty ugly first half, both teams, but you came out ahead at halftime. Second half, obviously, things fell off. What do you think fell off in the second half that you guys did so well in the first half, defensively?

04:36 Well, Anthony Edwards and Julius Randle, that's what happened in the second half, so they're great players. They're gonna make plays, they're gonna have moments, so I think the way we look at things is what are our keys going into the series, going into each game and how closely do we match that game plan discipline? Because you can't really, control Anthony Edwards making a fade away three from the wing with one second on the shot clock. You're not gonna be able to do anything about that, but you can do something about the offensive rebounds, the kickout threes, losing vision on cutters. All those things are controllable and that's the focus for tomorrow, is tightening up the details.

05:34 And you're starting lineup, what did you like about what they did early in the game?

05:41 I liked Trayce's athleticism. I'm sorry?

05:44 I should say, what did you like and didn't like? What were the pros and cons of the lineup you went out there with yesterday?

05:51 Well, we liked Trayce's size and finishing. He got a couple buckets early inside. He gives us some size and athleticism to match theirs. He's traditionally played very well next to Draymond. Those lineups tend to be good defensively, so a lot of good stuff and I think we, like in all series, you kind of learn more as you go and I think we learned some more from last night's game and the game plan will reflect that. The rotations will reflect that and we'll keep moving forward.

06:33 Thank you.

06:36 How do you kind of balance the desire to — Moses and Quinten were good for you, obviously, for more than a month to end the regular season. They've struggled in this series. How do you balance the — clearly last night it felt like you were trying to see if they could get going and didn't necessarily, so I guess, I mean, do you decide to just go away from them or are you still trying to see if you can eek them into the series?

07:02 Well, the thing I always say is that things change at the drop of a hat and sometimes it's planned and sometimes it's unplanned, you know? And JK is a perfect example of that. Trayce is a perfect example of that, so you have to adapt and adjust and things may be totally different tomorrow night and either QP or Moses could get out there and make a couple plays and be part of a good lineup and play extra minutes and it could go their way, so everyone just has to stay ready.

07:39 On the rewatch, what did you think of the Draymond fouls?

07:44 I thought the one we challenged was a charge. I understand when the league talks about legal guarding position, but I think that is superseded by the offensive player going through your chest, so that's why we challenged it. We saw the replay, we thought it was a charge, but those are always, subjective calls. And you just live with them. I didn't like the sixth one, but it doesn't matter. The calls are what they are. Sometimes they go your way, sometimes they don't, so I haven't given them a second thought today. As I said, I thought the officials did a really good job yesterday and we just have to play a little better.

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