Quinten Post’s footwork is a “mind boggle” tied to his weight

[LAC-GSW interviews/videos/transcripts]

I’ve done a couple of videos last season analyzing Quinten Post’s game, mostly praise:

• Quinten Post film study Warriors-Bulls + behind-the-scenes at Chase

• Should Quinten Post be a starter? Film study, latest Warriors/NBA news

But truth be told, I thought he regressed a little on the defensive side during the preseason. I actually criticized him pretty heavily on one of the preseason livestreams, seeing that his footwork was just not where it needed to be.

And then he played the way he did the other night against Ivica Zubac and the LA Clippers. It’s clear, he’s been working on his game. You can see the upward trend.

He said postgame that there’s a delicate balance between maintaining the right weight to battle the bigs of the NBA and keeping his footwork nimble by not being too heavy:

In this league, it’s such a mind boggle, like, on the one hand you gotta have the size to deal with those guys, but then on the other hand, if you get too heavy, you can’t really move your feet. So I’m between 250, 255. And if I get any lower than that, I feel like I’m not strong enough to really bump with those guys. And if I get over 255, I feel like I can’t move as well, so finding that sweet spot. But I did gain weight since where I was a year ago from here. I did gain weight. I was probably at 246, 247. Not right now. I’m at that, like, that 253 spot, so I guess I did gain a little bit.

I’m just gonna attribute the poor preseason stints to him being a second year player and the “mind boggle”, maybe a little readjustment to the speed of NBA games.

Just as I mentioned the perfect scenario for Jonathan Kuminga having Jimmy Butler in his corner…

…so does Quinten have Al Horford.

Notwithstanding salary cap sheet issues, Post is a keeper. Keep in mind, Mike Dunleavy, Jr. has nearly everyone not named Brandin Podziemski — who got picked up on the 4th year team option as expected/required today of Draft picks who have become solid rotation players — coming off the books the Summer of 2027.

Having a near-empty cap sheet by then is actually probably the right play, given that the top-heavy salaries of the Big Three will need to morph into, well, less than top-heavy.

With his current trajectory, Post could get a little expensive coming up, but it should be worth it as Horford will probably retire by then. Anyways, we’re getting ahead of ourselves, but it looks like QP is back on track.

Video interviews with captions and transcripts from the win over the Clip, below:

00:00 Hey Quinten, what was working well defensively tonight? You really, you did well on Zubac tonight, specifically.

00:10 QUINTEN POST, POSTGAME LAC-GSW: Yeah, I thought we just had to be in a shell, especially that Harden and pick and roll, try to get him to his weak hand, try to make him make plays. Don’t foul him on a three point shot. I thought in the first half, we fouled him a couple of times, but besides that, I thought we did a really good job as team.

00:30 Quinten, what’s different about your defense this year? How much did you focus on trying to improve defensively since over the summer?

00:38 Yeah, all summer I was in the weight room trying to get stronger. And tonight I felt pretty good out there. I felt strong. Obviously, he’s a great player, strong physical guy. All those hours probably paid off a little bit.

00:56 Did you gain weight?

00:58 Oh, no. Probably around the same weight. I’m like 25. It’s hard to really, it’s also-- in this league, it’s such a mind boggle, like, on the one hand you gotta have the size to deal with those guys, but then on the other hand, if you get too heavy, you can’t really move your feet. So I’m between 250, 255. And if I get any lower than that, I feel like I’m not strong enough to really bump with those guys. And if I get over 255, I feel like I can’t move as well, so finding that sweet spot. But I did gain weight since where I was a year ago from here. I did gain weight. I was probably at 246, 247. Not right now. I’m at that, like, that 253 spot, so I guess I did gain a little bit.

01:44 You mentioned Zu. He’s a guy who’s given you guys a lot of trouble in the past, especially last year. What were some of the keys to slowing him down tonight?

01:53 Just, it’s a, it’s really a team effort. I thought when I’m helping on the Harden and pick and roll, for those guys to have my back. Having Draymond in the back line really helps. And then you gotta box ‘em out. So I thought with me starting, that kind of gives us a little more size in the starting lineup. So I thought it was effective.

02:17 You guys outscored them by 18 in the third quarter tonight and that’s been a running theme recently, averaging almost 35 per game in the third. What do you think has led to that second half adjustment for you guys the early portion of this season?

02:32 Sorry, what is the question? Like, why do we start strong?

02:35 Yeah, what has been the biggest adjustments coming out of halftime for you guys to have these strong third quarters racing?

02:40 Ah, okay. Not a hundred percent sure. We started the same as in the first quarter. Yeah, I mean, it was the theme to the whole game, but we just started out guarding really well, keeping the ball in front and making them take tough shots and preventing second chance points. So yeah, not too much anything special.

03:08 On this team when one night you can start and another night you might not play as many minutes, what’s the mentality? How does, what’s your mentality like night to night with that type situation?

03:16 Yeah. for me it felt great to really have an impact. this is game. What is this game? Game Five. Game Five, exactly. To be honest, I haven’t felt like I really made an impact in any of the previous four games, so for me, personally, it felt great to help us win the game tonight. And then it shows that we’re a deep team and we have Strength In Numbers for anybody of us can step up every night. Like I say, yeah, it just, it feels like we have a really deep team.

03:50 Great. Thank you.

—

03:52 What do you think was the key, defensively, in the third quarter for you guys to break away?

04:02 STEPH CURRY: It was trying to keep bodies on bodies. LA is, they’re, the Clips are tough if you’re letting Kawhi and James get downhill, Zubac on the rim and we just try to make it tough and send bodies to ‘em, make ‘em play in a crowd and that helped us, especially offensively, turn tough possessions into transition and make them run the other way. So it played it to our hands.

04:39 You’ve played against James so many times over the years. How do you view those matchups? I know you had a few individual matchups tonight, but how do you view those matchups against him generally?

04:50 There’s nostalgia, for sure, but there’s still a mutual respect and admiration for just the fact that we’re still out there doing it. And I think right before jump ball, I didn’t get to talk to him one-on-one, but I pointed at him, like, you normally do a jump ball circle and I mouthed like we’re still doing this, which is there’s certain guys around the league that fit that category, especially me and him, Jrue, DeMar in my Draft class, so pretty special.

05:26 Stephen, what have you made of the last two games Brandin’s put together, creating for teammates, taking it, looking for a shot and doing the little things on the glass, just all around, two really good games in a row?

05:39 Yeah, you gotta stack ‘em together and, again, his task is keep having fun, keep playing aggressive, keep the game simple and it’ll reward you. So we’re all trying to do that and whatever it you can do to help the team win. And we need his energy. We need JK’s energy. It’s like the opposite of last night. Like, the stat lines won’t necessarily scream as loud, but the intention, the energy, the execution of defensive strategy and all that type of stuff was there for everybody. And you win that way, so that’s great.

06:19 Along the lines of the stat line, Raymond (Ridder) gave us a stat last night that it was the sixth time four Warriors had scored 20 or more points and you weren’t one of them, in your entire career. What does that say about the depth of and scoring abilities of this group?

06:41 Our offense is predicated on using me as a shot creator, obviously, on the ball, off the ball, but certain games, I’m not gonna get a crazy amount of looks, but hopefully we are able to create beautiful offense that way. And other guys benefit and vice versa. Guy set great screens for me, get me open, so selfless basketball all the way around and our job is not to obsess over the stat sheet. It’s, can we win?

07:14 Hey Steph, since Jimmy arrived, the non Steph minutes have been less anxiety provoking. Do you see it that way? And is it that a little bit easier for you to kick back on the bench and know that team’s in good hands?

07:32 Yeah, that’s the way a great team operates and you saw tonight, the end of the, beginning of the, sorry, end of the third quarter, beginning of the fourth, Jimmy, Draymond orchestrated pretty flawless basketball. And just dominate the game to where, to your point, we were able to not only maintain, but increase the lead and keep the momentum going and I come in there for two minutes in the fourth, game’s over. Those are beautiful nights to have, especially over the course of the season, just to give ourselves the ability to sustain this effort and this level throughout the whole way.

08:19 Steph, you talked about not worrying about the stat sheet. Kuminga obviously had 20 last night, nine tonight. But I’m curious, aside from scoring, where did you feel, where did your team feel his impact tonight?

08:30 He’s gonna get a lot of assignments on ball for the other team’s top scorer type vibes through the night on James. James had a big first stab, but I felt like he had to work for a lot of it when he got to the foul line, a good amount. But every possession, he had bodies on him and JK was, again, just trying to force him into a crowd and use his athleticism as strength and we need that point of attack defender out there to take on that challenge. And he’s been doing a great job of that and the scoring, whether it’s there or not, you still have an impact on winning by doing the little things.

09:14 Hello, Steph. The Warrior finally beats Clippers since 2023, November 13. Did you feel like the team’s momentum finally change like after two years?

09:29 I honestly didn’t know that stat until after the game and it made sense, now that I think about it. But I missed two games in, or one game in LA last year. We had a pretty electric game at the end of last year. That last game of the season could have gone either way, but early in the year you wanna establish an identity of yourself. I wish I would’ve known that a little bit. It might have gave us a little bit more juice, but thankfully we got it done, regardless.

10:05 We can’t see it right now because of the hoodie, but it looked like you had a pretty nasty scratch on your neck. Do you know what play that happened on and how were you feeling after five games and eight days to start the season?

10:15 I feel pretty good, for the most part. This is pretty dense, crazy hectic schedule. Some would say an exotic start to the season. And so I had a scratch earlier from the Laker game. This one I didn’t get. I didn’t remember what play. I didn’t really feel it. It looked worse than it felt. Some would say that’s light-skinned problems, too.

00:04 Jimmy, you guys really got rolling in the third quarter. You dominated coming outta halftime. What did you think the biggest key was in that sequence?

00:21 JIMMY BUTLER, POSTGAME LAC-GSW: Challenging shots, being in gaps, not turning the ball over. That’s always good for us. We get to set our defense and get back in transition and, like any other team, it always helps to make shots.

00:34 Jimmy, what are the biggest adjustments for growth development? That you’ve seen from Quinten Post compared to last season?

00:41 I think his decision making, his passing, getting his feet set on screens and then just like last season, it’s a little bit more the confidence he has, whenever he reach out there on the floor, shooting the ball, putting the ball on the ground. That’s real growth. And it’s just because he’s been putting the time in over the summer in training camp. He’s so comfortable with any four guys that you put out there.

01:06 Jimmy, Steve had said before last night’s game that Brandin was maybe pressing a little bit, but he’s put together two pretty great games on both ends, the last two nights and can two games like that really put somebody, give somebody momentum and just, say, get ‘em rolling, so to speak?

01:25 I sure hope so. We have the utmost confidence in BP and I’m pretty damn sure he has a lot of confidence in himself. Just play basketball the right way. Play hard as hell. Shoot the ball when you’re open, which he can shoot the hell out of the ball, make plays for others whenever you’re not open, hustle back on defense like he did on and save the bucket, keep rolling them off and putting them together. He can do that.

01:53 How much do you love the depth and the different scores you have and playmakers on this group?

01:57 Me and GP was just talking about that, how deep this team really is. And we don’t have certain guys back yet or in full motion of what they could and will be doing. It’s a good thing for us and it’s a scary thing for everybody else.

02:17 Jimmy, what did you see from JK today? He got the assignment on James Harden, defended Kawhi Leonard quite a bit. What’d you see from him tonight?

02:24 Confidence, man. He’s major. He’s key in what we’re trying to do this season on both sides of the floor, on my level, when he is guarding at a high level. Love it even more whenever he’s making plays and scoring and rebounding, all of that good stuff. He’s been playing off the charts to start this year. I, myself, want him to keep going, keep being aggressive, keep attacking, keep taking that challenge on the defensive end, and we as a whole need him to do just that.

02:57 How different or similar does this feel to your guys sprint to the finish line last year? Does it feel like a similar type vibe or a more settled type vibe?

03:10 I think it’s very settling. I think everybody know their role. Everybody know what they’re supposed to be doing, where they’re supposed to be on the floor. And, I don’t know, it’s just, it’s fun. A lot of smiles, joking around. That’s the way that the game’s supposed to be. That’s the atmosphere that you need to have. If you want to make a deep run, you gotta love being around one another. I think we have that at the highest level. We’re good. And I don’t say good in a complacent way. I say good, like, everybody’s happy.

03:43 Hey Jimmy, are you aware that before you got here, there was always a lot of concern about the non Steph minutes, when he was on the bench and that talk’s quieted down since you got here?

03:55 I think that’s a good thing that I can be trusted to run the offense while Batman’s out the game. But we got so many different people that can do that. You just gotta calm the game down, that organized chaos that he creates. It’s a great thing for our team, but there’s only one player that can do that and he wears Number 30. For everybody else. stop turning the ball over, let’s not shoot from the logo like he does and get the ball where it needs to go.

04:24 Oh, one fast thing. Did you talk to Horford when he was deciding what to do in the offseason? Did you?

04:30 I did not. We had some hellafied battles back in my days over in the Eastern Conference, so I just knew, when he was here, if he was here, he would help us in a major way. And If my memory serves me correctly, he’s undefeated on the year.

04:51 Jimmy, another Kuminga question. You’ve really clearly made a point to talk to him, just saw you talking to him just now. Did you, like, circle him maybe this off season or as things were going on with his mid- negotiations, whatever, like, you wanna make sure that he hears from you, he understands what you’re saying and thinking?

05:12 Yeah, there are so many people that are in his corner. I’m one of them. There’s so many other individuals in this organization, on this team, on the coaching staff as well, that want him to be great. And it’s okay to make mistakes. You just gotta listen. Sometimes it may not always come off the way that you want it to, but I tell him, I promise that it’s in good faith. Nobody’s just yelling at you to yell at you. And he’s happy. He’s joyful. He knows that he’s playing at a high level. He knows that everybody wants him to continue to do that. And I’m just here to make sure that he stays level headed.

05:54 In that similar vein, you’ve taken a lot of the young guys under your wing. Is it exciting to see them take this leap this season?

06:00 Yeah, yeah. Hell, us older guys, I guess, are on our way out the league, but these new young guys, they got potential to be great for a very long time. And I think it’s just our job to be really good vets to them like we’ve had in the past, set them up for success, give ‘em all the confidence in the world knowing that some of these key role players are gonna be the reason that we win the championship.

06:30 Jimmy, over here. About 10 years ago, you had one of the best one season improvements that I can remember. You came in as this 3 & D role player, and then you really--

06:39 I came in as a what?

06:40 3 & D role player.

06:42 3 & D? Maybe just defense, not 3 & D.

06:46 it was a big topic that year. You shot 40% from three, whether that was gonna continue.

06:50 On 0.5 per game.

06:54 But then you had this big improvement. You added the isolation game and the pick and roll and you do that as you’re with a bunch of veterans around you. JK’s in that same situation. What is it like, balancing your own personal improvement, your own career as an ascending player, with what the team needs from you in that moment?

07:16 Whatever you’re doing out there, it just needs to add up to winning. Are you making winning plays, whether you’re scoring 50 or getting 30 assists or 10 steals or no steals, no off--? When you’re out there, are you making winning plays? Yes, you grow your game. You don’t ever want to come back the exact same player. You want to work on your stuff in the off season, but no matter if you’re scoring, defending, rebounding, getting the ball where it needs to go, none of it matters if you’re not winning. So I would like to think back in those days I was trying my best to help my team win. Same thing here. Same thing that I go through JK with. Like, when you’re out there on the floor, are you winning your minutes? And I think, as of late, he’s been doing it.

00:00 STEVE KERR, POSTGAME LAC-GSW: You deserve more respect than that, Raymond (Ridder).

00:05 Steve, you obviously, you start Quinten. I imagine it’s matchup based, but also to spread Al’s minutes, but then he goes for plus 34. What did you see for him? How did you just ride it a little bit more than you expected, given the way he was playing?

00:19 Yeah, I think this is gonna be a pattern for us. I really want to just bring Al off the bench if he’s gonna be 20 minutes, 20 to 25 minutes. I’d rather have him come off the bench and be able to close with him if we need to, like we did against Denver. So we’ll probably go back and forth between Quinten and BP for now, just depending on what the center matchup looks like. I thought BP was great. I didn’t play him enough in the first half, I think. I only got him out there for nine minutes and we missed his playmaking, so I gotta do a better job of doing what we did in the second half, which was finding lineups that could play make a little bit more. But QP was the story of the game, fearless out there, hit big shots, played great defense and couldn’t be happier for him or for us getting Quinten, late second round, year and a half ago, he’s turning into a really good player.

01:28 Steve, you guys obviously dominated the third quarter. What did you think the key was, defensively, during that stretch?

01:37 We did a better job of not fouling. We sent James to the line seven times in the first half and none in the second and I think we just trusted our coverages and made them play through us or over the top of us, rather than sending them to the line. To hold that team to 30 points in the second half, pretty impressive.

02:05 Steve, I just wanted to follow up about the defense. You said it there, 30 points in the second half. You held ‘em under 80 for the game. How would you describe the defensive effort, especially on the second night of a back to back?

02:19 The number one thing we’ve been trying to hammer home is that our offense can help our defense, and I thought that happened tonight. And it’s not just turnovers, but it’s playing a connected style of basketball, so soon as things are a little precarious, make sure Jimmy Butler gets the ball. He settles the game down, he gets fouled, he gets us an open shot. We don’t turn it over, so I think the last game and a half we’ve been much more purposeful in our play offensively and that’s dramatically helped our defense. But besides that, Draymond Green continues to be one of the great defenders on Earth. I thought he controlled that game in the paint with his switching, with his help all over the place. Draymond was brilliant and I just think we’ve got a lot of depth to be able to come in with Moses and BP off the bench and Al, Buddy, Gary, we can play a lot of people and five games in eight days. To start the season is pretty rough, so I couldn’t be more proud of the guys to, not only go four on one, but to really quickly establish what we want to be and how we want to operate. So it’s just a hell of an eight days and now obviously we gotta head out onto the road and keep getting better.

03:47 Steph went to the bench late third. I think you guys were up like six or seven and by in the last three minutes it was, it had a balloon to 15 or 16. How important, particularly mentioning Jimmy in that stretch, when you can go away from Steph and you got a double digit lead--?

04:03 Yeah, it was a big stretch. I think it might’ve been, I can’t remember if it was late in that quarter when QP hit the big three, late shot clock, that might’ve been early fourth, but with that lineup, you saw it last year, we’re playing the same group to start the fourth quarter and sometimes to finish the third. But Jimmy and BP anchoring the offense, getting, making sure we’re getting Jimmy the ball in his spots and then getting spaced, we can do it with Al now, we can do it with QP, but just the ability to space the floor for Jimmy in those moments without Steph allows him to control the game.

04:49 Steve, obviously, another incredibly efficient game for Jimmy. The three pointer isn’t his bread and butter by any means, but he’s three or four tonight. He’s eight of 14 on the season. From there, this so far, have you seen any differences from him when it comes to the three point shot?

05:03 I just think Jimmy’s a guy who doesn’t really wanna shoot a whole lot of threes, but he takes them in the moment. He feels, whether it’s a late shot clock or a big moment in the game, or seeing how the defense is guarding us, he’s very confident from three. It’s just like this seventh option for him.

05:27 Steve, Draymond was flying around there in that third quarter in that run. I was wondering how much of a factor is it him not having to play center all the time in terms of giving him a little bit more energy to have those kinds of those runs, defensive runs?

05:42 Yeah, that’s the idea. Last year, obviously, we started him at the five the last 30 games or so and it was great, but it’s a lot. And especially against a guy like Zubac who’s killed us for years. And so to be able to take Dray off him and have him play center field and guard Zubac with Al and QP, Trayce, I think it’s a big help for Dray and a big help for us.

06:09 Steve, you’re plus 18 in the third quarter tonight, plus 12 last night, so plus 30 the last two nights. And that was a calling card. Of your past teams coming out and dominating third quarters. Are you seeing anything in particular in the third, coming out of the half strong, or is it just the way the last couple games have gone?

06:24 The last two games, it just felt we had more purpose to our decision making and, like I said, controlling the flow of the game, not letting things get away from us and transition and making things difficult on our opponent in the half court. And you see how good our defense can be when we’re not in transition. Portland game, first half of Memphis, they were just running the ball down our throats and not a whole lot of defense against four on threes. So we’ve just done a better job of, controlling the action.

07:02 Steve, extending on this defense, you mentioned Quinten being a factor on that end, which he clearly was. How much better is he defensively than he was last season, because it seemed like in the playoffs teams were going at him, but he’s clearly made strides? And how much of a factor is that when you play Jokic in Denver or tonight to have that body, you can trust a big guy? You can trust him.

07:22 Yeah. It’s huge. And then to have Al behind him is massive, too, so it takes a lot of pressure off Draymond and just to play bigger with those guys is really helpful. And so I think QP has gotten a lot better. Just, he’s a worker. He is unbelievably coachable and our development coaches have worked with him the last two years and, really, I think he’s taken to that coaching and that work and, just gotten better and better.

07:56 Hey Coach, Kawhi Leonard is obviously a great player and plus minuses and everything, but tonight he was, minus 24 and shot a lot. What did you see out there from your defense that kind of made things difficult for him to get going and helped them tonight?

08:12 We didn’t foul him, kept him off the line. He got that really good spurt, in the second quarter when they came back from the big deficit and that was his best moment or best stretch of the game. And I just thought in the second half we did a much better job of keeping our matchup on him, keeping our bigger guys on him. Moses came off the bench, did a nice job and just trying to send him to spots where we thought that the shots were a little bit tougher. Our guys had did a good job of that.

08:41 In that same vein, Harden had 20 in the first half, but you only, you held him to zero points in the second, only got three shots up. What was the adjustment there on him?

08:49 Not fouling was the big deal. We fouled him on the three, fouled them on a drive, couple drives and this is the NBA, 48 minute game, team with Hall of Fame players like the Clippers. They’re gonna have their stretches and I thought we were able to limit that, those hot stretches, really, to just that second quarter. So it was a really a good defensive effort over them.

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