Kerr: Podziemski “at times is too ambitious”
[video/interview/captions/transcript]
A little bit of a late post, but back on Tuesday of this past week, two days after All-Star Weekend, the Warriors gathered for their first practice, pretty late in the day.
Only Steve Kerr went to the podium and here were the key basketball points:
Kristaps (Porzingis) is really a scorer in the mid-post, low post, turn-and-face, shoot a mid-range jump shot, draw a foul. Jimmy (Butler)’s obviously a guy who will drive frequently all the way to the rim, draw the defense in and then look to pass from there, so they’re very different players and the spacing has to allow for that.
And then Kerr also spoke on the All-Star Break being a good refresh for youngsters like Quinten Post, Will Richard and Brandin Podziemski, whose shots and decision-making seemed fatigued as the Break approached.
Asked specifically about Podziemski, here was Steve’s reply:
He’s a player who has impacted winning for us for three years and I think that will continue. He’s still finding his way, given he wants to be great, so he at times is too ambitious and I’ve talked to him about that. I love the ambition. I love that he wants to be great. I just think that it’s still a process of figuring out exactly who he is as a young player, which is very common.
Often on our watch party livestreams, we do witness Podz’s growing pains. It does seem like he’s figuring out his impact on the game. Obviously, it’s a lot tougher when Jimmy Butler and one Wardell Stephen Curry are sidelined because Podziemski is, indeed, a great complementary player.
The part that could use the most improvement is, imo, something to do with the ego. He complains to the officials about no-calls a lot. A little humility can go a long way. If this were the 90s, the refs may have yelled something back at him. Podz needs to earn the calls and it all goes hand-in-hand with the ambition.
The flip side to this is, it’s the irrational confidence that is one of his special traits. Like everyone else — whether that’s Draymond Green with the technicals or Curry with the turnovers — there will need to be some balancing and ongoing internal recalibration on the upward road to success.
As for the airballs and bricks, one incredible fact remains: BP actually leads the league in Effective Field Goal Percentage with 0 to 4 seconds left on the shot clock 🤯:
For those bad misses, I hope he can spend all summer playing pickup and being “The Man” in those runs. That would be my advice. Be a “dude”, take the crafty contested shots at a certain level of pro-am summer basketball, establish that floor of closely-guarded field goal attempts, then slowly raise that floor next training camp and so on and so forth — or maybe he’s done this already and just hit a brick wall at some point, no pun intended.
Full Kerr transcript below. Here are some other topics in that media availability:
Final stretch of the season focused primarily on building toward the playoffs, emphasizing defense, transition offense, and ball security.
Team believes it can stay competitive while waiting for Curry’s return.
Top-six seed remains a goal, though not an expectation given current standings.
Team appeared refreshed post-All-Star break despite an initially “ragged” return practice.
Lineup note: Draymond will start at center, with Al Horford’s starting role dependent on Curry’s availability.
00:00 Hello Steve, just how’d Steph look today in practice and (inaudible)?
00:05 STEVE KERR, PRACTICE, DAY BEFORE BOS-GSW: Steph did not practice today. He’s gonna be out tomorrow. He is gonna be evaluated tonight by our training staff, but just wasn’t where he needed to be to go through the scrimmage and so it’s unfortunate, but we’ll have an update tomorrow after he goes through his time with the training staff tonight.
00:31 And Kristaps?
00:33 He practiced. We’ll list him as questionable for tomorrow, but full participant in practice scrimmage and looked good, so fingers crossed. But yeah, everything has gone well so far.
00:49 How up to speed do you think Kristaps is in terms of learning the plays and everything?
00:55 He’ll be up to speed. I mean, there’s only a handful of plays that he has, to kind of memorize. Most of it is conceptual. He’s a basketball player. He understands where to be, spacing, all that kind of stuff, so I don’t think it will be long. The tough part will just be a random out-of-bounds play that we can’t call tomorrow, so we’ll limit — when he’s out on the floor, we’ll limit our out-of-bounds plays to the couple that we’ve installed for him.
01:31 And with spacing, I think you mentioned yesterday that the spacing with Porzingis is different than it was with Butler. How much of that is just like the areas of the court that he likes to operate in?
01:42 Some of it is the areas, but it more of it is the tendencies. Kristaps is really a scorer in the mid-post, low post, turn-and-face, shoot a mid-range jump shot, draw a foul. Jimmy’s obviously a guy who will drive frequently all the way to the rim, draw the defense in and then look to pass from there, so they’re very different players and the spacing has to allow for that.
02:14 Steve, I just wanna follow up on Steph. Is he still having pain in the knee?
02:19 So, he went through — he’s been on All-Star Break, but he had someone with him working with him in the last couple of days. And so he came back today and he just it wasn’t quite feeling right. I mean, these guys know when they’re right and when they’re not. And he knew it wasn’t the right thing, to go back into a full practice. And so, as I said, he’s being evaluated now by our training staff team doctors and we’ll have an update after another MRI, possibly. We’ll see, yeah.
03:02 Back to Kristaps for a second. What do you think he can do for your defense after (inaudible)?
03:07 I mean, he’s a rim protector, shot blocker. Just the size alone, it’s just gonna be a welcome addition. We’re obviously pretty small team and so it’s great to have his size and he’s very versatile. He can play with a lot of different lineups, different combinations, so he’ll start out on a minutes restriction and we’ll go from there, but I don’t think it’ll be a difficult fit because of the type of player he is.
03:39 How many minutes?
03:42 I have not talked about it yet with Rick (Celebrini), but usually when a guy hasn’t played in a while, you’re talking the 15-minute range, somewhere in there.
03:51 And then going back to follow up on the question I had about defense, what does that change, having that kind of size, rim protector. Are you able to do different things with, on the perimeter? Like, how does that change your — the way you’re able to scheme a little bit on that end?
04:01 Well, we, for the time being, we won’t change our schemes, but there are definitely things we can do differently. We also have to feel what those things are. We need to get him on the floor with the guys and just get a feel for what’s possible, but we’ll start out with just our basic coverages.
04:24 Between Kristaps, Al and Quinten, if you got three guys who can all shoot, spread the floor and play defense, I feel like, when’s the last time that you’ve had this much shooting from that position?
04:33 Since before I was coach, so I don’t know what the answer is, but we have not been a team with that position. And in fact we haven’t really had one guy very often, but Mike has clearly made it a priority and he’s done a great job, first drafting QP and then obviously signing Al, and now trading for Kristaps, so it’s now a position of strength for sure. Monte (Poole)?
05:13 In addition to the Currys and KP, what are the other health guys? Everybody else good to go tomorrow?
05:19 Yeah, other than Seth. Seth, I think you guys got the update. He’s coming along. He went through quite a bit of practice today, but not the live stuff. But he’s looking good and starting to come around.
05:32 And you got 27 games to go. I mean, what are you looking for over these last 27? Is it — how much of it is evaluation for beyond and how much of it is trying to maximize what you have?
05:45 It’s all about the playoffs this year. I mean, that’s what we’re looking to build towards. So the process is the most important thing, recognizing how we have to win games, what we have to accomplish within that process, so taking care of the ball. We’ve gotta get better in transition. We’ve been very poor all season long, but especially lately. We’re not gonna get easy baskets without Jimmy and Steph unless we can convert our defense into offense. And so that was something that we really hammered home today and yesterday. We’ve got to be a really good defensive team, which I think we have been all year. We’re a Top 10 defense, so we’ve got to lean on our defense and turn some possessions into easy points at the other end and compete like we’ve competed the last week. I mean, I just loved what I saw these last four or five games, just terms of staying with it and competing together and giving ourselves a chance each night. That’s gotta be the theme and if we can pick off some wins here and there and find a way to get healthy, then we feel like we can do some damage.
07:01 How critical is it to have a healthy and productive Steph for as much as you possibly can over that period?
07:08 It’s rather critical. Yeah. Yeah, it’s — obviously, we know the drill. Like, we have to have Steph if we expect to do anything, so it’s one of the reasons we held him out tonight. We’ve gotta be certain. He’s gotta be certain, but we really feel strongly that Kristaps can help us and that we can hold down the fort while we’re waiting on on Steph.
07:34 Steve, with everything being about the playoffs, but also obviously having some health question marks, is a Top Six seed still a expectation or a goal, like it was in preseason?
07:45 It’s still a goal, for sure. It’s not an expectation by any means, when you just look at the standings and look at who’s ahead of us. Teams are playing really well, but that would still be the goal for sure. There’s basically a third of the season left, so let’s see if we can make that happen.
08:07 I mean, runner’s knee is a very, like, I don’t know, it’s a new term, at least for me. What is the — what Steph’s dealing with? I know you guys are listing it. They’re calling it runner’s knee. What — I mean, have you done much research? Have you talked to Rick about what he is dealing with? It seems a little kind of nebulous.
08:22 Yeah, it is a little nebulous, but that’s the nature of the injury. I’m not gonna do Rick a disservice and try to explain it myself. That’s just not my area of expertise, but it’s a little tricky and we’re gonna keep plugging away with it and Steph will take the right steps. Our training staff will continue to work with him and we’ll see where it goes.
08:51 Where do you feel like Brandin’s game has — is at these last few weeks? I know his efficiency is going down. What are you seeing from him and what do you — what needs to happen for him to get back on track?
08:59 I think the All-Star Break will have been really good for him. I think all young players really need those four or five days to recharge the batteries. Same thing with Quinten Post, Will Richard. I sensed with all those guys that they’re running out of steam a little bit and that affects the shot, it affects the decision making. I think the Break was great for everyone. BP is, he’s a player who has impacted winning for us for three years and I think that will continue. He’s still finding his way, given he wants to be great, so he at times is too ambitious and I’ve talked to him about that. I love the ambition. I love that he wants to be great. I just think that it’s still a process of figuring out exactly who he is as a young player, which is very common.
10:03 In that vein, did it feel like the team was refreshed, coming back from All-Star Break?
10:07 Yeah. Last night we had a really ragged practice, which is always a great sign that guys are refreshed, so it’s a tradition that first day back from All-Star Break. I mean, going back to when I played when it was, you only had three days off, that first day back is always ragged, but you gotta get the legs back underneath you. And tonight was much better, much more solid and I think everybody’s excited to get back out there tomorrow.
10:35 You’ve started Al sometimes. Do you wanna maintain that or is that something that you kind of go game by game with?
10:42 Starting Al?
10:43 Al.
10:43 I liked starting Al and Draymond with Steph. I don’t like starting them without Steph, so when Steph gets back, we’ll have to make that decision, but he won’t — Al won’t start tomorrow.
10:56 So does that mean that Draymond is back at the 5?
10:59 I’m sorry?
11:00 Draymond back at the 5?
11:01 Yeah, Draymond will be starting at the 5 tomorrow.
11:03 Well, you said you didn’t want to play him there.
11:06 Well, you gotta do what you gotta do, so. Thank you.
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IMHO- Podziemski needs to decide if he is going to play more as a playmaker distributor, or as a scorer, and then work on some of those specific skill areas in the offseason. On his drives he often gets into the paint, and then seems to be caught with some uncertainty between finding an open passing lane and trying to get a shot off. The potential is there.