Kerr: “We’ve wanted a space-5 (big man) for a decade”

[MIN-GSW videos/interviews/transcripts]

Might go live tonight, Sat 12/13/2025, to discuss some of these things. Let me give you the stream of consciousness based on last night’s loss to Minnesota, with what Steve Kerr said on the podium in both pregame and postgame, as well as Quinten Post and one Wardell Stephen Curry, plus De’Anthony Melton.

The full transcripts are behind the paywall down below, or can be found simply by going to our YouTube channel video interviews and their Comments…

(Post)’s the reason we’ve wanted a space-5 for a decade. It just changes the whole game when you have a 5 who can step out and shoot and opens up the floor. But biggest thing with QP is his defense has improved dramatically. He worked hard getting stronger over the summer and I think it’s really just a classic case of a young guy coming in and going to the G League and putting in the work and getting a taste of the action last year and then getting better. I mean, he’s just, it’s exactly what you want as a coach, somebody like Quinten who fills a role and then really embraces it and keeps getting better, so he’s just been really good for us.

Cat’s out of the bag: They have wanted a 5 that can shoot this whole time, after all, this entire Kevon Looney era.

But I do think a lot of it has to do with what they learned from the mothballing of Zaza Pachulia in the 2018 playoffs (coinciding with the advent of Looney) and, perhaps more importantly, the salary cap. I’ll delve into the latter a bit more on the next livestream, probably tonight.

So that’s why JaVale McGee 2.0 never happened. That’s also why I don’t think Daniel Gafford is a blip on the radar. I could be wrong, though.

Ergo, this is not necessarily an Internet rando squealing, “We need a big man!”

One of the space-5s a lot of Warriors fans have talked about is Myles Turner. Up until this trade season, his contract value, status and role on the Indiana Pacers has pretty much been locked in.

But now, due to Milwaukee’s brazen waiving of Damian Lillard and eating of huge cap space to get Turner, followed by the subpar performance of the Bucks so far, it looks like Turner could be available if the writing is indeed on the wall, as one of the more reliable Top Five news breakers of the NBA recently reported what a team GM or executive told them — my bad, I can’t remember which, but it was within the last week (one of Shams Charania, Marc Stein, Jake Fischer or Brett Siegel, for example, so not a random rumor by some Twitter aggregator, for sure).

If you know me, you know that I’ve been anti-“we need a big man” for quite some time, mostly due to those aforementioned cap sheet issues and, I’d call it, prudent fiscal management.

But then, last night, and really over the past couple weeks, something happened, as Tim Kawakami of the SF Standard observed, asking Kerr the above question under the context of QP’s impressive plus-minus so far.

I’m gonna nitpick, but that’s what I do when I analyze games on our livestream Watch Parties: QP couldn’t hit in clutch moments.

So yeah, he’s young and he’s learning. When grilled, again by Kawakami and by his own admission a “tough” question for QP on that podium, Post said of taking extra long to pull the trigger on that three that would’ve given the Warriors a 121-119 lead with 1:02 to go if it had splashed:

As a shooter, when you get a wide open look like that you sometimes take a breath to kind of make it more like a rhythm shot. And, looking back at it, I wish I would’ve just shot it, but I learned from it and it’ll fall next time.

The problem with the scared trigger finger, I’ll call it, is that the mistake compounded.

Steph took the next possession, probed the arc against Naz Reid and, as Rudy Gobert switched on to Curry with Reid still in tow and completely ignored QP after the stagger screen by Melton and QP, took a contested three over both Gobert and Reid.

Credit Reid, who did a solid job not biting on Steph’s fly-by fake and, along with Gobert, sold out on Curry. The shot rolled out, Rudy swallowed the rebound, outlet nicely to Donte DiVincenzo, who smartly took a calculated two-for-one with 28 seconds left.

Dagger, 123-118.

Guess who also completely ignored QP on that play? Yep, the guy who took the shot over two seven-footers instead of passing it to the other shooter on the team, who already had four threes.

And so by having deer-in-the-headlights, Post went from a potential game-winning three with a minute to go, to being disrespected by ballers who have done things at the biggest stages.

When asked, Curry respectfully brought this up:

I don’t ever coach the result or talk about just because he missed it, if there’s anything he should have done differently. The only thing, sometimes as a shooter, you just like to have that little pound dribble to get your rhythm back. That’s the only thing.

There’s also the ill-fated lefty drive from Post that wasn’t close, also against Gobert, during the 17-0 drought when Steph was on the bench. There was also the “hand grenade” he got from Jimmy Butler that, a push shot from the baseline that never had a chance.

Someone on the livestream asked, “Who’s our No. 3 scorer?” Well, OKC doesn’t have a No. 3 scorer, either, but they do have “big shot makers”. That’s the thing the Warriors don’t have in their identity right now.

I don’t think we’ll see that lineup again, even if Draymond Green hypothetically misses another game (let’s hope he’s back against Portland): Pat Spencer, Brandin Podziesmki, Moses Moody, Jimmy, QP.

Curry for Moody, Melton for Spencer, Gui Santos for Jimmy and Trayce Jackson-Davis for Post would also be in the mix towards the end of that nadir.

Incidentally, while we’re talking about that bad stretch from around the 9:00 to 6:00 mark of Q4 — still, later Curry was able to wipe that away with his heroics to actually steal the lead, 118-117, with 1:37 to play — after studying the play-by-play, these were the “egregious” mistakes:

• Those two hapless field goal attempts by Post, although both of them were late in the shot clock,

• Two really bad turnovers by Podziemski, although after the second one, Rob Dillingham made a poor pass to DiVincenzo to give it right back,

• Moody not staying in front of Terrence Shannon, Jr. and fouling him,

• Moody losing Reid in transition and, by the time he figured out he needed to guard Naz, running right into a Gobert pick,

• Dillingham getting a blow-by of Jimmy,

• Steph and Quinten not handling the right wing handoff between Naz and Donte — this was a go-to play for Chris Finch because Golden State had no answer for it all night (which should change when Green gets back),

• Jaden McDaniels beating Melton off the dribble and finding Rudy for a dunk as Trayce helped,

• Spencer missing a wide-open corner three after Steph got found him with a razzle-dazzle behind-the-back pass, then compounding it the other way as he forgot to guard the streaking Shannon, who was fouled by Podz.

This is going to sound mean, but there are distinct moments when youngsters like QP, Podz and Pat had center stage and hiccuped.

Not so for these Timberwolves not named Anthony Edwards, who was obviously out with an injury. They had several big shots made by different guys. At sixth in the standings, Minnesota is an excellent barometer of the team and cohesion, pretty much where the Warriors need to be.

And yet, I can still count those four losses (Milwaukee, Indiana, Portland and Orlando) attributed to “basketball impotence”, which an affliction of the vets:

Even notwithstanding this loss to the Wolves, instead of 13-13, we should therefore be 17-9 with those four giveaways due to “BI”, which is actually right where Minnesota is sitting in 6th, at 16-9.

And so my first overall thought is this: I know how QP feels. I’ve been there. I used to play at the biggest stages of local Asian tournaments: the Chinese New Year Tournament in Chinatown and the Cornerstone Tournament every July 4th weekend at St. Ignatius. Those were 20-minute halves, college rules. I was a star at the highest level — for about 15 of those minutes.

Yes, I had deer-in-the-headlights syndrome. I was Quinten Post.

I didn’t end up playing a ton of those tournaments, as my “career” pivoted towards being the “Poor Man’s Commish” of Dream League, as I’ve alluded to a million times on here.

But deer in the headlights ain’t gonna cut it. Not in a window that has Curry’s contract ending Summer 2027.

I guess you could say I’ve joined the Myles Turner bandwagon, but it’s not because I saw some tweet on Xitter and wanted to be with the cool kids.

But actually, I’m really on the Giannis Antetokuonmpo train, for sure. I’ll talk about it on the livestream tonight, but I’ve looked at the available players and this is the time for that. There aren’t that many superstars around $50-ish million that are seemingly available these days. If not, then Lauri Markkanen, whom we’ve written about several times on here in the past:

I am a firm believer that there is no such thing as Groundhog Day. In as little as a couple weeks, the flaws and lack of identity we saw against the Wolves will likely change into something none of us really can predict. It’s always moving targets in the NBA.

Things could evolve quickly and prove me wrong. I allow room for that. If we manage to go on a win streak or two before Jonathan Kuminga can be traded on January 15th, then maybe the changes are less drastic.

By the way, looking at the boxscore and understanding/respecting the momentum from the road trip that Kerr tried to ride as a wave into the Minnesota matchup, well, I just don’t know how Kuminga gets back into this rotation.

Sure, he could just start against Portland and Steve would slap me in the face that way, but with another forward coming back in Dray and I see Gui with just six minutes played and Gary Payton II even less, what’s the point of replacing those spots with JK? You would need a bigger identity shift if JK is to play meaningful minutes.

But the deer in the headlights thing, I really hope that doesn’t become a pattern against good teams.

Here’s the rest of the Kerr transcript that I have a few more comments on…

On seeing Ant’s potential during Team USA practices and camp:

A guy that talented, you always kinda want to experiment with, whether it’s on or off the ball, what does it look like if you have him as a screener? What does it look like if you play a small ball lineup with him? What does it look like if you have him handle the ball more often? All these things are really tantalizing when you’re a coach and you see a guy that talented. When I coached him, the roles were pretty defined, but he was our best player on that team and it was clear that he was entering new ground and he’s clearly one of the best players in the league.

I guess there’s a wide gap between No. 1 pick talents and No. 7 picks? As Coach Ricky Goodman says on X, there’s something happening behind closed doors, or maybe it’s really just this hard to install a turbo engine while the plane has been flying? More on this, below.

On the adjustment they made for QP in the Minnesota playoff series:

One of the things that we tried to do in that series was put QP on McDaniels and just figured, let’s see if Quinten can, if we can jumble up the matchups and have Quinten guard a wing. And his instinct immediately took him into the middle of the paint. I think it was the beginning of Game 2 and McDaniels got a wide open three from the corner. Quinten was immediately like, that’s my fault.

I admit, I’m getting a little impatient with Post. If we could only transplant Klay Thompson’s brain into QP’s, the way we would Gui’s into JK’s, we’d already have that fringe All-Star or, okay, let me call it a “bonafide consistent impact player” à la Melton,

Then again, it took Klay a few years. We don’t have a few years, though.

When asked about Pat’s ball-handling:

Having another ball handler on the floor with Pat or Melt, BP, having the floor spacing of Quinten, the game gets easier and it’s much easier to take care of the ball… We are a ball movement team. We always have been and when we can get it swung, we generally get pretty good looks at the rim.

I want to wait until Dray comes back to have a proper coalescing of the intended identity, but the above 1) reinforces the notion that Turner would be an upgrade to making the game “easier” and 2) reinforces me wondering how in the world JK can possibly crack the rotation.

Again, I don’t believe in Groundhog Day, but if the losing continues then I’ve got no choice but to wonder if there might be an alternative to this ecosystem, although Steph seemed to explain it pretty well here:

There would be some ramp-up time from Giannis or Myles or Lauri. I haven’t talked about Trey Murphy III on this website, yet, but I have in the Kuminga Thought Experiments video. And it was only the other day when I lampooned the “Fire Kerr” guys in the previous post. 🤷🏻‍♂️

But as Dray said, perhaps nearly exactly 365 days ago, if the team doesn’t start winning, there will be changes.

A lot of this is on Draymond, too. He is the biggest culprit (sufferer?) of the aforementioned “basketball impotence”, not that he can help it. JK might not be the only one destined for the chopping block. After all, Green and Kuminga’s salaries added together are in the vicinity of Giannis’.

As for Jimmy, I don’t know that there is a team in the NBA at all that wants to end up with Butler’s contract, so I’m not sure he could he used in a Giannis trade.

Like, did the Warriors not prove last night that they are this close 🤏 to being a 6th-seed and they did it without Draymond on either end? Without him, the ecosystem morphed into Steph and the Space-5 for one night. Jimmy even got involved, got the open three to that Space-5.

If the losing continues, then instead of drowning in the malaise, I will turn to curiosity with the trade deadline. That’s how I’m gonna deal with it. The NBA is fun, that way. Of course, I’ll still be rooting for the Warriors. Those ride-or-die hopes with whomever is on the roster on game day, that never fades.

Videos from MIN-GSW, then below the paywall are all the transcripts. At some point I’ll release the paywall so that Google spiders can crawl all the transcripts for documentation purposes:

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00:00 Hi Steve, do you expect Steph to be any sort of minutes restriction or—?

0:05 STEVE KERR, PREGAME MIN-GSW: No.

00:06 Steve, Quinten’s been leader in the plus minus this season for most, for a lot, leader in net rating. Do you have any, like, what’s working there just in terms of is it a specific group he’s working well with or is it he’s just playing so well, he’s getting this way or something he does unlock something good about you guys?

00:26 Well, he’s the reason we’ve wanted a space five for a decade. It just changes the whole game when you have a five who can step out and shoot and opens up the floor. And, but the biggest thing with QP is his defense has improved dramatically. He worked hard getting stronger over the summer and I think it’s really a just a classic case of a young guy coming in and going to the G League and putting in the work and getting a taste of the action last year and then getting better. I mean, he’s just, it’s exactly what you want as a coach, somebody like Quinten who fills a role and then really embraces it and keeps getting better, so, he’s just been, really good for us.

01:17 What’s the update on Draymond? I mean, do you know?

01:19 He should be in Portland, so whether he plays or not, we’ll see. It’ll, it will have been about 10 days between games, so he’s been working out, he’s been training, the injury’s healed. So he’s ready to go. It’s just a question of whether Rick (Celebrini) feels comfortable putting him out there. And so he’ll meet us in Portland. We’ll assess it there.

01:42 What’s the latest on Al, or--?

01:45 No update on Al. I mean, he’ll be out tonight and I haven’t talked to Rick about Al today, so I don’t have an update for you.

01:53 What have you seen from Minnesota lately and is this one of those games where you kind of have to remind your team not to let your guard down without Edwards?

02:02 I, yeah, I don’t think that’s, I don’t think we’re that team right now to be able to do that or to say that. They’re, I mean, they were playing well. They won six in a row before the Phoenix loss and then, like us, they’ve had all these days off, so we’ll see how they decide to replace Ant tonight, who starts and all that stuff, but we know them well. We saw them, obviously, in the playoffs last year. They have a lot of continuity with Chris (Finch) and the staff and the most of the lineups, so really, really good team.

02:41 Obviously, having Steph back in the lineup is huge for you guys, but what does it do for the rest of the team? And just as far as your rotations, as far as kind of making everyone else better?

02:52 Well, Steph, yeah, Steph obviously makes everyone better. The lineups get, they, all get better when he’s out there, but there’s more people now, more mouths to feed and more bodies, however you want to put it. So we have to decide on rotations and some of that stuff. We will decide in game. We always map out a rotation, but tonight’s a really hard night to do that, given the changes in our team recently and Steph returning and Draymond not being here. So, lot of options tonight.

03:31 Coach, in what ways have you seen Donte DiVincenzo impact winning most?

03:37 Well, when he was here, the reason he became a fan favorite was just the energy. I mean, you can just feel his presence as soon as he steps on the floor, the way he moves at both ends. He’s really an instinctive player. He tends to be in the right place at the right time. I think what he picked up here from Steph is just the power of really being a threat to shoot every time you touch it. I think he became much more aggressive after he left here and I think he’s, I think he’s actually credited Steph with some of that, if I’m not mistaken. But I love coaching Donte and he’s a winner and a guy I’ve always admired and he’s doing a great job in Minnesota.

04:27 Steve, I know Ant’s not playing tonight, but Chris has him in even more of a playmaking role this year, I think, with the ball in his hands even more. I was just wondering as you were coaching him, if you saw that potential in him, or to do a little more than even just be the scorer that he was at a younger age?

04:46 Yeah, I mean, a guy that talented, you always kinda want to experiment with, whether it’s on or off the ball, what does it look like if you have him as a screener? What does it look like if you play a small ball lineup with him? What does it look like if you have him handle the ball more often? All these things are really tantalizing when you’re a coach and you see a guy that talented. When I coached him, the roles were pretty defined, but he was our best player on that team and it was clear that he was entering new ground and he’s clearly one of the best players in the league. And I think their situation with Mike Conley getting a little older, I think it was probably necessitated by the roster, but he’s obviously very capable of playing any position on the floor really.

05:40 I know you had mentioned earlier this week, needing to rebound the ball a little better. I mean, how do you go about, is that something you can drill during the week in practice? Is that film, like, how do you go about kind of communicating that and getting that to be better?

05:51 Yeah, it’s film. It’s practice work. You go through your defensive drills, you make sure you finish every play with a box out, you show the film. One of the ones we’re missing a lot is the elbow, the long shot, long rebound. You have to adjust these days. So many teams are taking so many threes and most of those go out near the elbows and I think every coach has this now on tape, but nobody on the offensive team is crashing and you turn, he’s not there and everybody runs into the paint, the ball bounces out to the perimeter and it’s like you give up an offensive board. So the modern game, the guards have to stay closer to the perimeter. I mean, we teach the elbows, get to the elbows, but that ball is bouncing over the over people’s heads all the time in the NBA now and so we’re showing a lot of those on tape, trying to get our guys to get to the elbows.

06:55 Steve, you’ve talked the last couple days a lot about the log jam at guard and the challenges for the rotation even to tonight. You had a question on that and last year you were also very open about how well De’Anthony fit before he got hurt. He seemed like a logical, guard next to Steph given his two-way ability. How is, where is he at, how close is he to being himself and how valuable can that skill set be for you?

07:18 He looked really good on the trip, moving well. It didn’t, did not look like a guy who hasn’t played in a year. He’s on a 20 minute minutes restriction, which means I’ll play him 20 minutes, so that’s how I feel about De’Anthony.

07:38 How often over the summer did you think about the second round series with them last year and what could have been?

07:47 I didn’t spend too much time on it, honestly. We got ourselves in a really good position late in the year after trading for Jimmy and the great first round victory and sees the advantage in that Game 1. And we’re all feeling great and then stuff happens, so you don’t spend too much time lamenting that stuff. Injuries occur every year and you always know that in the playoffs, every team is sort of dependent on good health.

08:24 I know part of not having Steph was, like, you didn’t necessarily learn what normal teams learn when you get eliminated, but what did you learn about your group losing those last four games?

08:37 Well, I think the playoffs always expose the details, the little things. One of the things that we tried to do in that series was put QP on McDaniels and just figured, let’s see if Quinten can, if we can jumble up the matchups and have Quinten guard a wing. And his instinct immediately took him into the middle of the paint. I think it was the beginning of Game 2 and McDaniels got a wide open three from the corner. Quinten was immediately like, that’s my fault. Moses learned some lessons, Houston putting Sengun on him, necessitating Moses’ ability to play pick and roll, be the roll man, be the pocket guy. And these are all things we talked to individual players about over the summer and made sure they were working on, just things that pop up in the playoffs. Like I said, the weaknesses are always exposed and so it’s a great chance to kind of take a look at what each player needs to do.

09:47 Steve, how much does Pat’s improvement as a shooter, his ability to be more of a threat from three point range make you more comfortable with playing him next to Steph as well?

09:55 Yeah, it’s a big deal. it’s a, the bigger, the biggest thing is, just that if he’s willing to take the shot, then it sets up the rest of his game and it sets up our game. We want to get good shots, we want to get open threes so we can crash. We want the ball to move, four, five out spacing. You gotta have a number of guys who can knock down that shot and Pat has proven that this year, so it’s changed him.

10:26 You guys ran a lot more pick and roll with him, but it didn’t stop the passing as well too, right? What’s the next step and what’s unlocking that as far as his ability as a pick and roll player while still reading, reacting, keeping that offensive flow going?

10:41 Well, no matter what you run, all you’re trying to do is generate a rotation from the defense and if you can get a rotation, then the ball can start moving and so that’s what Pat’s doing. He’s running a lot of pick and roll. He’s getting a rotation and he’s really good at getting off the ball at the right time. And if we’re spaced correctly and guys are in sync with each other, then the ball can really move. And as you saw on the road trip and when the ball moves, Steph is at his best, so that we don’t have to have him handle the ball the entire time, bringing it up against McDaniels, getting pressured, we can move Steph off the ball and the ball’s moving. Then it opens up a lot for us.

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11:26 Steve, where, just in your mind, where did it kind of, you guys take the lead late and then let kind of slip away in your mind? Just what led to that?

11:36 STEVE KERR, POSTGAME MIN-GSW: I thought our defense let us down tonight. we had several plays in transition in both halves where we lost sight of Naz Reid and a couple of their shooters. And I just thought our transition defense was poor. There was one, it was 96-91, I think, and he got a three. We were in position to handle that. There seemed to be some confusion, so transition defense wasn’t great. And then that the first part of the fourth quarter, I think they were like 20-5 with their run and we just couldn’t get anything going, so that stretch hurt us. Our guys were amazing with the comeback and gave ourselves a chance and then, again, we let Donte get free, up three. We gotta play better defense than that.

12:27 Randle and Gobert had huge numbers. How big a problem was it, missing Al and Draymond and just kind of how big a problem is just at times, like size for you guys?

12:38 Yeah, I mean, they’re a massive team and, but I thought Quinten and Trayce both did a great job battling down there. We hung tough on the glass. We played, I thought, well enough to win, but had a long dry spell there early in the fourth, I think, late third, early fourth, where we had some open looks, didn’t knock them down. I’m gonna have to watch the tape to see what we can do better offensively, but yeah, I mean, injuries have, they’re without Anthony Edwards obviously, so their injuries are a part of this thing and our guys battled really well.

13:19 I guess the bigger picture, how big a problem, though, is, you guys have had some struggles. Portland I know, came in here with their size, just the size disadvantage.

13:28 Yeah. Yeah, I mean, we’re not a big team, but we’re gonna get Draymond and Al back soon and we believe in Trayce and Quinten, so we, I think we’ve got enough.

13:42 Steve, obviously the numbers are the numbers, but how did you think Steph looked after being off two weeks?

13:46 He looked great. I mean, just the movement, the flow. I asked him how he was feeling after the first eight minute run in the first quarter. He said, I feel great, so I thought he looked really good.

13:56 Is that 32 minutes at least for the short term? Is that right about where you want to --?

14:02 Yeah. Yeah, I mean, short term and long term.

14:06 You go with Pat in the starting lineup with Steph. Was that a product, a little bit of an being out that you could play kind of those two guys?

14:15 Not necessarily. I wanted to see them together so that we could have Steph off the ball a little bit, have Pat run pick and roll and see how they handled that. And so it was, we wanted to make sure we gave that lineup a look and tonight was the night to do it with Pat coming off that stretch on the road, Draymond being out. And I like those two guys together. I mean, Pat is smart and he can get Steph the ball.

14:47 And you had Melton in the closing group. Was that planned and could you see that basically being the way you go with De’Anthony closing?

14:54 Yeah, I think, I think Melt will be in our closing lineup quite a bit this year. He’s so good defensively. He can play either guard spot. He’s a great decision maker, very fundamentally sound and I don’t know that we’re gonna be able to predict our closing lineup at all coming up. Moses earned it tonight. He played so well in the second half and made huge plays for us, so we went with Moses and Melt, but it could be very different next game. We just have to ride the hot hand and do whatever it takes to win.

15:30 Steve, I’m sorry, I wasn’t here for pre-game. So was Seth available tonight? And if he was, why--?

15:35 Seth?

15:36 Yeah, Seth.

15:36 Yeah. Yeah, he was available.

15:38 So why was he not in there when there, you guys were struggling shooting from three year earlier in that game? Earlier during the game?

15:44 Well, it’s tough, we played 12 people and, or maybe 11, but it’s not easy to just throw guys in there randomly after they haven’t been in the rotation the first three quarters. So he’s definitely gonna help us at times, but this is, this was not his night and we went in a different direction.

16:11 And what were the circumstances for JK’s second straight DNP?

16:16 Just right now it’s where things are. I mean, you saw Gui come in there for six minutes and he lit up the crowd with his energy and the ball movement. That was maybe the best stretch of the game for our offense, just with the flow and with Pat playing as well as he is. It’s just where it is right now, but it can change very quickly as, you all know.

16:39 Other than that one stretch and the third, the turnovers were pretty good tonight. Is that sort of a product of running more stuff through Pat Spencer and some more pick and roll stuff?

16:48 I just think having another ball handler on the floor with Pat or Melt, BP, having the floor spacing of Quinten, the game gets easier and it’s much easier to take care of the ball.

17:05 How much of an emphasis is getting side to side ball movement, swinging the ball around the perimeter, generally, offensively?

17:13 That’s our game. I mean, we are a ball movement team. We always have been and when we can get it swung, we generally get pretty good looks at the rim.

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00:00 ...not only Rudy, but also Randle and Reid and them playing together at times.

00:04 QUINTEN POST: Yeah, I mean they play with a lot of size on the floor and they made it hard on us, rebounding and playing without fouling. I thought we put them on the line way too much, so it was a tough challenge, for sure.

00:19 When, not an easy question to ask here, but it’s a make or miss league, and you did have that shot in the corner. Did it seem like you took a long time with it? Did you, were you thinking anything different on that shot? What happened there?

00:30 Yeah, as a shooter, when you get a wide open look like that you sometimes take a breath to kind of make it more like a rhythm shot. And, looking back at it, I wish I would’ve just shot it, but I learned from it and it’ll fall next time.

00:50 A lot of people noticing that your plus minus has been really good this season. Has that been discussed? Do you have a feeling, like, sometimes, when you play well, the team wins? Is that just something that is all discussed in your mind or people mention it to you?

01:07 No. No, not really. I mean, you win together or you lose together. I think plus minus is, it’s such a volatile stat. Maybe over the long term it could mean something, but in the end, we all win or lose together, so I don’t pay too much attention to that.

01:24 Steve was sort of talking about some of the defensive stuff, like stuff missing transition, especially in that fourth quarter. What was sort going on over there?

01:32 Sorry, what was the question?

01:34 What was sort of happening in that fourth quarter with the defensive mishaps?

01:38 I couldn’t, I think we fouled too much, didn’t pick up in transition a couple times, is probably what Coach is referring to. I missed some rebounds. There were definitely a lot of things that we could have done better in the fourth quarter, so gotta watch the tape back and learn from it.

01:56 How was it having Steph back out there tonight?

01:58 I mean, he was Steph. He really got going in that second half and then as a team, it sucks that we couldn’t help him to a win, but kind of saw him find his rhythm in the first and then the second, he just looked like himself. So no, it was great having him back and yeah, he was just Steph.

02:19 And speaking of guys now back in the lineup, De’Anthony Melton, how good is it to have him and the presence and what does he bring to this team now that you’ve seen?

02:27 Melt was great. He’s still kind of finding his rhythm a little bit. This is his, what, third game back? But no, he’s already, you can see how he puts pressure on the ball. I think he’s a great rebounder for his size and then he can create a little bit too for himself and for others, so no, he’s gonna be really big for us and it’s great to have him back.

02:51 Obviously, there’s still a lot of time within this season. Does it feel like there’s a little bit of a sense of urgency getting going for you guys, though, at the same time, kind of getting a little bit more momentum right now?

03:00 Yeah, it’s, it sucks to lose it, this one. Obviously, we, Philly was a heartbreaker, but then the other two we kind of felt like we had some upwards momentum and then we got Steph back. Right now, obviously, health has kind of been a problem for us, but it sucks to lose this one. But overall, I still think we’re heading in the right direction.

03:27 What is your approach on offense when a defense is playing you in the pick and pop, in drop?

03:33 Yeah, it’s just a read, right? if they are in a very deep drop and the pop is open, then obviously I’m gonna shoot it. And, if not, then I gotta roll and then we play behind the play. Either the ball handler has a shot or we kick it back and we play from there, so it’s just a read.

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03:51 De’Anthony, you closed the game. I was wondering just how close do you feel like you’re getting to getting your wind back and being back to a hundred percent in terms of stamina?

04:00 DE’ANTHONY MELTON: I think today I felt a little bit better with just getting out there from the jump. In terms of my wind and everything like that, I mean, I just gotta play better at this point. I feel like I played, whatever, but gotta just do more to help my team out there.

04:17 When you guys are playing lineups often with three guards against a team like Minnesota who has a huge front line, what’s required to win a game like that?

04:26 Effort, hustle, physicality, and discipline. I think we just gotta box out more. I feel like we did a pretty good job. I mean, it came down to the wire. Ultimately came down to, I mean, two threes from Donte. That was big. Just telling him in the game, like they were just ballsy shots and he took them and he made them. If those go out, you never know what could happen.

04:54 Your season ended here last year, very early. You get traded and then you’re able to come back, so does this kinda maybe feel like a little rebirth this season and that you’re now, you’re being able to contribute now?

05:06 Yeah. it’s almost like a rebirth and same time as a continuation, because I wasn’t even part of the season last year around this time, so now that I’m able to continue on, it feels good. But we just gotta keep stacking days and keep stacking wins. Ultimately at this point, it’s about wins and losses. My body’s gonna be what it is and I can just take it day by day, but I more so care about the final result, which is getting wins.

05:34 Donte, what stood out the most from that run that they had in the fourth quarter and what are the easiest corrections defensively during that time?

05:41 I think rotations. I think sometimes we got put in giving them advantages and with them being so big, I think having them having an advantage, Gobert at the rim was definitely tough for us. 11-for-13 for him is, we could do better, but I think we did a pretty good job. I mean, it came down to, ultimately, one or two possessions besides free throws and stuff like that. So yeah, it was a tough game. It was a tough battle and I think we did a pretty good job of just going back, watching film and seeing what we could fix and figure it out.

06:15 So sort of to that point, how do you sort of weigh all the good, all the silver linings with maybe not the result you wanted?

06:21 Like you said, just figure out the good in it, watch film, see what happened. I mean, we got up, we got seven more shots than they did and we just gotta, we just gotta capitalize. I mean, we lost the rebound battle by two, which is not the worst thing in the world. But, I mean, it’s a game of possessions and I think you just figure out what it is and figure out where we went wrong and just take those plays out and see where it goes from there.

06:45 Steve and coaches have said it a lot since the start of last year, but that you’re a really good fit in the back court with Steph. Why do you think that might be just being his back court partner?

06:57 I think today, I didn’t do my best stuff helping him out, ultimately. But just my ability to just play make, get downhill at the same time, my ability to shoot, is all things that’s, it’s good for Steph to have next to him. But I think today I just gotta play better.

07:17 To kind of follow on that a little bit, that was your first time playing next to him in over a year. What’s unique about playing next to Steph?

07:23 Man, just can’t get caught watching him. I think sometimes I got caught just seeing what he wanted to do and see what he wanted. But, like I said before, just aggressiveness helps Steph, too. Getting downhill, being a threat is the most important thing, so you gotta make sure, even with Jimmy, too, a lot of guys, they got half a season with Jimmy. I’ve gotten two and a half games with Jimmy, so seeing how he likes the ball, how he wants to be effective and how he wants other people to be effective is important for me, just on the fly to figure it out, but I think both of those guys, they just want you to be aggressive, play your game, and I think they’ll figure it out within that too.

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00:00 How’d you feel?

00:04 STEPH CURRY, POSTGAME MIN-GSW: I felt pretty good to start and normal, like middle of the game, trying to get your second wind and then once you get into the rhythm of the game, things started to feel normal again. So I was, individually it was a good. First game back just to get my lungs back and feel like myself.

00:25 So you guys rally back to get the lead late. What happened at the end there, to let it slip a let it slip away?

00:32 We had a rough start to the fourth. I think we were up three going into the fourth and then ended up being down 12 or something like that and against a good team, you can give it everything you got. Thankfully we got back in the game, took the lead for a certain point, but then you’re at the mercy of a couple makes here, a couple misses here. The challenge call, like stuff like that, so it was just a rough start to the fourth, but we did battle that group that was out there the last six minutes, gave ourselves a chance and Donte hits a big three in the corner kind of sealed it for them. Rudy made a lot of plays, finishing like scramble possessions and you, even without Ant, you understand they know who they are and they have a certain look that we struggle with. Just a tough way to end.

01:32 No Draymond, no Al. How big a problem was the interior tonight? I mean, you mentioned it about Gobert and Randall had big numbers.

01:41 Yeah, it’s 51 combined and, with Rudy, that’s, you can try to keep a body on him and kind of take him out of the offense at times just because if we do have size, and I think he made his presence felt, obviously, driving lanes. He was getting offensive rebounds, he was getting those little dropdown passes and everything at the rim, so 24 and 14, that’s tough to overcome. Draymond and Al understand how to make their impact, make their presence felt against him, but we didn’t have them. We had to figure out a way to get it done, but we just didn’t.

02:21 Hi Steph, you had half your team’s points in the fourth quarter, 14 of them when they go on that 14-0 run to go up by 12. Did you kind of maybe say to yourself, I need to take over the game at this point to get your team back in it?

02:35 You wanna be aggressive. Yeah, you, internal conversation. I think we gonna scored five points up until seven minutes or something like that in the fourth. And then, yeah, you shoot the shots that you think you can make. We got the ball moving in transition a little bit more, which helps not playing against a set defense and there just wasn’t enough, obviously, so there’s a lot of good out there tonight, but obviously not enough to win.

03:03 Steph, your two- point shooting percentage this year has gone up significantly from last year, 8- for- 13 tonight. You’ve also gotten to the line a lot more this year. Why do you think that is?

03:16 I think, over the course of my career, I try to have a good balance of allowing the three to be a threat so I can get into the paint and it’s not like I’m jumping over anybody, so you gotta be crafty and all that, but just trying to see lanes to drive, get it on the rim with some touch and hope it goes in, but you have to use the three point as a threat and the ball screens and people closing out to you and all that type of stuff to get in the paint. It’s something I like to do.

03:47 Steph, what is a night where you take 28 field goal attempts feel like on your body, especially as you’re coming back from injury?

03:55 The attempts aren’t really a thing that I, that wears you out. It’s more if you’re on ball a lot in pick and roll and stuff like that, how much you’re running off ball as well. And so that middle of the game was, when you’re doing rehab and all that, it’s usually a sustained kind of session, how long you’re out there on the court. Then you got long time outs, halftime and all that, so you’re kind of coming up and down, your rest periods during the game. So I was just trying to get back to the rhythm of that, so the shots aren’t necessarily a thing that, again, creates fatigue. It’s more the style of play. Say what? Yeah, I airballed one at the end of my run in the third quarter. That was fatigue.

04:44 Obviously, not the result you guys wanted, but like you said, you guys got good performances across the board. Is that something to take away from this one?

04:53 I mean, we’re playing a lot of guys and you don’t have Draymond, Al in that rotation, so, what’d we play, 11 guys? And whoever’s out there, you just play with confidence, be aggressive, play with energy. I think we had some more defensive slipups than the offensive side of the ball, especially early in the game and then it flipped late and the game was kind of a lack of rhythm offensively, but to your point, we had a lot of contributions. Melt was awesome off the bench, driving, getting to the foul line. QP a great game, Mo in the fourth quarter was awesome, so we’re gonna need those contributions from everybody no matter who’s out there.

05:42 Steph, what’d you think about starting alongside Pat with that back court tonight?

05:46 It was cool. It was, it’s reminiscent for me, like, Jarrett Jack back in the day. A guy that just can handle the ball and then I was off the ball a lot in the first quarter and on purpose, like with full confidence, he can initiate the offense, I can get some off ball actions and he knows how to move the ball. So yeah, it was different. Obviously, we hadn’t played much this year, but anybody who has high IQ, I can play next to.

06:21 I know that you can’t speak for him, but Quinten, with that corner three at the end there. When you have that much time when you’re open, what would you advise to a shooter as far as taking time versus letting it go?

06:33 I don’t ever coach the result or talk about just because he missed it, if there’s anything he should have done differently. The only thing, sometimes as a shooter, you just like to have that little pound dribble to get your rhythm back. That’s the only thing.

06:47 You mentioned the replay review, that’s you and Donte kind of go, both going for the ball. Did you know the eight count was coming up? How would you describe how that kind of finished there?

06:59 Yeah, when I picked him up and got the deflection and at first you’re thinking, can I get to the ball and get a steal? But then once I saw he had position, I did take a glance and then there was two seconds left. He kinda was holding me off and I didn’t even know I grabbed his arm. It was kind of like instinct and they thought it was enough to force him to lose the ball. And whatever, that proximate foul situation is. So obviously I grabbed his arm, but that happens all the time and, but it just, in open space with slow motion or slowmo replay and all that, you’re gonna see it.

07:45 Not relevant to the game, but what’d you think of your pre-game shot? Full court. You said what? So not relevant to the game, but what about your pre-game shot that you hit before you ran in?

07:54 That’s the second one I’ve made, so I was thought it was gonna be a better night, create some good mojo off of that, but yeah. I don’t know what else to say. It was fun.

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