Will Richard: “ball movement, making the simple play, playing off two (feet)”
[OKC-GSW video/interviews/transcript]
Will Richard reinforced the style of play of the Steve Kerr ecosystem postgame OKC on the podium, and yet it’s a reminder of how it doesn’t really matter if you don’t have your unique superstar and bucket-getter, one Wardell Stephen Curry, at least not against elite teams like the Thunder.
Ball movement. That’s really a lot of it, keeping the ball movement, making the simple play, playing off two (feet) and trying to play together. Those guys, they do so much for our team, so when they’re not out, you gotta make up for that by playing more together and just keeping everybody involved…
Second half, I probably got a little stagnant. I feel like I could have did a better job like running the floor, making it a lot easier on myself and stuff like that. I could have played off two better, so little stuff like that can get me in a rhythm, especially against a good defensive team like the Thunder…
We gotta make it a lot easier on ourselves by creating easy shots, to get each other going, maybe getting like backdoor cuts like that, making the right play off two and getting somebody the open look
And so Mike Dunleavy, Jr. has done well with this iteration to find the complementary pieces, especially drafting a diamond in the rough like Richard, but in the NBA, you need stars who can go get a bucket, buckets that don’t need to be manufactured by precision “0.5 Basketball”, mistake-free for nearly all 48 minutes.
I’ll dive into this some more in due time, as Kerr’s comments about being “realistic” about this aging squad really need the context of the other stuff he said on 95.7 The Game earlier today. He’s obviously all-in on making sure everything revolves around Curry. It’s too bad that when he’s gone, the little moons that circle around that planet are gonna have a hard time surviving out there, on their own.
But all in all, the paradox of the Steph ecosystem, which requires only complementary orbits, not raw talented runaway planets, is a fascinating one when you look at it from the prism of dissecting the game we love — and at the absolute foremost and highest levels.
This is like Ph.D physics and it’s very hard to put in words, which is why I love YouTube! 🤷🏻♂️ I’ll try my best, in due time…
The transcripts for Steve, Will and Moses Moody will be lifted from the paywall below after the next article posts…
