While Mike Dunleavy Jr., the new GM of Golden State, had explained, a few hours earlier, that the franchise expected to keep Jordan Poole for the “next four years”the latter was sent to Washington against Chris Paul.
A change in weight for Steve Kerr, who will have to reorganize his team, but a change that had to be made.
“We are going to be very different”announces the Warriors coach for The Athletic. “The last thing I’m going to do is comment on a group that won the title a year ago and fought through a tough season, putting on a good streak at the end. I loved the team I had for two years. But the main thing is that we all felt, within the franchise, that a change was necessary. And I have the impression that we made this change without giving up our identity. This is, overall, a very positive change. »
Steve Kerr calls for variety in attack
Having Chris Paul, especially at 38, is not trivial in a group where the main quality, with Stephen Curry, Klay Thompson and Draymond Green, is the perpetual movement of the ball and the players. How to reconcile the strength of “CP3”, that is to say dribbling and control over pick-and-roll, with those of the 2022 champions?
“If you think of the series against the Lakers or the last game of the series against the Kings, we did a lot of pick-and-roll, hundreds of times, over and over again,” Kerr recalls. “Curry is lethal in this area. But it also limits what we can do with our offense and that relies a lot on Stephen’s shoulders. We will be able to do a lot, as well as to play Curry without the ball. This is one of our main strengths: that Curry can play with and without the ball. »
Runs without the ball, and through the screens of Green for example, Curry and Klay Thompson could be very effective with a Chris Paul, huge passer, at the wand.
“Curry said it: against the Lakers, we lacked variety on offense,” insists the four-time champion coach. “We were mostly pick-and-roll with him, the whole series. While at our best, our team plays with a lot of passing, connections, players who understand how to play with Curry, to use his gravity, and to have easy shots. We must continue to have this variety, hoping that it will return next season. »
| Shots | Bounces | |||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Players | GM | Minimum | Shots | 3 points | LF | Off | Def | Early | pd | bp | Int | CT | party | Points |
| Stephen Curry | 56 | 34.7 | 49.3 | 42.7 | 91.5 | 0.7 | 5.4 | 6.1 | 6.3 | 3.2 | 0.9 | 0.4 | 2.1 | 29.4 |
| Klay Thompson | 69 | 33.0 | 43.6 | 41.2 | 87.9 | 0.6 | 3.6 | 4.1 | 2.4 | 1.8 | 0.7 | 0.4 | 1.9 | 21.9 |
| Jordan Poole | 82 | 30.0 | 43.0 | 33.6 | 87.0 | 0.4 | 2.4 | 2.7 | 4.5 | 3.1 | 0.8 | 0.3 | 2.6 | 20.4 |
| Andrew Wiggins | 37 | 32.2 | 47.3 | 39.6 | 61.1 | 1.6 | 3.4 | 5.0 | 2.3 | 1.3 | 1.2 | 0.8 | 2.9 | 17.1 |
| Jonathan Kuminga | 67 | 20.8 | 52.5 | 37.0 | 65.2 | 1.0 | 2.4 | 3.4 | 1.9 | 1.4 | 0.6 | 0.5 | 2.3 | 9.9 |
| Donte Divincenzo | 72 | 26.3 | 43.5 | 39.7 | 81.7 | 1.1 | 3.4 | 4.5 | 3.5 | 1.6 | 1.3 | 0.1 | 1.8 | 9.4 |
| Draymond Green | 73 | 31.5 | 52.7 | 30.5 | 71.3 | 0.9 | 6.3 | 7.2 | 6.8 | 2.8 | 1.0 | 0.8 | 3.1 | 8.5 |
| Kevon Looney | 82 | 23.9 | 63.0 | 0.0 | 60.6 | 3.3 | 5.9 | 9.3 | 2.5 | 0.5 | 0.6 | 0.6 | 2.7 | 7.0 |
| James Wiseman | 21 | 12.5 | 62.8 | 50.0 | 68.4 | 0.9 | 2.6 | 3.5 | 0.7 | 0.7 | 0.1 | 0.3 | 1.9 | 6.9 |
| Ty Jerome | 45 | 18.1 | 48.8 | 38.9 | 92.7 | 0.2 | 1.6 | 1.7 | 3.0 | 0.7 | 0.5 | 0.1 | 1.4 | 6.9 |
| Anthony Lamb | 62 | 19.3 | 47.1 | 36.7 | 76.7 | 0.9 | 2.6 | 3.5 | 1.5 | 0.9 | 0.5 | 0.3 | 2.2 | 6.7 |
| Jamychal Green | 57 | 14.0 | 54.0 | 37.8 | 77.6 | 1.3 | 2.3 | 3.6 | 0.9 | 0.9 | 0.4 | 0.4 | 1.8 | 6.4 |
| Gary Payton II | 7 | 16.1 | 60.7 | 44.4 | 66.7 | 2.0 | 2.3 | 4.3 | 1.1 | 0.6 | 0.9 | 0.6 | 2.0 | 5.7 |
| Moses Moody | 63 | 13.0 | 47.6 | 36.3 | 69.8 | 0.4 | 1.2 | 1.7 | 0.8 | 0.5 | 0.3 | 0.1 | 0.9 | 4.8 |
| Patrick Baldwin, Jr. | 31 | 7.3 | 39.4 | 38.1 | 66.7 | 0.0 | 1.3 | 1.3 | 0.4 | 0.4 | 0.2 | 0.1 | 0.5 | 3.9 |
| Lester Quinones | 4 | 4.5 | 40.0 | 50.0 | 66.7 | 0.3 | 0.5 | 0.8 | 0.5 | 1.3 | 0.3 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 2.5 |
| Andre Iguodala | 8 | 14.1 | 46.7 | 11.1 | 66.7 | 0.4 | 1.8 | 2.1 | 2.4 | 1.1 | 0.5 | 0.4 | 1.4 | 2.1 |
| ryan rollins | 12 | 5.2 | 35.0 | 33.3 | 100.0 | 0.3 | 0.8 | 1.0 | 0.5 | 1.3 | 0.1 | 0.1 | 0.8 | 1.9 |
