Steve Kerr’s admission about the Warriors’ initial lineup puts the long-term approach in focus

After starting the season looking like one of the worst teams in the league, the Golden State Warriors have won victories in seven of their last 11 games – including a 22 point comeback over the Clippers and an exciting 19 point rally past the Lakers – and carries a record very respectable 7-6 in the home game on Wednesday night against the San Antonio Spurs. If the postseason started today, the Warriors would be there.

This is not to say that it was something close to smooth sailing in the bay. Coming in on Wednesday, the Warriors have 24th place in the league ranking and the 8th worst net ranking. Among the main culprits for these numbers is a starting team that was wiped out almost every night.

That lineup – consisting of Stephen Curry, Kelly Oubre Jr., Andrew Wiggins, Draymond Green and James Wiseman – has played 126 minutes together so far, and to give you an idea of ​​what they’ve been up to, there are only five starting lineups in the NBA who have played for minus 100 minutes together and have a negative points differential: Phoenix Suns (minus-26), Charlotte Hornets (minus-16), San Antonio Spurs (minus-13) and Toronto Raptors (-7).

Then there are the warriors. In minus 45.

By far the worst five-man unit of high use in the league (its net rating -15.6 more than double the second worst unit in the league), the Warriors holders have a number of problems that contribute to their offensive score of 91.4. . You can decide for yourself whether Oubre’s dark start or Wiseman’s beginner learning curve is the main among these concerns, but either way, the combination of the two is a big problem.

In addition to Curry, the Golden State starter team lacks a single shooter who worries about defenses despite Wiggins’ hot start. This created a serious lack of spacing, as the defenders left Oubre and Draymond and fell everywhere else so they could double and triple the Curry, and while Oubre, Green and Wiseman only punished them with the amount of 23% scoring from the 3-point interval, they can do so with impunity. Curry needs at least a few shots around him to provide even a small amount of space to work his magic.

One of the most discussed options would be to exchange Damion Lee for Oubre, who might be able to accommodate himself playing with the second unit, which has more collective shots and, in theory, would open up its direction and cut lanes. In addition, there is a freedom that comes from not having to be so aware of your own game in relation to Curry’s. Every time Oubre shoots with the starters, he’s shooting away from Curry. We’ve seen him hinder the relocation out of Curry’s ball countless times this season, as he was in the wrong place at the wrong time. There is something called thinking too much.

In fact, it can be argued that part of the success of the second unit can be attributed to the fact that they are able to play without an agenda, not always having to worry about complementing Curry at the expense of their own comfort and aggression. They can just let go, and Oubre can apparently benefit from turning their heads for a while and just letting their extraordinary athletics run wild.

Meanwhile, Lee, who our own James Herbert listed among the eight most prominent supporting characters in the league, is a 3-point shooter with 41 percent and leads the Warriors in plus-minus so far. His defense, while not coming with the same flaming hair energy, is not far from Oubre, and the threat of his shot would theoretically open up some space for Curry. Perhaps Wiseman could be replaced by Kevon Looney, just to get more experience with the front row.

All of this raised the question of whether Kerr should change his starting lineup. On Wednesday, Kerr appeared at 95.7 in the Bay Area The game, where he spoke openly about his starting team and detailed why, despite the difficulties, he has no intention of making a change.

“The team is learning on the spot,” said Kerr. “I’m going to be very honest. If I had to win a game tomorrow, I wouldn’t start that group. If it were a single thing, I would start a different group and probably go for a few different combinations. But this is the team that I want to see develop a defensive identity. really good, and James [Wiseman] needs to be out there. Kelly [Oubre] and andrew [Wiggins] you need to be out there protecting LeBron and Kawhi and Paul George and all those guys.

“So it will take some time and in the meantime, there will be some growing pains,” continued Kerr. “But I’m fine with that, because in order to be great in the future, whether by the end of this year or even next season, James needs to develop. Kelly and Andrew need to feel comfortable. Willing to sacrifice some things here at the beginning of the season to try to get where we want to go later. “

Despite all of Twitter’s frustration with Kerr’s refusal to do certain things – namely, handing over more of the offense to Curry as an aggressive and aggressive creator – this answer explains his thinking about each decision he makes. He’s not thinking about the short term. He’s thinking about the long term. He knows that the Warriors are not candidates for the championship this season. But he expects them to be back on the hunt next season when Klay Thompson returns, and he wants all the pieces in place to make the most of the final opportunity to profit from the last two or three years of Curry’s first chapter.

It is true that the Warriors, like everyone in today’s league, need versatile and athletic defenders to compete in a championship. Wiggins and Oubre, except for a swap or a home run in the 2021 draft (not out of the question with Minnesota’s choice in the first round), are the two best they have. This is the time to discover the offensive side.

As for Wiseman, he’s not going anywhere. Unless it turns out to be a failure, which would make most of what we are talking about, a moot point, it is probably closed as the starting point for the next decade. There is no point in not getting him updated as quickly as possible, even if, at Kerr’s point, you have to suffer some setbacks in the short term of a season that you are seeing mainly from a development perspective.

In addition, and this is the most important part, just because Kerr does not change the starting five does not mean that he will not adjust his rotations and ultimately his finish line. He already did both. Initially, Kerr was replacing Wiggins in the middle of the first quarter, then bringing him back to start the second quarter with reserves. Against the Lakers, he freaked out, instead eliminating Oubre first and leaving Wiggins with Curry.

This put Oubre back in the second unit, where he could get many of the benefits we talked about earlier. This keeps Oubre engaged as a starter, but subtly shifts his minutes to more mutually beneficial formations. So, if he’s playing well, he wins his way to the finish line, as he did against the Lakers when he did his best game in a Warriors uniform and played almost two minutes in the fourth period. In reality, who finishes is more important than who starts, as long as the players have not made a hole too big for the end of the game to become irrelevant.

As far as Wiseman is concerned, it is the same process. He will start and play a certain amount of minutes for purely developmental reasons, but he needs to save the excess game time. Against the Lakers, he played just 12 minutes, and he didn’t see the word in the fourth period, when Looney took his place.

And it worked. The warriors won. They flirted with digging a very deep hole at the beginning, as they did a few times this season, but to Kerr’s point, even if they had lost that game, they are willing to lose some battles in the name of, hopefully, winning another title. NBA next season or beyond.

This can be a frustrating season for Warriors fans who don’t want to look that far in the future and are investing in earning as much as possible now. But at least it is not out of stubbornness. Kerr does not believe that individual programs can win championships. He knows that wing protection and rim protection are non-negotiable elements of a team that disputes the title, and he is committed to building those parts.

In the end, whether insisting that everyone be involved, despite Curry’s clear superiority on the ball, or the lineups he chooses to deploy, Kerr has a plan and he knows what he’s doing. In 2014, he inherited a team that had no idea how to implement his move based on ball and player movement. The first games of that season were riddled with uncertain turns and offensive moves.

But Kerr was patient. He saw what the team could be in the future. And he was right. I admit that I am just as frustrated as anyone with some of the things Warriors do and don’t do, but coming out of the impulse bubble, it’s hard to argue against Kerr’s logic and the long-term approach he’s taking.