Game 69: Warriors vs Pacers, 7pm PDT

[WarriorGM]

Going through the gameflow data two of the worst lineups had GP2 and TJD both on. -6 in around 2 and a half minutes and -9 in a similar stretch. One lineup had CP3 as the sole playmaker in a lineup that also had Klay and Wiggins and the other Steph as the sole playmaker in a lineup that also had Klay and Kuminga. The loss could therefore be attributed to just that idea of having one playmaker on the floor. That is a coaching issue not a personnel issue. I cannot write this team off just yet when I see such dubious coaching decisions sticking out like a sore thumb.

[jozef]

It was brickfest from JK.
There was a 22-41 decisive run: Warriors went from 56-48 to 78-89 and he was the only one on the floor for whole stretch. As a PF against a team with solid size and quality at PF/C.
JK is not a classic fit for a Warriors screen basketball. His best role is the 6th man leader off the bench as Shaun Livingston was.
The Warriors have minimal margin of error as far as rotation.

[Sleepy51]

JK had one of those games that 21 year olds are going to have, on scoring. The rest of his game was well above the baseline of the other Warriors on the court. I lost count of how many times Steph, Dray, and CP gave no effort on transition D. There is no way this team survives the play-in, if they even make it.

I said it earlier in the season, hell, I think I pointed it out last season as well. After a certain age, fatigue is cumulative. You just don't recover back to peak level under repeated exertion, over the course of a game, a week or even a season. Our core is past that age. Their lows get lower as the season pushes on. Curry has had these swoons in the early spring repeatedly. Draymond has now for multiple years bottomed out near unplayable with physical ailments at some point in the playoffs. Klay gonna Klay.

This core can not continue to succeed playing this system. The degree of movement required to play Kerr's system kills their legs over the course of a game, let alone the cumulative impacts over multiple games. We are weaker in the 4th quarter than pretty much any opponent. We used to be stronger late because we had two marathon runners wearing everyone on the opposing team out. That tactical advantage is gone. No, he's not Tibs. Kerr doesn't overload them with minutes, but he asks them to cover more ground during any given minute. On defense as well, pulling bigs out into wide coverage ranges on perimeter switches and long rotations to corner shooters (which you may have noticed, the old guys don't even both to attempt anymore.

The workload is too high for guys at this age. This is why I'm on the "get a new coach" bandwagon. It's not him nearly fumbling JK or killing Moody's career, or even small ball. It's that his system is no longer sustainable for our best players.

[weekend_warrior]

JK is not a classic fit for a Warriors screen basketball. His best role is the 6th man leader off the bench as Shaun Livingston was.

Does the quality of the fit really matter moving forward? This entire screen and off-ball play that GSW has been doing in the past years is purely predicated on the insane skill level of Curry and to some degree prime Draymond and Klay. It doesn't look like it to me that this way of playing is still going to cut it with those players declining and some declining really fast. The next generation of GSW will have to adapt the way they play but of course that will probably require a new coach as well.

[jozef]

I do not think it does relly on insane skill. The system can be very efficient energy-wise. It does not require crossovers, behind-the-backs, between-legs. It does work cause of screens, timing and sharing the ball, that's what separate it from the rest of the league. What does complicate it is undersized or unathletic players, bad or hesitant shooters. And that's what we see quite often - missing vertical threat (only TJD qualifies), shooting guards (Podz) who is limited to pull up a 3pter or small forward (GP2) who hesitates to take 3pter. So instead of quality open or semi-open shot they need to seeking further and end up with an inefficient attempt. And that's just the offense. Now look at the defensive end where athletic deficiences fly around with small size and criss-crossed matchups.
Well, you can move forward but basically there are 20 teams with similar weapons to JK individual game.

[oaktownwarriors87]

JK had one of those games that 21 year olds are going to have, on scoring. The rest of his game was well above the baseline of the other Warriors on the court. I lost count of how many times Steph, Dray, and CP gave no effort on transition D. There is no way this team survives the play-in, if they even make it.

I said it earlier in the season, hell, I think I pointed it out last season as well. After a certain age, fatigue is cumulative. You just don't recover back to peak level under repeated exertion, over the course of a game, a week or even a season. Our core is past that age. Their lows get lower as the season pushes on. Curry has had these swoons in the early spring repeatedly. Draymond has now for multiple years bottomed out near unplayable with physical ailments at some point in the playoffs. Klay gonna Klay.

This core can not continue to succeed playing this system. The degree of movement required to play Kerr's system kills their legs over the course of a game, let alone the cumulative impacts over multiple games. We are weaker in the 4th quarter than pretty much any opponent. We used to be stronger late because we had two marathon runners wearing everyone on the opposing team out. That tactical advantage is gone. No, he's not Tibs. Kerr doesn't overload them with minutes, but he asks them to cover more ground during any given minute. On defense as well, pulling bigs out into wide coverage ranges on perimeter switches and long rotations to corner shooters (which you may have noticed, the old guys don't even both to attempt anymore.

The workload is too high for guys at this age. This is why I'm on the "get a new coach" bandwagon. It's not him nearly fumbling JK or killing Moody's career, or even small ball. It's that his system is no longer sustainable for our best players.

This is a big reason as to why I've wanted to move on from Draymond/Kerr for a few years now. I like a lot of things about them, but we're running Curry into the ground. We're increasing his odds of injury and we're shortening his career.... and for what?

Without Curry this system will fail because no one is going to have his kind of endurance and shot making ability. They probably should have cut Draymond and Kerr loose last off-season when they switched GMs.

[KevinMcreynolds]

This team blows and the season just needs to end. I hate watching them. It really sucks that Kerr and Dray re-signed and Klay will probably ink a 2 year deal because those three are the reason I don't like this team. It's time to move on.

[Bayside]

I think the decision was made a while ago , that marketing the OLD 3 +1 cheerleader, is more profitable then addressing coaching and the team over the short term.

But this is not fun to watch the lineups that have bad analytics, at set times, the weird hierarchy. Rather a rebuild myself, but not getting income from this crappy product.

It is going to even get worse

Lets hope we get new(more) assistant coaches and get more different looks with different lineups. Only thing I can see at this point.

[floppymoose]

I agree with everything Sleepy said except the solution. Ive seen the alternatives to Kerr. No thank you. The players are the issue. MDjr did the best he could with a bad hand. He got rid of Poole’s contract. He drafted well. He took a flyer on Saric. Didnt work out. He likely didnt have a great way to predict Wiggins and Looney. Trading Klay was probably too much to ask of a rookie GM when the rest of the org was likely against it.

[floppymoose]

Old teams dont win. The last old champs were what, the 2008 celtics? Their big 3 were 33,32, and 31.

[weekend_warrior]

Old teams dont win. The last old champs were what, the 2008 celtics? Their big 3 were 33,32, and 31.

2014 Spurs should be mentioned, even though Kawhi was arguably a top performer for them. Duncan, Ginobili and Parker were older than those Celtics. But the general message remains true in most cases.

[Sleepy51]

I agree with everything Sleepy said except the solution. Ive seen the alternatives to Kerr. No thank you. The players are the issue. MDjr did the best he could with a bad hand. He got rid of Poole’s contract. He drafted well. He took a flyer on Saric. Didnt work out. He likely didnt have a great way to predict Wiggins and Looney. Trading Klay was probably too much to ask of a rookie GM when the rest of the org was likely against it.

But there are no players that are going to be prime Steph, Klay and Draymond. Kerr’s system was designed to max out curry with a particular combination of one-of-one talents. Frankly to the point where it seems this system has very limited use for pretty much any other kind of player. There aren’t any others of those. If Kerr can run a new system fine, I don’t care about the personality. But if he has only one approach to basketball then time has passed him by.

[CDM_Stats]

There are only 2 relevant stances to take re coaching changes:

1) I'm happy with the incumbent and do not want a change
2) I'm not happy with the incumbent and want a change

No one knows enough about the coaching field to determine whether or not whats out there is better or not.. especially because the ACs and support staff that come with them are just as important. Cop out arguments.. either you're ok with how Kerr is doing stuff right now or you aren't

[floppymoose]

If Kerr can run a new system fine, I don’t care about the personality.

I don't think we've seen the full test of that yet. I'm not ready to say that just because he hasn't changed everything already, that he won't adapt in the next era. If he doesn't, then fine, I'll be up for a different coach.

[floppymoose]

Old teams dont win. The last old champs were what, the 2008 celtics? Their big 3 were 33,32, and 31.

2014 Spurs should be mentioned, even though Kawhi was arguably a top performer for them. Duncan, Ginobili and Parker were older than those Celtics. But the general message remains true in most cases.

Really I should have mentioned the oldest champs of all, the 2022 Warriors. And this team is two years older than that one.

[superunknown]

JK had one of those games that 21 year olds are going to have, on scoring. The rest of his game was well above the baseline of the other Warriors on the court. I lost count of how many times Steph, Dray, and CP gave no effort on transition D. There is no way this team survives the play-in, if they even make it.

I said it earlier in the season, hell, I think I pointed it out last season as well. After a certain age, fatigue is cumulative. You just don't recover back to peak level under repeated exertion, over the course of a game, a week or even a season. Our core is past that age. Their lows get lower as the season pushes on. Curry has had these swoons in the early spring repeatedly. Draymond has now for multiple years bottomed out near unplayable with physical ailments at some point in the playoffs. Klay gonna Klay.

This core can not continue to succeed playing this system. The degree of movement required to play Kerr's system kills their legs over the course of a game, let alone the cumulative impacts over multiple games. We are weaker in the 4th quarter than pretty much any opponent. We used to be stronger late because we had two marathon runners wearing everyone on the opposing team out. That tactical advantage is gone. No, he's not Tibs. Kerr doesn't overload them with minutes, but he asks them to cover more ground during any given minute. On defense as well, pulling bigs out into wide coverage ranges on perimeter switches and long rotations to corner shooters (which you may have noticed, the old guys don't even both to attempt anymore.

The workload is too high for guys at this age. This is why I'm on the "get a new coach" bandwagon. It's not him nearly fumbling JK or killing Moody's career, or even small ball. It's that his system is no longer sustainable for our best players.

right on the money.
kerr' inability/unwillingness to tweak or implement some changes to the system and philosophy is one of the main issues. and of the main reasons the dynasty is coming to this end. he's not popovich who was able to change the way the spurs played in the duncan era at least 2 times (in 15 years spam).
his system and philosophy rely on a complex and delicate equilibrium. when all checks and balances are on point the brand of basketball is amazing to watch and very effective, but as soon as some of the parts of the machine don't work properly, then things get ugly in a hurry. and with age, wear and tear, changes in the roster (you lost very smart players like livingston and iggy, cannot always nail vet mins like OPJ and bjelica, wiggins and poole apparently reached their peak in 2022, looney fell of a cliff out of a sudden, and so on) the chances the machine got stuck in and there become obviously higher.
but he doesn't seem to ever account for this and rather he doubles down with smaller lineups than before, 3 guards lineups where the third guard is not a livingston type of player but a old CP type of player, less defensive lineups, less big men than ever (in the past he played - more or less - the likes of bogut, ezeli, d. west, mcgee, varejao, cousins, kd of course who wasn't a big but still had length and huge wingspan, even wiseman - and the core is not in his prime anymore.
mindblowing.

[SinceGatlingWasARookie]

Something is not right with gp2, he's been saric for a few games now.

Is Saric a verb or an adjective?