Game 81: Warriors vs Pelicans 7pm PDT

[Crazy-Canuck]

Oh no 3 guard line ups.

When I started Watching NBA 6’ 6” Dr J was a normal sized small forward. 6’ 5” David Thompson and 6’ 7” George Gervin had just switched from being small forwards to being off guards.

Wiggins is 6’ 7” and light at 200 pounds but we agree that Wiggins is a small forward. Klay is also 6’ 7” and 15 pounds heavier than Wiggins but if Klay plays with 2 other guards horrors 3 guard line up. But Wiggins with 2 guards no problem.

Draymond is 6’ 5” but he plays like a power forward and we accept him as a power forward. Most of us like Dray at center with Kuminga Wiggins off guard and Curry because Looney was not playing well and Kuminga was playing well. Looney is playing better than a month ago and Kuminga is playing worse than a month ago. I don’t really know what Draymond is. Draymond plays the Draymond position which is not a normal power forward.

Podz is 6’ 5” same height as power forward Draymond and 5 pounds heavier than Draymond.
Podz rebounds more per minute than Wiggins and Kuminga. Podz weighs 5 pounds more than Wiggins. Wiggins and Kuminga are faster than Podz. So why is Podz not a small forward?

Why is Moody not a small forward?

If Podz and Klay and Moody and both Santos are considered small forwards then have the Warriors ever played a 3 guard line up this season?

Have Chris Paul, Curry, and Payton ever been on the floor together. Some were Joking about Payton being our center. Some were serious about Payton being our small forward. Payton rebounds same as Wiggins and a half rebound less per 36 minutes than Kuminga but I think I will call Payton a guard.

Has Quinones been on the floor with 2 guards if Moody, Podz , Santos and Klay are all considered small forwards?

What 3 guard line ups. We never play 3 guard line ups.

Podz is two inches shorter than Draymond, 25 pounds lighter, and his wingspan is 7.5 shorter.

Podz and Draymond are both 6’ 5”
Draymond is not 6’ 7”
Podz is 5 pounds heavier than Wiggins and rebounds same as Wiggins per minute.

Podz can be argued to be a small forward.

You dont contest shots with your head, wingspan is more important than straight height.

Dray, Wiggins, and moody are in the 7ft+ range. They can contest and disrupt on defense to guard up.

Podz has trex arms. He cant contest nor defend up. He may be heavier than Wiggins, but not longer.
Klay also has short arms, but he's hefty and has a strong base. He should be able to guard up, but cant do it consistently because he's Charmin soft.

[oaktownwarriors87]

Did Kerr ever say anything about not wanting to play Draymond and Trayce together? Did a few on our board come up with that theory because Kerr did not happen to play Draymond and Trayce together?

Looney had a bad start to his season. Saric can’t defend. Kerr only plays rookies when he has to play rookies. Trayce did not play the 1st month. Trayce burst onto the scene very impactful after Kerr got desperate about how bad Looney and Saric were playing. Trayce was not as good in January and February as he was in November. Draymond and Trayce did not play together in December because Draymond was suspended. It might have been more that Kerr wanted to play Trayce with Chris Paul and did not want to play Chris Paul with Draymond

Curry, Draymond and TJD were +28.1 in the 32 minutes they played together over the first 70 games. How they only played 32 minutes together over 70 games is mind boggling.

TJD had a 20 minute game by the 4th game of the season and it was very obvious just how good he was. Kerr was very obviously not playing both of them together even when they were both healthy and playing well.

By March 24th (70 games into the season!) TJD had played 411 minutes without Chris Paul. Only 37 of them were with Green. Chris Paul isn't an excuse.

By March 24th (70 games into the season!) TJD had played the least amount of minutes with Draymond of all players on normal contracts. Even less than Chris Paul who Kerr clearly doesn't like to play with Green.

It took over 70 games to get Kerr to actually try it despite it being pretty obvious paring early on. There really is no excuse. Kerr just didn't want to play them together despite both being healthy and playing well. Kerr stuck to his guns and only caved at the last minute when it looked like they would miss the playoffs.

[SinceGatlingWasARookie]

Where can I find Warriors plus minus for the month of March?

Here you go:

https://www.nba.com/stats/team/1610612744/players-traditional?PerMode=Totals&dir=D&sort=PLUS_MINUS&Month=6

Thanks

Wiggins had the worst plus minus of all players for the season but the 4th best plus minus of all Warriors players for March.
That was about what I suspected but I wanted verification.

We need to throw out what Wiggins did last fall because current Wiggins is a different player than last fall’s Wiggins.
Wiggins reliability is in question but Wiggins is good again.

[SinceGatlingWasARookie]

Did Kerr ever say anything about not wanting to play Draymond and Trayce together? Did a few on our board come up with that theory because Kerr did not happen to play Draymond and Trayce together?

Looney had a bad start to his season. Saric can’t defend. Kerr only plays rookies when he has to play rookies. Trayce did not play the 1st month. Trayce burst onto the scene very impactful after Kerr got desperate about how bad Looney and Saric were playing. Trayce was not as good in January and February as he was in November. Draymond and Trayce did not play together in December because Draymond was suspended. It might have been more that Kerr wanted to play Trayce with Chris Paul and did not want to play Chris Paul with Draymond

Curry, Draymond and TJD were +28.1 in the 32 minutes they played together over the first 70 games. How they only played 32 minutes together over 70 games is mind boggling.

TJD had a 20 minute game by the 4th game of the season and it was very obvious just how good he was. Kerr was very obviously not playing both of them together even when they were both healthy and playing well.

By March 24th (70 games into the season!) TJD had played 411 minutes without Chris Paul. Only 37 of them were with Green. Chris Paul isn't an excuse.

By March 24th (70 games into the season!) TJD had played the least amount of minutes with Draymond of all players on normal contracts. Even less than Chris Paul who Kerr clearly doesn't like to play with Green.

It took over 70 games to get Kerr to actually try it despite it being pretty obvious paring early on. There really is no excuse. Kerr just didn't want to play them together despite both being healthy and playing well. Kerr stuck to his guns and only caved at the last minute when it looked like they would miss the playoffs.

The way I read the tea leaves Kerr does not want to play Trayce but feels forced to play Trayce when Draymond is not in the game if Looney is not having a strong game.

We had a few weeks of Draymond as the center playing with Kuminga Wiggins Klay and Curry and that worked but that kept Trayce from playing with Draymond.

1sr month of the season Trayce did not play.

Trayce burst on to the scene with a few of his best games late fall but was Draymond already suspended?

Trayce played his best when he first started getting playing time. By the time Draymond came back from suspension Trayce was hitting his rookie wall and playing more mediocre ball while Draymond was saving the team and playing center next to Kuminga at power forward. Recently Trayce is playing better again I think despite Trayce having good and bad plus minus games. Playing Trayce with

Draymond is enabled by Trayce playing better and Looney playing better and Kuminga playing worse or not playing at all. If Kuminga is playing power forward next to Draymond Trayce can’t play with Draymond.

Trayce and Klay seem to have chemistry together to the point that it seems like half of Klay’s assists are to Trayce and halfof Trayce’s assists are to Klay.

Who do you play as the other big with Draymond, Looney, Kuminga or Trayce? If you play Saric, Saric should only play with Draymond or Trayce. Looney is not fast enough to cover for Saric and Kuminga is not smart enough to cover for Saric.

Klay has a similar situation to Saric. Klay needs one of Draymond or Trayce on the floor with him to cover for players driving past Klay. Klay and Saric should never be on the floor together.

Looey has had a bad season but has played better lately. Our interior defense comes from Draymond Looney and Trayce. You do not get Draymond with Trayce without Looney playing the minutes when Draymond and Trayce do not play.

On offense Trayce with Dray does not provide spacing but Looney With Dray is not better at providing spacing. Setting picks and screens for outside shooters brings the pick/screen setters defender out to thearea of the outside shooter. Trayce gets from the outside to the inside faster than Looney which requires the help defenders to be more distracted by what Trayce is doing.

Playing Trayce with Draymond was impossible while Draymond was suspended.
Plying Trayce with Draymond was impossible while Draymond played center with Kuminga playing power forward.

I do not believe that Kerr ever thought there was something wrong with playing Trayce with Draymond. It was that Kerr would only play Trayce when he needed Trayce and Kerr only needed Trayce when Draymond was off the floor.

[SinceGatlingWasARookie]

Podz is two inches shorter than Draymond, 25 pounds lighter, and his wingspan is 7.5 shorter.

Podz and Draymond are both 6’ 5”
Draymond is not 6’ 7”
Podz is 5 pounds heavier than Wiggins and rebounds same as Wiggins per minute.

Podz can be argued to be a small forward.

You dont contest shots with your head, wingspan is more important than straight height.

Dray, Wiggins, and moody are in the 7ft+ range. They can contest and disrupt on defense to guard up.

Podz has trex arms. He cant contest nor defend up. He may be heavier than Wiggins, but not longer.
Klay also has short arms, but he's hefty and has a strong base. He should be able to guard up, but cant do it consistently because he's Charmin soft.

Klay’s problem is not that he is soft. Klay has some low energy games but when Klay is energized he is one of our harder tougher players. Klays problem is that his feet are nailed to the floor.

Do you want your wingspan on your inside defender or your outside defender? Both the inside defender and the outside defender benefit from wing span. I am not sure that winspan correlates with being a guard or a forward.

If Klay, Podz, Moody and Santos are small forwards then we never played a 3 guard line up.

[Crazy-Canuck]

Podz and Draymond are both 6’ 5”
Draymond is not 6’ 7”
Podz is 5 pounds heavier than Wiggins and rebounds same as Wiggins per minute.

Podz can be argued to be a small forward.

You dont contest shots with your head, wingspan is more important than straight height.

Dray, Wiggins, and moody are in the 7ft+ range. They can contest and disrupt on defense to guard up.

Podz has trex arms. He cant contest nor defend up. He may be heavier than Wiggins, but not longer.
Klay also has short arms, but he's hefty and has a strong base. He should be able to guard up, but cant do it consistently because he's Charmin soft.

Klay’s problem is not that he is soft. Klay has some low energy games but when Klay is energized he is one of our harder tougher players. Klays problem is that his feet are nailed to the floor.

Do you want your wingspan on your inside defender or your outside defender? Both the inside defender and the outside defender benefit from wing span. I am not sure that winspan correlates with being a guard or a forward.

If Klay, Podz, Moody and Santos are small forwards then we never played a 3 guard line up.

Podz is a guard 100%. He doesn't play forward. Kerr uses the GGGFF 5 man units. 2G 2F 1C is beginning to be less common for this team, even though that's what the starters are and what our best 5 man unit is.

Santos is a 4.
Moody is a wing.

[SinceGatlingWasARookie]

You dont contest shots with your head, wingspan is more important than straight height.

Dray, Wiggins, and moody are in the 7ft+ range. They can contest and disrupt on defense to guard up.

Podz has trex arms. He cant contest nor defend up. He may be heavier than Wiggins, but not longer.
Klay also has short arms, but he's hefty and has a strong base. He should be able to guard up, but cant do it consistently because he's Charmin soft.

Klay’s problem is not that he is soft. Klay has some low energy games but when Klay is energized he is one of our harder tougher players. Klays problem is that his feet are nailed to the floor.

Do you want your wingspan on your inside defender or your outside defender? Both the inside defender and the outside defender benefit from wing span. I am not sure that winspan correlates with being a guard or a forward.

If Klay, Podz, Moody and Santos are small forwards then we never played a 3 guard line up.

Podz is a guard 100%. He doesn't play forward. Kerr uses the GGGFF 5 man units. 2G 2F 1C is beginning to be less common for this team, even though that's what the starters are and what our best 5 man unit is.

Santos is a 4.
Moody is a wing.

I think Santos is a 3 and a 2 and only the Warriors would make Santos a 4 like we also made Lamb a 4.

Podz has come up as a 2 but there is not much wrong with Podz as a 3. Speed wise on defense Podz would be better off as a 3 as long as he is not guarding somebody that can go off shooting over a shorter defender.

Peja could have shot over Podz but guards can drive past Podz. Podz has quick reaction time, court vision, hustle, grit and smarts but based on height and speed Podz has liabilities. He is Short enough to be shot over and slow enough to be driven past. I would rather my guy get shot over than get driven past.

My point in these posts is that our 3 guard line up complaint is overdone. On average we are not getting out rebounded or shot over. We we do get outrebounded or shot over the issue is usually that our centers are too small rather than that the other 4 positions are too small. We have a problem of being a slow team more than our problem of being small. We are both small and slow but I think the bigger problem is being slow.

Klay, Moody, Podz and Santos are not definitively guards. Any of them are OK to defend small forwards so I think the 3 guard line up complaint is invalid. For a 3 guard line up to be a problem we would need to be outrebounded, beat with inside scoring moves or shot over Peja/ KD / or Booker style and that is not the way in which our defense is bad.

Playing 3 guards is not why Zion Williamson and Anthony Davis are a problem for us. We needed Wiseman to not be a bust. Asking 6’ 5” Draymond to contain Zion or Davis is a bit much to ask of Draymond. Draymond gave LaMarcus Aldridge big problems but Zion and Davis have countermeasures for Draymond.

[ILOVEIT]

Did Kerr ever say anything about not wanting to play Draymond and Trayce together? Did a few on our board come up with that theory because Kerr did not happen to play Draymond and Trayce together?

Looney had a bad start to his season. Saric can’t defend. Kerr only plays rookies when he has to play rookies. Trayce did not play the 1st month. Trayce burst onto the scene very impactful after Kerr got desperate about how bad Looney and Saric were playing. Trayce was not as good in January and February as he was in November. Draymond and Trayce did not play together in December because Draymond was suspended. It might have been more that Kerr wanted to play Trayce with Chris Paul and did not want to play Chris Paul with Draymond

Curry, Draymond and TJD were +28.1 in the 32 minutes they played together over the first 70 games. How they only played 32 minutes together over 70 games is mind boggling.

TJD had a 20 minute game by the 4th game of the season and it was very obvious just how good he was. Kerr was very obviously not playing both of them together even when they were both healthy and playing well.

By March 24th (70 games into the season!) TJD had played 411 minutes without Chris Paul. Only 37 of them were with Green. Chris Paul isn't an excuse.

By March 24th (70 games into the season!) TJD had played the least amount of minutes with Draymond of all players on normal contracts. Even less than Chris Paul who Kerr clearly doesn't like to play with Green.

It took over 70 games to get Kerr to actually try it despite it being pretty obvious paring early on. There really is no excuse. Kerr just didn't want to play them together despite both being healthy and playing well. Kerr stuck to his guns and only caved at the last minute when it looked like they would miss the playoffs.

GREAT summary here. Thank you.

The fact that the Warriors have won 8 out of the last 9 NOW is actually highlighting Kerr's coaching MISTAKE...not that he's actually a good coach. He took almost an entire season to assess and implement the lineup change when there was plenty of evidence (we all saw it early) that TJD was a legit, talented big and should be used.

Defense wins chips? Kerr tried to win with offense and old dudes and, along with Draymond's BS, screwed the season.

[Sandy333]

Gsw were overconfident inbthis game missed couple of 3 on 1 by not passing, including one by Chris Paul. Also this was not the game for Wiggins to discover his shot. In crowd HD definitely misses or loses the Ball. Whats with steph with all those loose pases. Pelicans were targeting him

[michaelm]

Klay’s problem is not that he is soft. Klay has some low energy games but when Klay is energized he is one of our harder tougher players. Klays problem is that his feet are nailed to the floor.

Do you want your wingspan on your inside defender or your outside defender? Both the inside defender and the outside defender benefit from wing span. I am not sure that winspan correlates with being a guard or a forward.

If Klay, Podz, Moody and Santos are small forwards then we never played a 3 guard line up.

Podz is a guard 100%. He doesn't play forward. Kerr uses the GGGFF 5 man units. 2G 2F 1C is beginning to be less common for this team, even though that's what the starters are and what our best 5 man unit is.

Santos is a 4.
Moody is a wing.

I think Santos is a 3 and a 2 and only the Warriors would make Santos a 4 like we also made Lamb a 4.

Podz has come up as a 2 but there is not much wrong with Podz as a 3. Speed wise on defense Podz would be better off as a 3 as long as he is not guarding somebody that can go off shooting over a shorter defender.

Peja could have shot over Podz but guards can drive past Podz. Podz has quick reaction time, court vision, hustle, grit and smarts but based on height and speed Podz has liabilities. He is Short enough to be shot over and slow enough to be driven past. I would rather my guy get shot over than get driven past.

My point in these posts is that our 3 guard line up complaint is overdone. On average we are not getting out rebounded or shot over. We we do get outrebounded or shot over the issue is usually that our centers are too small rather than that the other 4 positions are too small. We have a problem of being a slow team more than our problem of being small. We are both small and slow but I think the bigger problem is being slow.

Klay, Moody, Podz and Santos are not definitively guards. Any of them are OK to defend small forwards so I think the 3 guard line up complaint is invalid. For a 3 guard line up to be a problem we would need to be outrebounded, beat with inside scoring moves or shot over Peja/ KD / or Booker style and that is not the way in which our defense is bad.

Playing 3 guards is not why Zion Williamson and Anthony Davis are a problem for us. We needed Wiseman to not be a bust. Asking 6’ 5” Draymond to contain Zion or Davis is a bit much to ask of Draymond. Draymond gave LaMarcus Aldridge big problems but Zion and Davis have countermeasures for Draymond.

Call those lineups what you will, 3 or 4 old slow guy lineups if you like, they are disastrous when games are in the balance approaching their end whichever way you choose to slice it.

[SinceGatlingWasARookie]

Podz is a guard 100%. He doesn't play forward. Kerr uses the GGGFF 5 man units. 2G 2F 1C is beginning to be less common for this team, even though that's what the starters are and what our best 5 man unit is.

Santos is a 4.
Moody is a wing.

I think Santos is a 3 and a 2 and only the Warriors would make Santos a 4 like we also made Lamb a 4.

Podz has come up as a 2 but there is not much wrong with Podz as a 3. Speed wise on defense Podz would be better off as a 3 as long as he is not guarding somebody that can go off shooting over a shorter defender.

Peja could have shot over Podz but guards can drive past Podz. Podz has quick reaction time, court vision, hustle, grit and smarts but based on height and speed Podz has liabilities. He is Short enough to be shot over and slow enough to be driven past. I would rather my guy get shot over than get driven past.

My point in these posts is that our 3 guard line up complaint is overdone. On average we are not getting out rebounded or shot over. We we do get outrebounded or shot over the issue is usually that our centers are too small rather than that the other 4 positions are too small. We have a problem of being a slow team more than our problem of being small. We are both small and slow but I think the bigger problem is being slow.

Klay, Moody, Podz and Santos are not definitively guards. Any of them are OK to defend small forwards so I think the 3 guard line up complaint is invalid. For a 3 guard line up to be a problem we would need to be outrebounded, beat with inside scoring moves or shot over Peja/ KD / or Booker style and that is not the way in which our defense is bad.

Playing 3 guards is not why Zion Williamson and Anthony Davis are a problem for us. We needed Wiseman to not be a bust. Asking 6’ 5” Draymond to contain Zion or Davis is a bit much to ask of Draymond. Draymond gave LaMarcus Aldridge big problems but Zion and Davis have countermeasures for Draymond.

Call those lineups what you will, 3 or 4 old slow guy lineups if you like, they are disastrous when games are in the balance approaching their end whichever way you choose to slice it.

Playing 3 guards should make us faster if we were a normal team. Our guards are slow. Kuminga and Wiggins are faster than our guards.

So my problem is that the anti-3 guards rant does not make sense because anti-3 guards makes it sound like like of size at small forward is our problem and that is not our problem. We are too slow. Gary Payton and Quinones are our only guards that is faster than the average small forward. Moody is not fast. Chris Paul, and Curry are slow for point guards. Klay is slow for a small forward. Klay is probably as fast as the average power forward.

We are a better than average rebounding team despite being small and having Kuminga act like rebounding is not part of his job.
Our problem is lack of speed to stay in front of the dribbler and lack of speed closing out on 3s and inconsistent effort and too many defensive rotation mistakes and Klay and to a lessor degree Kuminga being unreliable 2nd and 3rd scorers. We have nobody waiting in the wings to replace Klay as our 3rd scorer so I have no better plan than hoping Klay somehow gets rejuvinated.

We are not fast enough and energetic enough to get much offense from our defense. This is not 2016 when Iguodala and Livingston trap the dribbler who caughs up the ball and then they tap the ball to Barbosa who gets an easy fast break bucket. Moody, Payton and Klay are not doing what Iguodala, Livingston and Barbosa did. Our scores must create offense if the defense is not creating offense.

[SinceGatlingWasARookie]

Replace Looney with best of Looney best of Tacko fall to end our size problem. Huge Looney and more mobile smarter Tacko Fall.

Replace Klay with peak Klay.

Replace Moody and Payton with big Moody sized Payton big Moody sized Peak Rondo Moody to create a defensive beast to bring Warriors scrambling defense back to the quality that it once was.

With those 3 changes I would pick the Warriors to win the chapionship.

What if Wiseman was not a bust.
What if Kuminga was a smarter player who rebounded.
What if Moody really was a faster top 10 NBA defensive guard.
What if we still had peak Kay.

We are not a garbage team but our flaws mean we are not championship contenders.

Even if we had peak Klay and Kuminga consistently playing as he played the best quarters of his games i still want one more scorer.

I want more defensive speed and more consistent defensive effort.

I want a truly big center.

[powerball1373]

Kings have got the 8 seed because Warrior's lost tonight and Lakers will lose to Pelicans and Kings will beat TrailBlazers. Warriors will be the 9 seed and Lakers will be the 10 seed. Warriors failed to take care of business vs the Pelicans so Kings are the 8th seed.

I'm saying if the Lakers beat the Pels, they'll be 8. Lakers are 2-1 on the season series against them, plus an extra day of rest, so I don't think that's a stretch.

Read on Twitter

I don’t think the Lakers are good enough to beat the Pels if the Pels play like they did their last 2 games against the Warriors and Kings.
Lakers defunitely need Anthony Davis. Davis played 42 minutes today and still the Lakers barely beat the Grizzlies. I do not think the Lakers are playing all that well lately.

Lakers needed a 34 to 21 free throw advantage to beat the Grizzlies. Lakers will need a bigger free throw advantage to beat the Pels or the Warriors in the play in game. Lakers beating the Pels does not matter to the league buut it will cost thhe league millioons of dollars if the Lakers do not beat the Warriors in the play in game. Actually it will cost the TV broadcaster millions if the. Laers do not beat the Warriors but in the long run costing the TV broadcasters money costs the league money.

Unless there's a disastrous 4th quarter, looks like Lakers are gonna win.

[oaktownwarriors87]

Did Kerr ever say anything about not wanting to play Draymond and Trayce together? Did a few on our board come up with that theory because Kerr did not happen to play Draymond and Trayce together?

Looney had a bad start to his season. Saric can’t defend. Kerr only plays rookies when he has to play rookies. Trayce did not play the 1st month. Trayce burst onto the scene very impactful after Kerr got desperate about how bad Looney and Saric were playing. Trayce was not as good in January and February as he was in November. Draymond and Trayce did not play together in December because Draymond was suspended. It might have been more that Kerr wanted to play Trayce with Chris Paul and did not want to play Chris Paul with Draymond

Curry, Draymond and TJD were +28.1 in the 32 minutes they played together over the first 70 games. How they only played 32 minutes together over 70 games is mind boggling.

TJD had a 20 minute game by the 4th game of the season and it was very obvious just how good he was. Kerr was very obviously not playing both of them together even when they were both healthy and playing well.

By March 24th (70 games into the season!) TJD had played 411 minutes without Chris Paul. Only 37 of them were with Green. Chris Paul isn't an excuse.

By March 24th (70 games into the season!) TJD had played the least amount of minutes with Draymond of all players on normal contracts. Even less than Chris Paul who Kerr clearly doesn't like to play with Green.

It took over 70 games to get Kerr to actually try it despite it being pretty obvious paring early on. There really is no excuse. Kerr just didn't want to play them together despite both being healthy and playing well. Kerr stuck to his guns and only caved at the last minute when it looked like they would miss the playoffs.

The way I read the tea leaves Kerr does not want to play Trayce but feels forced to play Trayce when Draymond is not in the game if Looney is not having a strong game.

We had a few weeks of Draymond as the center playing with Kuminga Wiggins Klay and Curry and that worked but that kept Trayce from playing with Draymond.

1sr month of the season Trayce did not play.

Trayce burst on to the scene with a few of his best games late fall but was Draymond already suspended?

Trayce played his best when he first started getting playing time. By the time Draymond came back from suspension Trayce was hitting his rookie wall and playing more mediocre ball while Draymond was saving the team and playing center next to Kuminga at power forward. Recently Trayce is playing better again I think despite Trayce having good and bad plus minus games. Playing Trayce with

Draymond is enabled by Trayce playing better and Looney playing better and Kuminga playing worse or not playing at all. If Kuminga is playing power forward next to Draymond Trayce can’t play with Draymond.

Trayce and Klay seem to have chemistry together to the point that it seems like half of Klay’s assists are to Trayce and halfof Trayce’s assists are to Klay.

Who do you play as the other big with Draymond, Looney, Kuminga or Trayce? If you play Saric, Saric should only play with Draymond or Trayce. Looney is not fast enough to cover for Saric and Kuminga is not smart enough to cover for Saric.

Klay has a similar situation to Saric. Klay needs one of Draymond or Trayce on the floor with him to cover for players driving past Klay. Klay and Saric should never be on the floor together.

Looey has had a bad season but has played better lately. Our interior defense comes from Draymond Looney and Trayce. You do not get Draymond with Trayce without Looney playing the minutes when Draymond and Trayce do not play.

On offense Trayce with Dray does not provide spacing but Looney With Dray is not better at providing spacing. Setting picks and screens for outside shooters brings the pick/screen setters defender out to thearea of the outside shooter. Trayce gets from the outside to the inside faster than Looney which requires the help defenders to be more distracted by what Trayce is doing.

Playing Trayce with Draymond was impossible while Draymond was suspended.
Plying Trayce with Draymond was impossible while Draymond played center with Kuminga playing power forward.

I do not believe that Kerr ever thought there was something wrong with playing Trayce with Draymond. It was that Kerr would only play Trayce when he needed Trayce and Kerr only needed Trayce when Draymond was off the floor.

From October 24th November 24th TJD played 102 minutes in 13 of the first 17 games. The Warriors were +16.9 with him on the floor. TJD did play in the first month. Kerr did however bench him for the next 5 games. Then Draymond had his incident in Phoenix and TJD was brought back from the bench.

He averaged 19.8 MPG during Greens suspension and 15.5 mpg from Draymond return until he was made a starter.

And playing Draymond and TJD was perfectly possible. At any point in time he could have done it. He just didn't. The excuses don't check out. The numbers and tape was always there to show that TJD could finish, protect and rebound... all things the Warriors desperately needed. Instead Steve Kerr would play guys like Corey Joseph on final defensive possessions in a 3 guard lineup against the Lakers to stop LeBron James. It's not that size wasn't needed. It's not that they weren't both available at the same time. Kerr just chose not to do it.