GREY 1769 wrote:Hello GSW fans!
When healthy, what kind of player is Kriss? I know he's fiery and that probably needs to be channeled better as he matures with experience in the league, but what are his strengths and things he needs to work on?
He and Dejounte played together in Washington and he expressed some excitement at the prospect of reuniting on IG so I wonder the extent of the mutual interest. So assuming there is, what kind of player are we getting? Thanks!
I loved Chriss and I'm pretty devastated to see him go.
I knew very little about Chriss before we signed him as a training camp invite. All I knew was he was drafted as a stretch 4, played poorly in Phoenix, and then got into a few fights and got booted by Phoenix. I did not expect anything to come out of his training camp invite.
But Chriss played himself onto the roster and it was pretty clear after the first game of preseason that the Warriors were going to have to sign him and cut someone. The big difference here was that Chriss was playing the 5 with us. From that first game in preseason, he showed that he was a very clever passer. He had instant chemistry with Steph in dribble hand off sets. He was doing perfect dump pass screens for Steph and even did a DHO where he dribbled to his spot and turned his live dribble into a one-handed pitchback between his legs for Steph. It was eye opening. Not even Bogut did stuff like that.
WCS was signed with the intention of being our vertical spacer for Steph and DLo. But once Steph went down, Kerr put the kibosh on making any dramatic modifications to his motion offense and so WCS and Chriss both had to run the motion DHO stuff over and over again. WCS was bad at it and never really became the lob toy that was promised. Instead what happened was that Chriss figured out really quickly how to operate in the offense and became very good at sneaking into the lane and finding open pockets for lobs. He developed really good offensive chemistry with Green and Poole.
Chriss was my favorite player to watch last year. And this was a terrible team, mind you. We played horrible lineups where Chriss was in the frontcourt with Omari Spellman, who should really be a stretch 5, and even though those lineups were mostly garbage, those two rarely struck me as the main problem with those lineups. Chriss and Spellman crashed the offensive glass with force and even though they weren't an ideal pairing on defense, they played hard and I enjoyed watching them together. But because we were hard-capped last year, Chriss had to get cut for financial reasons. After he cleared waivers, he chose to return on a two-way deal, with no promise of a guaranteed deal, simply because he liked the Warriors and thought he fit our system. When we made the DLo deal, Chriss got his guaranteed deal again. We hit WCS with a DNP on 1/24 in anticipation of a trade. From then on, Chriss put up 13.5 points, 7.8 boards, 2.3 assists, 0.8 steals, and 1.5 blocks in 26 minutes on 60/19/79 splits. Per 36 minutes, he averaged 3.4 assists on the year. He looked really good at the end of the year, especially after the Wiggins trade and I was fully prepared to rock with him as our starting C. And then we took Wiseman, which is a whole other subject I don't feel like getting into because Chriss leaving bums me out enough as is.
But Chriss was a good soldier even after we picked up Wiseman. He was slotted to be our back-up 5 with the bench units and he started shooting threes again, which he'd mostly excised from his game here (1.2 attempts per 36 last year after 4.6, 4.5, and 5.2 attempts in the years prior) and had a game in preseason where he hit 5 of them and looked going shooting it. If Chriss hadn't gotten hurt, he'd probably be playing 25 minutes right now and starting because of how bad Wiseman is. It's possible our awful spacing would have depressed some of his numbers, but I thought that Chriss starting for us and getting 25 minutes a game would have been good for 13/8/3 or so. He'd look so good next to Steph and Dray because he can pass the ball and knows how to move without it. I'm really bummed he's gone and while I hope he considers coming back, I would totally understand why he'd feel betrayed after sacrificing to come back on a two way deal and having an inferior rookie C gifted the starting spot over him after he showed real mastery of Kerr's system.
As for the bad, well, Chriss is only 6'9. That presents its limitations. He gets flambé'd by Jokic, Embiid, and AD level bigs, but honestly, which bigs don't? The only real effective way to guard them is to swarm them with smalls and try to run them off the court on the other end, which is why it was dumb to ever except that Wiseman would be ready to guard them anytime soon... sorry, I said I'd stop talking about Wiseman, I digress. Chriss is a good weakside shot blocker, but he's not a particularly imposing rim protector. He showed great improvement in corralling drivers and staying vertical, but because he's 6'9, that verticality doesn't always prevent the drivers from getting good looks at the rim when they drive straight on at Chriss. He's agile and has really good coordination for a C (you won't see him pummel over someone on a drive or failed eurostep) but he's pretty eh switching onto guards. I think that's the type of thing that can improve with time. Looney, for example, moves like an arthritic 35 year old, but he's incredible switching onto guards because he's a very smart defender. Chriss is someone with a high level of feel for the game and I'm inclined to think that guys with feel will eventually become passable on defense, so in time, he might be an overall plus on defense, but this year I expected him to be about a net neutral. There were a few moments in preseason where he just gave up on plays after contesting the first shot, dumb stuff like that. But all pretty fixable.
I hope that the Spurs give him a look if he gets cleared to play before the year is over. I really liked Chriss and I hope he has a long career in the NBA. Hopefully with us, after trading Wiseman in a package for a premier wing or guard.
Here's a brief clip that has a few looks at the type of passing feel Chriss has.
At the :25 second mark, you can see one of those dump off DHO's I was talking about.
Zach Lowe of ESPN took note of Chriss' improvement in a new team and new position and wrote a really nice blurb about him last year.
When the Warriors took a training camp flier on Chriss, they expected a shot-blocking menace with limited feel on offense. They had heard rumblings he could pout, and lose his temper. "What we got," Kerr said, "was the opposite of all that."
Golden State often plays through its big men, and it took one practice for Chriss to show he had more passing chops than Warriors brass knew. "We couldn't believe it," Kerr said.
Chriss has dished 3.4 dimes per 36 minutes, more than double his prior average. He is a canny handoff artist, flipping screens back and forth as his recipient -- Damion Lee is a favorite -- bobs behind him. He picks out cutters, and whips passes to corner shooters out of the pick-and-roll.
"I've always known I can pass," Chriss said.
Playing more center (especially late in the season) has helped. The Suns often shoehorned Chriss into a stretch power forward role alongside Tyson Chandler. Early in his career, Chriss insisted he preferred power forward; he is only 6-foot-9.
"I was naive," Chriss said. "I realize now the skill set I have is better for [center]."
Chriss at center is tailor-made to catch lobs from Draymond Green. He should mesh with Eric Paschall.
Serving as the last line of defense is Chriss' main challenge. He can get caught between schemes, overcommit to ball handlers, lunge the wrong way at the wrong time. Golden State's coaches saw progress just before the NBA suspended the season. They appreciate his hustle.
They have also found him pleasant, a good teammate. Chriss is just 22, learning to control his emotions. "I'm an expressive person," he said. "It's hard to hold things in. But I understand now if I'm sulking or have a bad attitude, it affects other people. I have lapses, but I'm channeling my emotions the right way."
Chriss is thrilled at the prospect of passing to Curry and Thompson.
"I wasn't having fun [in Phoenix]," he said. "It got to the point where I dreaded practices."
