Age matters

[WarriorGM]

Age matters. It should be obvious but it surprises me how little it seems to figure in critical decisions. On the tactical level we hear about older players needing rest but when push comes to shove that usually gets thrown out the window and the older players will be pushed to play the longer minutes. On the strategic level age is hardly ever discussed. Indeed I think the way it is usually approached is similar to how teams previously ignored the inherent mathematical advantage of threes and insisted on doing things the traditional way.

Ideally a team with championship aspirations will have a lot of players at their theoretical peak ages so somewhere from around 27 to 30. The current Warriors team leaves a lot to be desired in this regard. The team's three best players are 35 and older and two of the other starters are very young with Podziemski 21 and Moody 22. Hield at 32 is closer to the age you want to see for players on a contender but is still on the older side.

That's where players like Spencer and Looney who are age 28 possibly provide overlooked value. They should be close to the best version of themselves. Often that is not enough for such players to find playing time because the organization is looking to develop a future star or cater to a current one. But if the goal is to win now and play the best currently available player then I think the odds go up that one of these players that are currently sitting on the bench could contribute useful playing time.

What actionable moves that a team that respects age do? Well for one it can try to avoid having its older players waste time playing less valuable minutes. Curry and Butler were played together at the start of games in the previous series but usually to little discernible advantage. In 5 of the 7 games their first stints had negative plus-minus. That is a waste and a win for the other team. If Curry and Butler are going to be negative at the start of games the team would be better off having other players play while Curry and Butler have more time to conserve energy for more important moments later in the game. If necessary Curry and Butler shouldn't start. Other players need to be given time to step up. If the argument is that this team needs Curry and Butler on at all times, then I suggest that is unsustainable and is doomed to failure. The team must find other ways to win aside from running Curry and Butler into the ground. The coaching staff must find a way to get the most out of all the players at its disposal.

[warriorschamps]

The coaching staff must find a way to get the most out of all the players at its disposal.

Well I won't go into the age thing. But I will say this. Regardless of the age of players almost every team have main guys it count on heavily. NO team regardless of the age of the players are getting the most out of everyone. That's just not how these things work.

We just saw JJ Redick only play 5 guys in the second half of a playoff game.

I think Kerr has done a pretty good job here. He has found combinations that work. Kuminga is guy that is often brought up in these conversations. Kuminga is obviously very talented but talent only gets you so far. And quite frankly at this point Kuminga simply doesn't fit in a ball movement offense.

So while obviously talented and athletic his coach who desperately want to win games has determined the team is better off not using him. That's says a lot. So if that' the case it would be pretty hard to argue he should get more minutes. I'm not blaming this on Kuminga but the team did takeoff while he was hurt. Again in fairness I'm not blaming Kuminga for that. It was obvious the team takeoff for many reason and adding Butler was the biggest and main one. Even so its hard to argue Kuminga should be playing 35 minutes a night until or unless we see something change.

[CS707]

I think Kerr tries to do this, almost to a fault, but the young guys don't hold up their end of the deal.

[HiRez]

I think Kerr has done a pretty good job here. He has found combinations that work. Kuminga is guy that is often brought up in these conversations. Kuminga is obviously very talented but talent only gets you so far. And quite frankly at this point Kuminga simply doesn't fit in a ball movement offense.

I think the bigger problem with Kuminga is he does not do well in a limited number of minutes. The more minutes, and more games of high minutes strung together he gets, the better he does. That's always been true for him. But he's rusty after the injury and from being frozen out by Kerr at the end of the season that it's almost impossible to see him being getting that kind of ramp up to be useful in the playoffs. And if Jimmy's healthy he's not going to get a lot of minutes anyway. Right now he's a liability on the court and it's too late to change it, they don't have the time or patience to see it through.

It's going to have to be Hield and Podz and Moses who fill in the gaps for our aging vets and they've been shaky at best. Occasionally Post/Santos/Loon/GP2 will have to chip in, I doubt Kuminga sees much time outside of blowouts. We've got a pretty small hand to play, if those guys are all slumping on their shots, we're cooked. That's what leads to a lot of Draymond 3s at the end of the shot clock and that's not a winning formula.

Hopefully Buddy rediscovered the 12-3 Buddy, that would be a massive boost that takes a lot of pressure off Steph if it's sustainable.

[xdrta+]

That's where players like Spencer and Looney who are age 28 possibly provide overlooked value. They should be close to the best version of themselves. Often that is not enough for such players to find playing time because the organization is looking to develop a future star or cater to a current one. But if the goal is to win now and play the best currently available player then I think the odds go up that one of these players that are currently sitting on the bench could contribute useful playing time.

That's not the reason Spencer isn't playing, he's not playing because he isn't very good. And this isn't nearly the best version of Looney, no matter what his age. He did a decent job in the 11 minutes he played in gm 7 and that's probably his limit. Maybe a little more this series if he can hold off Gobert, but that remains to be seen.

There's a reason coaches whittle the rotations down in the playoffs. If the other team has their best players out there, you better have your best playing if you want to compete. Playing end-of-the-bench guys just because they're there isn't a winning strategy.

[SpreeS]

Yes age matters…one already injured, other walked like live corpse at the end of the game…

[WarriorGM]

Curry going down is a giant lemon. But if one wants to try making lemonade out of this, then one will use the time without him to find other ways to win that may help further down the line if we can get there.

Spencer and Kuminga are underutilized. The trick is to find a way to play them optimally. Playing them together as Kerr has been doing is wrong going by past instances. What the data suggests is playing each of them separately with Looney in some very specific lineups. The trio of Kuminga, Looney, and Podziemski have played over 200 minutes together and lineups with them have some interesting variations that have been positive. If I see Kerr playing them then at least I'll know he is trying and he isn't wasting all the experiments he was doing in the regular season.

[floppymoose]

This is reason number 12 why i was against the trade. What were the odds that Curry, Jimmy, and Dray were going to make it through 4 playoff series?

[SpreeS]

This is reason number 12 why i was against the trade. What were the odds that Curry, Jimmy, and Dray were going to make it through 4 playoff series?

They pushed hard after Jimmy trade in RS. Last game with LAC was PO level game. Later PI game with MEM and 7 game series with HOU...Curry played 33 games in last 75 days (post All-Star) on higher intensity in RS and in PO mode...

This is why the most important thing was incorporate Kuminga after injury and reduce Curry/Green/Butler playing time.

[Impuniti]

Yes age matters…one already injured, other walked like live corpse at the end of the game…

35-37 year olds cannot play 40+ minutes. I know depth may not be the best and maybe they lose vs Houston, but IMO Kerr needed to still be more looking into the end game last series.

If Steph somehow magically has a very tame grade 1 and comes back by matchday 3-4 and they beat the Wolves, he shouldn't be playing above 38 minutes for the rest of the playoffs. The same applies to Butler. If they lose, they lose.