Onus wrote:JK has developed. He just got hurt and was out for 2 months and couldn't get back up to speed in the last 14 games when we were trying to win games to avoid the play in.
If JK wants to be more than a 6th man next year he's going to need to improve his 3 point shot. It'll be incredibly hard to play JB, Dray, and JK together since they are all unwilling or unable to make 3s.
Kerr seems fine playing TJD with butler and dray but I agree, JK needs to shoot in the mid-to-high 30s from 3 for him to be successful with this roster. Fortunately, for him, he'll be putting up 25+ in BKN or UTA, instead.
The moody and JK value management I put squarely on Kerr. Over 4 years, he had a ton of opportunities to play both and, almost every time, he chose to go with other players (lamb, jerome, tjd, loon, wigs, klay, cp3, podz, gui, belli, ddv, jp3, etc.). Many of those guys were transient players that we all knew were not going to stick around (either because we couldn't afford them, they were bad, or both). Some decisions were right in the short term, some weren't, but almost all of them were wrong in the long term. I get that Kerr get paid to win games, primarily. The reason he's one of the highest paid coaches in the league is because he's supposed to help them bridge the gap between the curry core and their recent draft picks. He's failed very, very poorly on that front.
I'm more confused about JK than moody since I'm higher on JK's talent and his peaks look tantalizing. But the same thing goes for Moody, almost exactly. Watching JK slice through the Minny defense the last 3 games, after being frozen out of the previous 10, even when we had monster cold spells against LAC, Hou, and Minny really makes me wonder if Kerr is just too stubborn to adapt. The fact he's doing it without any spacing, often with no Hield or Butler on the court, is all the more remarkable. Minny has good on-ball defenders, real length at the rim, and good strength on the perimeter. None of that seems to be even slowing JK down. He's putting bodies in the basket and playing with more force than the rest of the team put together.
There's a real player in JK - one that can shoot FTs and 3s, attack the rim, rebound, defend (mostly on ball though he had some great rotations to the rim in game 3), and take over games. He can't do it consistently, yet, but he's 22 and, for Kerr, that's what the money is for!