Help Kerr out, who should be closing

[Onus]

Ok Kerr needs help on determining who should close. Over a quarter into the season and we're still experimenting because Kerr doesn't know who to play. So let's help him out with all the geniuses here. Who should be closing?

[Coxy]

Curry/Buddy/Wiggins/JK/Draymond - with the ball going straight into Kuminga's hands for the last shot.

[HiRez]

I think it depends on whether you're up or down. Since there are not a lot of 2-way players on this team outside of Wiggins (mayyyybe Kuminga and Moody if you squint), and Steph and Draymond are obviously already locks, you basically only have 2 or 3 players you swap for either offense or defense.

Kuminga can give you inside scoring and at times pesky defense, but his iffy handles, propensity to foul at the. wrong time, and poor free-throw shooting this year are liabilities in a close game.

GP2 gives you defense, but not much on offense, and if tall players get switched onto him, they can shoot over him.

Hield gives you shooting but the defense is just OK (although he's better defensively that I thought he'd be).

Loon gives you rebounding and second chances, good screening, and the closest thing we have to a big body, but not much scoring.

Moody gives you a moderate amount of shooting, slashing, and defense, but inconsistently.

Waters is a nice end of bench story, but should not be closing.

Podz...well, no Podz, let's leave it at that.

I guess if I had to pick just one lineup to close:

Steph
Hield
Wiggins
Draymond

...and then either Loon or GP2 depending on matchup (size, mostly), would probably lean towards Loon because he pretty much always does the right thing even if it's rarely spectacular.

[Onus]

I think it depends on whether you're up or down. Since there are not a lot of 2-way players on this team outside of Wiggins (mayyyybe Kuminga and Moody if you squint), and Steph and Draymond are obviously already locks, you basically only have 2 or 3 players you swap for either offense or defense.

Kuminga can give you inside scoring and at times pesky defense, but his iffy handles, propensity to foul at the. wrong time, and poor free-throw shooting this year are liabilities in a close game.

GP2 gives you defense, but not much on offense, and if tall players get switched onto him, they can shoot over him.

Hield gives you shooting but the defense is just OK (although he's better defensively that I thought he'd be).

Loon gives you rebounding and second chances, good screening, and the closest thing we have to a big body, but not much scoring.

Moody gives you a moderate amount of shooting, slashing, and defense, but inconsistently.

Waters is a nice end of bench story, but should not be closing.

Podz...well, no Podz, let's leave it at that.

I guess if I had to pick just one lineup to close:

Steph
Hield
Wiggins
Draymond

...and then either Loon or GP2 depending on matchup (size, mostly), would probably lean towards Loon because he pretty much always does the right thing even if it's rarely spectacular.

I don't think it should matter if you're up or if you're down. That's what is plaguing Kerr's decision making currently. He thinks oh we're up we just need to stop them from scoring. Which is really hard to do when you're up because you then think just don't give up a 3, so you give up easier 2s (in isolation) so then the other team scores. But then we can't score because our lineup out there is to stop them from scoring which makes it harder for us to score. And then we just don't end up scoring because no one out there can score.

[Crazy-Canuck]

I think steph, buddy, wiggs, and heild should be locks. It's the best blend of shooting and defense. I think I'd put loon as the 5th.

Dray and loon don't need the ball, so their poor ft shooting is less of a concern because I think their intangible stuff offsets that. I might put jk if he wasn't a 50% ft shooter in quarters. Unlike Dray and loon, he has a high usage.

[Crazy-Canuck]

Our 4th quarter "closers" abd their shooting splits ranked by total minutes played.

Podz 37/13/63
Dray 35/25/51
Buddy 43/38/100
Jk 43/16/56
Wiggs 50/44/73
Steph 41/35/100

Offense is definitely a problem in 4th quarters.

[oaktownwarriors87]

I still remember last year when Kerr played Corey Joseph, Stephen Curry and Podz against LeBron James/Anthony Davis on a closing defensive possession.

I have little hope.

[Sandy333]

Please add Kerr to the voting list. Kerr should subb himself put to locker room after the start of each game and only be back for the interviews. He still does a excellent interviews, very good at deflecting blame.

[CDM_Stats]

I think steph, buddy, wiggs, and heild should be locks. It's the best blend of shooting and defense. I think I'd put loon as the 5th.

Dray and loon don't need the ball, so their poor ft shooting is less of a concern because I think their intangible stuff offsets that. I might put jk if he wasn't a 50% ft shooter in quarters. Unlike Dray and loon, he has a high usage.

Huge fan of Buddy I take it

But I agree - Steph/Dray/Wiggins/Buddy should be locked in, and the 5th man should rotate based on need and how theyve played that night

[CDM_Stats]

Analytics or not - Steve Kerr is going to Steve Kerr

Read on Twitter

(fwiw it might be coachspeak but until Podz starts getting the treatment JK, Moody and TJD have gotten when they sucked, I choose to believe it isnt)

[Onus]

STEVE BUDDY HAS TO CLOSE! Just about everyone on the board sees it but for some reason it’s alluding you.

[Crazy-Canuck]

It's why I'm now in on Schroeder (depending on cost).

Steph, buddy, Schroeder, wiggs, and dray is a death line up.

Defense, shooting, can hit fts, and can play fast. Dray is the worst shooter in that group, yet he still near 40%. That seems like a win to me.

[vvoland]

We play 1 game in 8 days. Losing to the rockets was "probably" not the worst thing. Now they can get some rest and a few practices in the middle of the season. Tough schedule continues but I hope they come out of that hou loss with some conclusions (namely, less podz and more buddy).

Still can't believe Steph went hero ball when all he really had to do was hold the ball and let the shot clock expire, worst case. The call was awful and all that (the 2 min report was a joke, can't believe they said fvv falling on top of gp2 was a clean play but jk fouled) but Steph never should have let it come to that. They also somehow don't mention the refs not giving Steve the TO despite him being 15 feet into the court when doing it.

The +/- pod had a stat that in the first 6 years of the dynasty, the team lost 2 games total when they had a two possession lead in the final minute. I feel like they've had 30 of those losses in the last two seasons and it's mostly Steph/dray and Kerr f'ing up. I could understand when it's jk/podz/moody getting late game reps and making bad decisions but it's the guys that have seen/done it all that are most culpable