Kerr tweaking the Warriors offense gets Steph’s stamp of approval

Kerr tweaking Warriors offense gets Steph’s stamp of approval originally appeared on NBC Sports Bay Area

SAN FRANCISCO – The offense Steve Kerr installed a decade ago, where chip passes and player movement created a basketball symphony, is being updated. The Warriors want a different look, one that they believe fits the current roster.

Despite the team’s tremendous success under Kerr, this should be an easy sell. The most important part understands and has already bought in.

“You get punched in the face and you don’t make the playoffs, that’s the only real message you need, the reminder you need,” Stephen Curry said Monday at Media Day. “We have a way of doing things in terms of how we approach training, matches and the level of competition that you need.

“But when it comes to your

The Warriors often struggled to keep up with the rest of the NBA last season. Kerr tried a gazillion rotations looking for a unit that could defend well and still generate enough offense to keep pace. Although their 2022 championship team started two non-shooters — Draymond Green and Kevon Looney — Kerr and his staff realized the formula is outdated in a league where most contenders spread the floor with four or five shooters.

“The good news is I’m coming into this training camp with an open mind about how we need to play,” Curry said. “I know there is a Warrior mentality and culture about how we do things. There is a system we have been using for over a decade and it has worked. It doesn’t necessarily mean this is the way this team should play. We have to put up antennas and be open to accepting what the strengths of this team are, what our weaknesses are, and kind of capitalizing on that.”

These comments from the lavishly decorated franchise player are in line with Kerr’s summer moves – and his statements from a few days ago.

“What we never want to give up is our values ​​as a team,” Kerr said last Thursday. “We believe in ball movement. When you play against the Warriors, you know the ball is going to move. That’s not going to change.

“But we also have to adapt to our staff. I think I can do a better job by simplifying some of the actions we perform so that the players know exactly what they are doing and don’t have too many options open to them. Finding that balance where we can keep our identity, but simplify things and make things a little cleaner, that’s the challenge.”

The first indication that changes could be beneficial came when the Warriors finished 10th in the Western Conference, were eliminated in the opener of the Play-in Tournament and missed the playoffs.

The second indication was Golden State’s 22nd-ranked turnover ratio of 14.2. For context, this was slightly worse than the 21-61 Charlotte Hornets and clearly inferior to the sub-.500 Chicago Bulls. This is where simplicity seems like a wise choice.

The third indicator was Golden State’s offensive rating, 116.9 per NBA.com, which ranked ninth in the NBA. The goal is to climb back into the top five.

These factors led directly to Kerr’s decision to hire lead assistant Terry Stotts, one of the game’s better attacking minds. As head coach in Portland, Stotts was able to coax the Trail Blazers to eight straight trips to the playoffs behind one All-Star, Damian Lillard, and a rotating roster of mediocre forwards.

Voila, a welcome offensive adjustment. Adjustments, if you will.

“We are the hunters, along with many other teams,” Curry said. “What can this team do to maximize every skill we have in the locker room? That is the challenge for us. Some new faces in the technical staff. The first time me, Klay (Thompson) and Draymond (Green) weren’t together as teammates. Whatever story you want to tell, if we want to win, you have to think about it differently.

“It doesn’t mean you won’t see some consistency with how we’ve played before. But with some young guys we were in a position to be successful. The different rotations that will allow us to compete with the best teams in the league, we have to be able to figure that out and we have to do that quickly.”

While the front office, led by general manager Mike Dunleavy and CEO Joe Lacob, was tasked with reshaping the roster, Kerr and Curry each had a say in its direction. The result is three veterans – Kyle Anderson, Buddy Hield, De’Anthony Melton – who are deep threats. All three have multiple seasons in which they achieved a 37 percent advantage from distance.

Now it’s up to Kerr and Stotts, with help from Curry and Green, to integrate the new guys well enough to bring the offense back to a level that will once again cause headaches for opposing defenses.

“We’ll figure that out,” Curry said. “It’s on the list of a lot of things that we have to work through in terms of, again, the openness of how we’re going to play, what’s going to be asked of everyone individually with your role, different rotations that we’ll probably experiment with. training camp, preseason games and perhaps early in the year.

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