Yesterday at practice, Steve Kerr told reporters that Jonathan Kuminga would replace Draymond Green tonight when the Golden State Warriors take on the Los Angeles Lakers in the third-to-last of five preseason games. Below are the views and below that, the notes and quotes. No morning shootaround content in the pipeline, due to the early-ish 5:30PM tipoff this evening, so I didn’t kill myself to get this article up after all of yesterday’s content of Green’s 40-minute podium visit.
In the video compilation from practice, you’ll see that it’s business as usual for Jordan Poole, who looked that way even after Wednesday’s practice (see video on YouTube channel) after which he was punched by Draymond. And then there’s a glimpse of Klay Thompson defending his brother Mychel Thompson, who is officially on Kerr’s staff, with Klay forcing Mychel into an airball.
There’s also Kerr showing grave concern over the leaked video and past leaks, the most recent of which was Andrew Wiggins not wanting to get vaccinated last year. That story was broken by the great Rusty Simmons, who ended up being let go by the San Francisco Chronicle, but not for that (on the contrary, he should’ve been promoted for that article, for the newspaper’s sake!).
I’ve included footage of Matt Barnes and Stephen Jackson visiting the facility and then Klay on his boat, below. This occurred on Thursday and the angle of some of the footage, taken by someone on Barnes and Jackson’s “All The Smoke” podcast team, is curiously from an angle similar to that of the clip of the Draymond punch. Makes me wonder if it was a guest of someone who works for the Warriors, as opposed to an actual Warriors staffer, who leaked the video. But I also haven’t re-checked the video (haven’t watched it 15 or more times as Draymond confessed he did) to see if it was more of a security camera-ish clip or one that someone took with an iPhone, for example. Anyways, the All The Smoke folks visited the day after the altercation, just to be clear.
We have one more clip of that day as well as Poooe yesterday on our YouTube Stories, so let me shamelessly plug that too. YouTube Stories are just like Instagram Stories and are only available from a channel’s homepage on the YouTube mobile app.
DISCLAIMER: These are all just notes for my main workflow of YouTube videos, tweeted by beatwriters, ALTHOUGH I TRANSCRIBED MOST OF THE KUMINGA AND ALL OF THE MOODY QUOTES THIS TIME. I used to transcribe every interview but it became too tedious and not worth the investment for the small amount of views we got on the soundbites on YouTube. The links to the tweets are not available because sometimes I don’t use the full tweet and just having a ton of tweets on this website imo isn’t aesthetically pleasing and gets away from the main goal: transferring information (not so much entertainment) asap.
STEVE
• Steve Kerr to the media just now: “It’s Saturday, why are you all here?” (Dalton Johnson)
• Kerr confirmed Draymond will step away from the team for the immediate future: “Mutual decision based on everything that’s happened and discussions behind the scenes.” (95.7 The Game)
• Kerr: “Things are way easier to handle when things stay in house…As soon as things are leaked, now all hell breaks loose and that affects every single player, coach. Especially the players…For whatever reason, we’ve had leaks with this organization. This is not the first time. That needs to be cleaned up…It’s like if you had a camera in your family and there was a family dispute, would you really want to discuss it with the world? No. Of course not.” Kerr is extremely upset that there was a leak. He’s much more stern and clipped than usual. Seems as though he’s viewing it as a big betrayal: “The sanctity of the locker room has been under assault for a long time. In 32 years, I’ve probably seen 20-plus fist fights. That should not make it out beyond the walls of our practice facility and it did. That’s a problem. We have to get better as an organization…This is why it’s so crucial to keep things in house. I’ve been in this league for 30-plus years, I’ve seen all kinds of crazy stuff. When things are kept internally it’s really almost easy to handle.” Later mentioned the Wiggins vaccine leak. Understands cameras everywhere etc. are a reality, but is clearly unhappy with the leak. (Jason Dumas, Melissa Rohlin, 95.7 The Game, Anthony Slater, Madeline Kenney, Dalton Johnson)
• On how Draymond Green’s apology was received by the team: “Nobody’s business but ours.” (CJ Holmes)
• On the Warriors’ prep without Draymond Green: “You prepare the same way. No different.” (95.7 The Game)
• Jonathan Kuminga will start in Draymond Green’s place tomorrow. “JK had a fantastic scrimmage two days ago. I told him it’s the best I’ve ever seen him play.” (Madeline Kenney)
• Kerr: “no set date” on Draymond Green’s return: “We will see where it goes.” (Anthony Slater)
• On how might Draymond’s latest outburst affect trust: “No comment…I have great faith in the players on this roster.” (Monte Poole, Janie McCauley)
JK
• Jonathan Kuminga on the Draymond punch: “That’s way above my power.” (Dalton Johnson)
• On playing with the starters in practice: “they make your life easier.” (me)
• On his development: “I feel more confident than ever. I feel like I’ve been here for the longest (time, but it’s only been two years)…This is my second year. I know what’s going on.” (95.7 The Game, me)
• On spacing with the vets: “where I find myself on the floor, that pretty much opens the floor.” (me)
• On if he can guard 1-5: “most of the people have seen it.” (me)
• On what he focused on during the summer: “I was a champion but I have a lot more to accomplish…didn’t really have any focus…working on pretty much everything because the way we play you never know (where you’re going to be on the court).” (me)
MOSES
• Moses Moody on handling emotional turbulence: “figure it out…a lot of stuff out of our control…practice, prepare for games, just keep doing that.”
• On watching everyone work: “It’s a test to leadership…I saw a quote…I see adversity as opportunity to show my true character.”
• On where the quotes come from: “I got lot of old heads in my family. My pops is a very quotable person. He’s always quoting his dad. It’s just stuff floating around in my head.”
• On Draymond’s apology: “I’m cool with it…I’m cool with him…I believe they’ll figure it out.”
• On Poole: “He been good. I see the same JP…even after it happened, kept working out for two hours. JP gonna be him. Cool dude, keep that same positive energy. I don’t think that’s wavered…be solid, stay the same way.”
• On his reaction to the video: “I woke up and my little cousin had sent me the video (wondered where he got it but then saw it was viral).”
👍👍💛💙