Kyle Anderson is just 3-for-16 on threes, 12-for-32 overall from the field, heading into Washington. But did you know he’s (probably) launching a good majority of those on catch-and-shoots with the shot clock winding down?
Two nights ago against in Houston, I loosely counted (see Comments for Game Notes) four or five such desperation jumpers in his first six attempts. I stopped keeping track after that as the game got a little tight, and he ended up 4-for-10 on field goals that night — I think we can assume at least half of those were late in the shot clock.
”We call them hand grenades,” said Steve Kerr on the pregame podium Wednesday, before the Warriors defeated the Pelicans on the second of back-to-back wins.
I couldn’t stop laughing for about five whole minutes after hearing that, envisioning some kind of Steve Rogers heroism with those heaves.
Obviously, our skinny little soon-to-become Captain America hero jumped on a live hand grenade, rather than toss it away, but I’m sure there’s analogy somewhere in there.
So don’t worry about “Slowmo”.
As Kerr said in reference to the first win against New Orleans, “Late clock, the ball finds him with one second on the shot clock. I think he had a half court shot, too. So the numbers were obviously not great, but he was great. He helped us win that game. And so he — I want him to keep shooting. He’s a solid three-point shooter. We saw it in the preseason and that shot will come around.” [full transcript below]
One second, though? He did get the ball with 7 or 8 on the shot clock against the Rockets and had to send the ball to the hoop shortly thereafter. And I asked the audience if they thought that counted as a “hand grenade”.
It was deadlocked:
And then I saw another replay after that and saw that the shot clock had dwindled to 6 or 5 by the time he shot it.
Yeah, I don’t know, he’s my hero now on those. And, quite frankly, now knowing about “hand grenades” certainly spices up the viewing pleasure of watching him play.
With everything else that he does — “Time Stone” Euro-step moves notwithstanding — him receiving so many hand grenades per game is good enough for me to call him “Captain Kyle” or “Kyle Rogers” until further notice!
00:00 Andrew Wiggins listed as questionable. How’s he doing? Think we’ll be able to go tonight?
00:05 He’s gonna warm up and we’ll see.
00:09 Do you know if it’ll be the same starters if he’s not?
00:11 I don’t know. I really have no idea who’s gonna start and I’m just gonna flip a coin in a couple hours, I guess. So, yeah, I know. I know who’s gonna start, but I’m not gonna tell you.
00:25 You mentioned a couple of times that Lindy had the second best plus-minus. Is that in scrimmages and preseason or you just mentioned —
00:32 Preseason games, yeah.
00:34 Has he been more — I mean, obviously he’s a shooter and you kind of knew that going in, but has he — have other elements of his game surprised you, like the athleticism?
00:43 Well, Ron (Adams) had a great comment after the game with Lindy. It’s not just the shots that he makes, but it’s the shots that he doesn’t take. And then he moves the ball. He’s a very patient player and so — but he’s such a threat as a shooter that he causes a reaction from the defense and then he’s very smart. He just quickly moves the ball and that generates an advantage and the dominoes start to fall and that’s when the ball movement starts to happen. Last night was our highest passing total of the season by far. And Lindy was a big part of that because of the simplicity of his game. And then at the other end, he’s always in the fight, always in the mix. He’s a good rebounder, he’s got good size. So this guy’s a hell of a player.
01:27 When you had him out there with Hield, did you think that might work? And obviously, it really looked pretty.
01:34 Yeah, I mean, two guys who shoot it like that to space the floor and also the movement. Buddy is probably our best transition sprinter. So he gets out, gets down the floor really quickly. And then he’s so good with the hit, and hand-back game, coming off pin-downs. You get two of those guys at the same time, it’s a lot for the defense. So both guys have been great, but together last night it was fun to see them play.
02:03 You see playing them with Steph, too?
02:05 Yeah, sure. Absolutely.
02:08 Steve, along those lines of you loving your job with the ball movement the way it was that third quarter. I mean, how do you sort of take the next step to make it contagious the way that , during your title runs, it seemed like that kind of snappy passing was every night.
02:27 Yeah, well, winning helps and if we can keep winning games then the momentum really starts to build and the guys feel that and they take a lot of of pride in the ball movement and in sharing the ball. Our fans love that. I mean, what basketball fans don’t love unselfish play with ball movement. It’s so fun to watch and — so it was really fun to see that last night. To see just the guys clicking together. I think we only had eight turnovers, so we didn’t make any plays of insanity. We just made — hit singles and the ball moved and there was a lot of cutting, a lot of good post-split stuff, some layups out of that, some open threes. So it was a good offensive game, for sure.
03:17 And is that a glimpse of what Buddy can do? I mean, he had a slow start on Sunday in his home debut, and then a slow start last night, but then can turn it on and get hot pretty quickly?
03:29 Those are the guys who I always marvel at. I could never do that. You start 0-for-4 and — or whatever it is — and guys like Buddy, Steph, Klay, they don’t care. They really don’t. They just keep launching. And because they’re such great shooters, they — all it takes is one. And I love that mentality. And the great thing with Buddy is that he’s such a great teammate. I started Lindy in the second half instead of Buddy and — but he came up to me after the game and he said, “Coach, that was a great move. It got me settled,” and it got Buddy, got Lindy going. And so when you have guys who are embracing what you’re trying to achieve in terms of playing 12 and moving the pieces around and finding combinations that work, you have to have that kind of buy-in and Buddy’s got that.
04:23 Oh, it’s only four games, Steve, but your three-point defense is, I think, 27%, something like that. That’s pretty good, right?
04:31 Yeah, very good. I think our defensive personnel this year is — it’s impressive. We got a lot of active athletic players. They’re causing a lot of havoc. Last night, I think we forced 23 turnovers, and if we can do that, I mean, 23 is probably not attainable most nights, but we can force a lot of mistakes. We can get out and run and get into a good flow.
04:59 Hi, Coach. Gary mentioned on an interview yesterday, he said, Draymond challenged the team, helped the team come out in half time. How do you describe Draymond’s like impact on yesterday?
05:11 Draymond always makes a huge impact on our team. And when he’s in a good rhythm like he was yesterday on offense, it extends to the defensive side of things. And that’s one of the reasons we really like to get him involved as a passer, as a push-man point-forward, because when he’s feeling good about his offensive game, it translates to the leadership, the defense. That’s when you really feel his force and his energy.
05:43 Kevon obviously has a pretty subtle game. But where have you seen the improvements, obviously, from his body, but just his game, kind of translating to the court?
05:52 Yeah, I mean, he really got in great shape over the summer. He got healthy, so he feels good. And I really like the spot he’s in right now coming off the bench. And that’s what starting Trayce does for us and allows us to play all three bigs significant minutes, which makes us better defensively. We’re just — I like the size. I like the physicality that Loon brings and it’s really well-suited to coming off the bench. So Loon looks great, and he’s played a big part in this good start that we’ve had.
06:29 You guys are one of ten teams that are taking over 40 threes a game, which is pretty unheard of from a league perspective. Is there at all like a fear that the game is becoming too homogenous?
06:41 Sure. Yeah, I think that’s a concern. But everyone’s gotta do what they’ve gotta do, and it’s tough to win the math. If you’re not taking a lot of threes, you better get a lot of free throws. You better be great defensively. But a game like last night, we made, I think, 20 threes and we only had eight turnovers. It would be really hard to lose a game like that. So we think we have the volume of shooting to make a really high number of threes every game. And then it comes down to defense and taking care of the ball and we do those things. We’ve got a great chance to win every night.
07:22 Steve, what do you think of what Moses did last night and what he’s kind of done through these first four games? What have you gotten from him?
07:28 Yeah, he’s been great. He’s knocking down shots. He’s playing hard like he always does. I think he’s stronger and more physical this year. We put him on Ingram to start last night, which is not an easy matchup for anybody. But we want Moses to get more and more experience guarding different people and great players like Brandon and — but I love his force and his confidence. And he’s just — he’s no hesitation on his shot.
07:55 I was gonna say, how much a part of his overall equation is the fact that his shot is looking pretty good?
08:00 Yeah. Everybody looks good when their shot goes in, but it’s — there’s a reason the shot goes in, right? You’ve put a lot of work in, you’re playing with confidence. And I think Moses has put the work in. And I think a year ago, we couldn’t get him to pull the trigger. We — he’d catch-and-hold. He wanted to make sure he was open. Now he’s flying off screens and he’s advanced to the point where it’s really changed the way teams have to guard him.
08:27 On the opposite side, Kyle Anderson’s shot, obviously, is not going in. But still a plus last night. I’m sure you don’t ever tell a player, “Don’t shoot,” but what do you talk with him about when that three pointer really doesn’t look like it’s anywhere close —
08:42 The only thing I said to him was that that was — last night was proof that you don’t have to make shots to have a major impact on the game. He was great at both ends. The shot didn’t go, but they were all good shots. He had a couple of — we call them hand grenades. Late clock, the ball finds him with one second on the shot clock. I think he had a half court shot, too. So the numbers were obviously not great, but he was great. He helped us win that game. And so he — I want him to keep shooting. He’s a solid three-point shooter. We saw it in the preseason and that shot will come around.
09:22 I guess with regards to following on three-point shooting, what would you say — I mean, how would you assess the quality of threes you guys are getting so far? I think Top 3 right now in percentage in attempts and accuracy. So just how would you assess which the looks you guys are getting?
09:36 Pretty good, pretty good looks. That’s the benefit of good ball movement: good offense. You should get some clean looks. And again, this is a — we have a lot more volume of shooting this year. We’re not as top-heavy on the shooting front as we have been in the past. So I think we can spread it around. We can do more things and we can create better shots.
10:00 Steve, what’s the key to drawing up a good after-timeout play? And is it any more challenging or fun when you have different pieces that you kind of have to maneuver?
10:11 The key is good players, for sure. Every coach in the league has the ability to drop a nice play. And we steal stuff all the time that other teams run and vice-versa. But it’s really about your talent and the ability of those players to knock down shots, but also to execute off the board. We say “off the board”, you just draw something up. We haven’t practiced it before. We have a lot of guys who can do that. And so it is fun when as a coach, when you draw up a plan and it works, it’s like, “Oh, I actually made a contribution to this thing.” So it’s fun, but it’s something that’s important to — you need buckets at key times and having a good play can really help.
10:59 It kind of reminds me, I think you’re 3-and-0 on challenges the last three games on all Draymond fouls.
11:05 That’s right. That’s right.
11:06 Are you getting better at that, win-to-challenge, do you feel like?
11:11 We were dead last in the league last year, in the challenge department. I think we’re being a little more conscientious, but at the same time, it’s — if Draymond or Steph is going to pick up his fourth foul and it’ ‘s questionable, it’s a great time to challenge, whether you win it or not. You get the opportunity — and I think all three that we’ve challenged have been on Draymond–
11:40 Fourth (foul) in the third quarter, I think.
11:42 Yeah. So — and it helps he knows we’re backing him up. We’re going to bat for him and so far, so good. But it’s no ot easy because, I mean, it’s why I don’t like replay because you and I could stare at the same play ten times and come to a disagreement on whether it was a foul or not. And same with the refs. I mean, these are not black-and-white plays. Everything is subjective. And I’m not a big fan of replay, but it’s an important thing for us to improve with.
12:15 Steve, as a follow up to the ATO plays, how much are you tweaking on those plays in the time out, because I assume everybody knows sort of what you’re running? How much of it is specific to either the personnel on the floor or what you’re trying to get?
12:35 Yeah, it’s definitely specific to the personnel on the floor and it can be something that we’ve scripted. It can be something that we’ve run for ten years, but it could also be — last night, Terry (Stotts) said, “Hey, I got a great Flip Saunders play.” And so we ran a play that Flip Saunders used to run. We’d never practiced it before. And Brandin got a layup and it was like, “Nice call.” So that’s kind of how it works. It’s kind of what makes it fun. And some of the stuff we run, we will have seen it on tape over the years, that someone else ran, and it’s like, “Oh, that’d be great for Steph or whatever,” although anything’s great for Steph. But it’s, yeah, it’s one of the fun parts of coaching for sure. Thanks.
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