Transcripts from Klay Thompson at morning shootaround in Denver and Steve Kerr, Moses Moody and Gary Payton II from Warriors practice at Chase Friday…
0:00 Klay Thompson at morning shootaround in Denver: “Ask away, so I get out of here.”
0:03 on how much more confident champions get the following year, if there’s carryover: “Oh, no question, definitely carries over… just confidence and team chemistry is definitely enhanced. And just trusting one another. When you can trust your teammates in the highest of pressurized situations, it just brings you to another level.”
0:34 on if the Nuggets’ run last year surprised him, going 16-4, and if it was pretty dominant: “I mean, yeah, it was surprising the way they swept the Lakers, but I mean, give them credit. They have a great team. Nikola is a great player, one of the greats Jamal had an incredible run in the playoffs. Their whole team did, really. They all knew their roles and they perfected them. So it’s exciting to have the opportunity to play them this early in the season. And a team we’ll potentially see down the line, so it’s a fun matchup.”
1:06 on if anything in this Nuggets team reminds him of himself: “God, I hate that question.”
1:09 on if, after his first championship, there were any similarities: “I don’t know, it was like eight years ago, nine years ago… they have multiple MVPs and yeah, similarities are — actually I don’t see very many. I mean, their best player’s a big, man, ours was a point guard. They spread the floor, maybe the same as we do with all the shooting they have.”
1:42 on if there was any specific work he did alone to really get better: “No, just the same things I’ve always been doing, is just getting a bunch of shots up and trying to be in great shape and just being confident and letting it fly. I mean, the season’s long, you’re gonna have lows, you’re gonna have highs. It’s just about being consistent with your work.”
2:14 on one of the Nuggets’ key players in Murray not playing: “They’re still a great team. I mean, Jamal is one of the better guards in the league. Obviously, you’re gonna miss him, but you can’t take them lightly. They still have champions and they still know how to play off one another and they’ve won without him before, so we know he’s a huge part of their team. But we can’t relax because he’s out. That’s the worst thing we can do.”
2:42 on if the elevation of Denver gets tougher as they get older or how they make that adjustment: “You don’t really think about it, you just stay prepared and do all the little things to be your best self. But no, I feel great. We all feel great. And we’ve had a great start of the season. It’s another opportunity to improve that start, so we’re gonna see them make the most of it. That’s just how this team is built.”
3:12 on having less FGA per game: “I didn’t even know that, but I mean, we’re winning. I’m not concerned with how many shots I take. I’m more concerned with being efficient with those shots and as long as I shoot efficiently, I don’t care about averaging 10 points or 30. The goal is to help the team win and be the best team we can be. It doesn’t matter what the individual stats mean, although the only stat that matters is the wins and losses.”
3:48 on how he’s feeling overall: “I mean, it’s a great start. One loss at home, one loss on the road. We have an opportunity to go 7-2 tonight which is a great start to the year, but we’re not satisfied.”
4:04 on the difficulties of dealing with Joker without Draymond in the lineup: “Yeah. Well, it’s much harder. Draymond is an incredible defender. With Jokic, it’ll take a team effort, obviously, but he’s gonna get his. It’s about limiting what everyone else does.”
4:23 on Trayce Jackson-Davis: “I love Trayce’s game. I think he’s gonna be in the NBA for a long, long time. He’s ready. He’s able right now, came in as a rookie, make an impact and what a steal we got as a late-round pick in the second. So he’s gonna be a huge help for us this whole year.”
4:48 on if TJD provides things they don’t have, such as being a lob threat and/or rim protection: “Yeah, you could say that.”
5:05 Steve Kerr from Friday on Draymond Green and Gary Payton II appearing at practice: “Yep, both are good.”
5:12 on if it’s a weird homestand with the two sets of home games against the same team (MIN and OKC): “It’s a little weird, especially having two two-game sets against those two teams. We haven’t had much of that in the last couple of years. I don’t think we’ve had it on the road at all (the) last couple of years, which is probably too bad because that’s where it saves a little travel. But it means no shootarounds (with) the 530(PM) starts. No shootarounds, but it is what it is. So the main thing is we’re home. We’re gonna get a little more rest, less travel, a little more practice time. So we should sharpen up.”
6:07 on if there are certain goals that they have to improve on: “Yeah, I think we’ve had one real practice the last 10 days, something like that. So we’re seeing all kinds of stuff on tape that we’ve got to improve, at both ends. Execution. Just details and some of the stuff we run offensively, details within the schemes defensively. So it’s just like everything else, you need practice time to sharpen up and that’s that’s the plan.”
6:41 on what they need to see more from Andrew Wiggins: “I’m seeing Andrew look much better physically the last couple games. His on-ball defense has been great. So he’s coming. I’m not worried about him at all. Like I said, he’s got this long track record for — I don’t know, is this is ninth year in the league? — eighth, ninth. So we know what he can do and the fact that he’s looking really good defensively on-ball means his conditioning is there. I think the rhythm will follow.”
7:22 on if Moses Moody is in the midst of a leap defensively, especially as the help defender: “Moses has been great. Every time I put him on the floor, I feel his presence, his defensive energy. He’s really playing hard. He’s crashing the glass, creating extra possessions. Moses is just very coachable and responsive to the things we ask him to do. And Year Three, so this makes sense. He’d be a senior in college right now if this were the old days, so the improvement isn’t something that happens overnight, as much as everybody wants it to. A foundation for the game takes years and years, the footwork, the anticipation and then you throw in all the idiosyncrasies of the NBA, the patterns of movement that you have to see over and over again. So it makes sense, Year Three for a young guy. There should be a leap and Moses is making that.”
8:39 on Trayce Jackson-Davis and Brandin Podziemski and their contributions so far: “They’ve been great. Both guys are really well-developed already. Trayce, I say it all the time: 125 college games. So that foundation that I was just talking about, that every player needs, he’s got and so when you ask him to do something, he already has the skills and the fundamentals to execute whatever it is we’re trying to ask of him. So he gives us a little something different from other bigs in terms of being a lob threat. The verticality at the rim is — he’s up there. Loon and Draymond are great, great rim protectors, but it’s different. It’s more positioning and strength. And with Trayce, it’s more the elevation to go with that verticality that makes a difference. It gives us a different look. So we’re enjoying playing Trayce quite a bit and then Brandin has a knack. He doesn’t have as much experience, but he just has a knack and a feel for the game. That’s very unique among young players. So every time we throw him out there he makes good decisions, good plays. He’s gonna be a good player.”
9:52 on if there’s anything specific he wants them to work on while they’re in Santa Cruz: “It’s mostly just reps but I think it’s a good change of pace for them to go from with us maybe a 10- or 12-minute stint to, Hey, here’s 30, 35 minutes.” It’s good for their conditioning, good for the rhythm, good for their skill set. I think one of the things Brandin found in Summer League was the game was moving pretty fast compared to college. So, same thing’s gonna be true. He’s already made that adjustment to the NBA level, but now he gets 30-plus minutes of that in the G League, facing that kind of speed. And so he gets to work on his skill and also we want to win, especially now my son’s the coach. Really gotta win… if not, I’m gonna rip him. It’s always the coach’s fault.”
11:00 on being ranked 29th in transition frequency and 29th and time to shoot after defensive rebounds and turnovers, and if that is just a reflection of their personnel, or do they want to run more as they have in the past as the season progresses: “Yes to both. But I do think it’s interesting. We were No. 1 in pace last year, and No. 1 in turnovers. And we didn’t like that combination. We wanted to be more middle-of-the pack in both and I think getting Chris onboard is helping us cut our turnovers back, obviously. I don’t know where we are now (in) turnovers per game, but it’s probably between 10th and 15th in the league so that’s great. We want that. But that also means we’ve got to be more purposeful in our execution. And that’s where we really need to improve here these next couple of weeks: offensive execution and the half-court. At the same time, we should get easy buckets off stops. Our first group has been one of the best five-man units, if not the best, over the last two years. And with a great defensive rating. And then that group has frequently played off of stops, Draymond pushing the ball, Wiggs getting out in transition. One of the reasons our pace is lower than we’d want it right now in our transition efficiency is because we’re not getting stops. We’re taking the ball out of the net, so it’s all tied together. Thanks.”
12:36 Moses Moody after practice on the game really slowing down for him, especially defensively: “Yeah, that confidence just comes with knowing where you’re supposed to be… I was talking to Kenny about it today. He was saying we get steals when you’re in the right spot. And that’s kind of what’s been happening. So just paying attention to the game plan, knowing where to be and kind of your comfort comes with that.”
13:20 on Chris Paul kind of huddling the second unit up kind of being like in college: “Yeah, I was gonna say it does remind me of college a lot. But if you think about it, like out there on that NBA floor running up and down, you’re away from your teammates and not in close proximity for a long time. So you’re not even necessarily like as a unit. So you see something about it, like when you get together like that, almost like volleyball, like that feeling of, “Us versus them.” And he says things in the moments and different things at different times, but just the basis behind it is cool, too. So yeah, I mean, it brings us together but we can get disconnected out there if somebody took a shot and they should have passed it to me, while I’m feeling a way about it. We’re running up and down the court and I don’t even see them… it’s spaced out, like you’re doing different stuff, but then that’s an opportunity to say something about it, if you want to. Or just just get together and look each other in the eyes and just get together. So that’s cool. That’s really what I feel from it. I’m not even the one that initiates it, but that’s what I can feel.”
14:50 Gary Payton II on their priorities and goals: “Just clean up what we’ve been working on, our margins… get back to practicing. We’ll be home for a while so we get the ability to practice and get over and hit on the things that we need to clean up. So just to be home for that long is helpful for us. We can get in the gym.”
15:24 on the second unit building on leads and maintaining leads: “Just come out there with whatever energy and force, cause havoc. I’m pretty sure our IQ in that second unit is pretty tough around other second units around the league, so I’m just trying to outsmart the second units and build on whatever the first unit leaves us or whatever we’ve got to do to get back to even … just keep the ball moving and have space and connectivity in that unit. And I think that’s probably the biggest thing, is our connective unit that we have in the second unit. We just don’t care and we want to get stops and run out and get easy buckets.”
16:14 on how he’s feeling in general: “Oh, good. Body feels good. Maintaining, holding, no setbacks as of right now. So I just continue to take care of my body, keep it where it needs to be. And just continue to help the second unit and do what I can down the stretch of the games to close. You guys are b-e-a-u-tiful.”
👍👍💛💙