Changing things up this time and giving you some detailed observations from the Warriors’ preseason win in Sacramento two nights ago. If you like the type of reporting below, which you could almost say it’s a modern-NBA recap of sorts, as it’s in chronological order, please make a comment of encouragement to do more like these.
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Per usual, there’s a ton of other news that dropped during the off-day, including at practice, but I’ll have to just save those for later. I might lean towards these game notes/analysis ones because, quite frankly, they’re more fun to talk about, particularly when it comes to on-court chemistry.
And so with the “ton of other news” quip, let me once again plug the new Discord server. I will soon automate the process of allowing paid subscribers into the Discord, which is like Twitter/X on steroids, easily categorized and searchable, making the use of that awful app unnecessary going forward. But more on this in due time.
First off, here are the behind-the-scenes (“bts”) and pre- and postgame videos:
Here’s the discussion of the game notes, which are lifted straight from the game play-by-play (by me, on the livestream)…
10m40 q1 — Early transition, Jonathan Kuminga saw himself 1v1 on the left elbow against Keegan Murray with one man showing help and decided to do a fade mid-post Kobe Bryant-style. I love that JK’s got the green light for this now and I do think that’s reinforced by his solo workouts with one assistant coach after practice, when the rest of the team is generally paired up, shooting around. The bts video has the Kuminga-over-Murray clip.
7m40 q1 — Brandin Podziemski was fooled on a double backdoor, but as Steve Kerr said after the game, they aren’t game-planning in the preseason yet, which would normally be important against a Mike Brown-coached system. Incidentally, some of Brown’s sets were clever and exquisite. If I didn’t have the Warriors to watch 24/7 all season, I’d watch the Kings for that beautiful basketball system.
7m21 q1 — Murray got too easily by Kevon Looney, and my co-host Dean Chambers also wanted Looney to go out more on Domantas Sabonis, but I think the previous scouting reports is to let him shoot. Loon did kind of look slow against Sacramento right after tipoff, albeit by the second quarter he’d caused Sabonis to travel on one play, but I need to see more sample size and I’m also not surprised he was tabbed to start, given his history of success against SAC and, well, we lost the play-in and he didn’t start that one. But Kerr might continue to experiment by starting someone else in the next preseason game Friday night against the same team.
3m28 q1 — Trayce Jackson-Davis and Buddy Hield had good chemistry on a screen by TJD.
1m56 q1 — Hield’s late-shotclock splash did not look flat, as was some of the interview talk in Hawaii.
1m01 q1 — De’Aaron Fox stepping into the lane was met by De’Anthony Melton (not a surprise), then a wall by Trayce (not a surprise) and Hield (a surprise!). With five seconds left in the quarter, Hield once again displayed good point-of-attack defense, particularly with the physicality against Fox, to disrupt the buzzer-beater.
11m48 q2 — With Brown’s scheming, Podziemski often found himself in tow chasing Fox, which resulted in a couple buckets. Without the game-planning, there’s not an ideal way to defend this, and Anthony Slater of The Athletic did ask BP about this after the game (see video embedded above), but the Q&A was more angled on the fact that Podz was guarding the opponent’s best player. Podziemski wants the same challenge for Friday night.
8m28 q2 — BP good back-pedaling POA defense versus Fox.
7m59 q2 — Stephen Curry was able to adjust and backdoor Fox probably three times, all with Draymond Green at the point — Dray committed a turnover on one of them — as Fox was top-blocking the Warriors’ pet handoff play (in this case by Gary Payton II) to Curry on the wing. The bts video has this.
6m12 q2 — A gorgeous double-screen set for the Brown system. The Warriors got beat a lot via Xs and Os.
1m28 q2 — Pretty Hield “filay” (layup with the opposite hand and a popular nickname used by Draymond on Instagram posts), going 94 feet. The dimensions of Buddy are unfurling before our eyes. Overall, I feel like Hield has been waiting for an opportunity like this and that the game has finally evolved toward his liking, especially in Kerr’s system. Compare and contrast that to Philadelphia, where he often found himself buried on the bench, especially late last season and in the playoffs.
0m55 q2 — Hield got a 3 via split cut by Melton off of Loon acting like he was going to screen for someone. This was absolutely beautiful improvisational basketball. At least I think it’s not a designed set. Kerr and BP praised Terry Stotts in their respective postgame interviews, but Steve also said they didn’t execute the Stotts sets until the second half, so…?). Here’s Joe Viray of Rappler with a nice little Xs and Os on the actual second-half flare routes designed by Stotts for Damian Lillard back in Portland: https://x.com/joeviraynba/status/1844421754384711745?s=46
Hhh
4m20 q3 — A Podz touchdown pass attempt went too far, perhaps way too far with pass intended for Kyle Anderson (because, you know, Anderson operates in slow-motion), but the fact that BP and Slowmo laughed it off was a nice chemistry moment to see. Later at the 11m42 q4 mark, Slowmo would feed BP on a slip cut, a play that Slater also asked Podz about (see embedded video above).
2m34 q3 — More chemistry: Loon lets Melton have space, and “DA” (my nickname for the multi-syllabled veteran) scored a running banker.
1m05 q3 — Melton spin fade Kobe style, yet another reinforcement of the various tools DA brings to the table. Let’s not forget the necessary (and perhaps inadvertent) steps that brought Melton to GSW: Jordan Poole traded for Chris Paul and not picking up Paul’s option which created the ability to duck under the tax for a moment, allowing Mike Dunleavy, Jr. to use the non-taxpayer mid-level exception.
9m56 q4 — Melton made a great cut, BP missed him. The cutting with force which the Warriors sometimes got lazy on last season, must be a thing of beauty for Steve and the staff right now.
9m37 q4 — Slowmo showed off his inside-out dribble attack, but missed the attempt.
5m38 q4 — Not to pick on Moses Moody too much because he had a great offensive game and even cashed in a corner three and-one, but Isaac Jones got past Mo too easily which, again, means that Melton is higher on the depth chart, wherever he ends up — which as I’ve said, could even be on the bench behind Andrew Wiggins. And so to counter all the uproar on social media of Steve not starting Moses or having him be the first or second guy to come off the bench, I have to say it again: it’s not Moody’s offense that gets him in trouble, it’s his defense. And I don’t blame him. He played on perhaps the best AAU team ever assembled and only spent one year at Arkansas under a former NBA coach. Like 99% of Lottery picks, the fundamentals of defense probably (I could be wrong) weren’t ingrained in him early and because he’s not an elite athlete, and because of the evolution of the Warriors’ rotation and the complexities with the Klay Thompson situation last year, it really ends up being about it his defense. But I’m rooting for him and as I said previously, who’s gonna replace Melton next year?
4m46 q4 — Despite the second- and third-string Dubs putting the game out of reach for the second- and third-string Kings, I can’t fail to mention that Gui Santos showed off some of his bag with a crossover penetration dribble and an and-one.
4m08 q4 — Lindy Waters III with a stepback three that is just so damned fluid. He’s literally a bigger, stronger, faster, younger, and more-skilled version of Damion Lee, and Lee played his role to perfection when he was a Warrior.
2m57 q4 — It’s kind of amazing how Santos always maximizes his opportunities, with a great lead pass to TJD and then deflecting a backdoor pass. Kerr at practice the next day talked about the team having thirteen NBA guys. I think he really means all fourteen, but he wants to keep the spirit of competition and not have the entire 14-man squad get complacent. But that’s just my guess and whether or not the “thirteen” quip was intentional, it’s better for a coach to say that to keep the end of his roster hungry.
🫶💙💛