The following are notes and quotes from practice on Monday and Tuesday, with additional deep cuts leftover from Hawaii. The video report for the two practices is below the bullet points. The entirety of this post is also available on our Discord and posted near-real-time, but until the hooks are made between Substack and that platform, you’ll have to email me at rich@letsgowarriors.com for access:
• Andrew Wiggins participated in practice Monday after missing all of camp in Hawaii. He did not take part in the live-action portion of the day, and he will not play on Wednesday. Wiggins is still on track to be ready by the start of the regular season. Steve Kerr said Wiggins came back from summer in great shape and doesn’t expect this to set him back too much. (Kendra Andrews, Sam Gordon, Danny Emerman)
• Kerr on Jonathan Kuminga: “I have more confidence in him and his ability to grow and impact the game… if guys separate themselves like Steph did in year four of his career, then that’s where you start seeing 35 minutes.” Regarding the starting frontcourt Saturday — Kuminga, Draymond Green and Trayce Jackson-Davis — Kerr noted its athleticism and rim protection, “but it has to flow on the offensive side. We’ve got to get spacing.” (Whitley Sandretto, Sam Gordon) [SEE VISUALS IN VIDEO REPORT BELOW]
• Kerr said Golden State’s movement was good Saturday against the Los Angeles Clippers, “but our execution was not.” Mentioned specifically the setting of screens, the set-up of screens and the attacking of switches. A lengthy film session Monday preceded a lengthy practice. (Sam Gordon)
• Kerr on Moses Moody: “It’s a numbers game. The only thing any of these guys can do is go out and have a great camp and make it really hard on us as decision-makers, and Moses is having a great camp. He’s playing great. All he can do is just keep doing what he’s doing.” (Whitley Sandretto)
• As if on cue, Warriors social posts a Moody clip as people bullied Kerr on Twitter after the previous sound bite of Kerr on Moses minutes from practice.
Here’s the video report of the above bullet points:
• Victor Oladipo wants Melton to start at the 2-guard, with Xs and Os (NBA on ESPN), consistent with what I wrote in the previous article — although in the article before that, I also said Wiggs would be my starting 2 if he’s healthy and available.
• Annual GM survey released by the NBA has Stephen Curry getting a lot of votes from general managers across the NBA on a variety of rankings: https://www.nba.com/news/2024-25-nba-gm-survey
• Ohm Youngmisuk of ESPN got exclusive quotes from Draymond and Steph on Klay Thompson while in Hawaii: https://www.espn.com/nba/story/_/id/41669062/steph-curry-draymond-green-golden-state-warriors-klay-thompson
• Marc Spears of ESPN Andscape with an exclusive with Kuminga: https://andscape.com/features/golden-state-warriors-forward-jonathan-kuminga-enters-key-season-with-dikembe-mutombo-on-his-mind/
• Tim Roye of Warriors TV did a 19-minute interview with Buddy Hield (video under paywall line below)
• Fan reel of a security guard in Hawaii fist-bumping Steph (but not his bodyguard lol) reaches 1 million views:
• Curry said thank you and it was cool to see him spell Hawai’i the real way:
• Warriors hosted US Army Pacific at Day 4 practice. Turns out that was the basis of Kerr’s talk, which we mentioned in the previous post.
• Katie Heindl of SB Nation with an exclusive interview with Golden State Valkyries President Jess Smith: https://www.sbnation.com/wnba/2024/10/7/24264414/golden-state-valkyries-wnba-expansion-branding-team-building
• Shams Charania joined ESPN, here’s his IG post:
• Adrian Wojnarowski wished Shams well on the Jim Rome Show: https://video.twimg.com/amplify_video/1843371772529520646/vid/avc1/1280×720/Big1Y3OeGeYb7Q3j.mp4
• 12:34 interview of Moody by Roye for Warriors TV (video under paywall line)
• Fans at the Mavs Open Practice Sunday chanted, “We want Klay!”. He did not scrimmage and the scene was very surreal — and of the “eww” ilk — if you are a Warriors fan (video clip too big for Discord, will be added to LGW website in next article behind paywall as it contains courtside views).
• Jackson Rowe on 3intheKey, a Canadian basketball podcast (48 min total, unknown how long for Rowe):
• Teammates praised Lindy Waters III left and right after Saturday’s game, but this one stands out because it’s from fellow 2-guard Hield and is worded, “You belong in this world,” followed by the emojis 🤣🔥🫡 which might suggest an inside joke if I’m grossly speculating. Also, Hield became at the least the third Warrior to use a Larry June song in the post (the rapper was there for Warriors Media Day):
Along with the aforementioned “More fire!” rallying cry after practice in Hawaii on Friday, Buddy is emerging as one of the more interesting new personalities on the squad:
• Some Danny Ainge nuggets: “Before coming to terms on a blockbuster swap with Minnesota for Karl-Anthony Towns mere days before the start of training camp, New York made multiple trade runs at Utah’s Walker Kessler to fill its well-chronicled void at center, league sources say. It is believed that Utah wanted at least two future first-round picks for Kessler … after the Knicks had exhausted much of their remaining cache of draft picks in the trade with Brooklyn for Bridges.” (Marc Stein)
• 3-minute interview with Daryl Arata, native of Oahu who works for Raymond Ridder and provides interesting stats factoids before and after each game:
• Incredibly, NBCSBA didn’t gatekeep this time — maybe they’re turning over a new leaf? We shall see — and actually revealed De’Anthony Melton’s nickname in tweet: “Mr. Do Something”. https://twitter.com/NBCSWarriors/status/1844152461839434211