WARRIORS PRACTICE FACILITY, OAKLAND, CA — After a weekend in which Saturday was a day off and then on Sunday, injured Golden State Warriors head coach Steve Kerr (officially on leave of absence) and rookie power forward Kevon Looney gave media an update on their statuses, the squad was back for practice on Monday.
[CLICK ON THE LEFT AND RIGHT ARROWS ABOVE FOR THE PHOTO GALLERY]First off, the Warriors announced that they waived training camp invitee Tony Mitchell, who was last seen with a supportive cheer for Stephen Curry‘s high-five three-pointer. Mitchell saw no action in the Warriors’ two preseason games so far.
Here were Klay Thompson and Festus Ezeli getting work in:
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Curry was wearing his “Father To Son” Charlotte Hornets-colored Curry Two signature Under Armour shoes:
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Later, prolific author Danielle Steele arrived, gave Curry a book, and got an autograph (see picture in the gallery above).
Interim head coach Luke Walton got things started, saying that Kerr came in earlier and talked to the team.
“I think the guys were excited to see him,” said Walton. “He stuck around for most of the practice, came in and out, and then as always delivered a great something-or-other to the guys about attention to detail and stuff like that. It was nice having him around.”
Walton also talked about Tuesday night’s third preseason game against the visiting Denver Nuggets, the Warriors’ first back at Oracle Arena.
As Monte Poole of CSN Bay Area wrote:
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This will be, for some, the only opportunity to see Curry and his teammates in person. The regulars will see plenty of action, but not more than typical for a preseason game.
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“We’re not going to play guys longer, no,” Walton said. “Obviously, they’re our home crowd and they’re spending their hard-earned money to come watch us. So we’re going to play our guys.
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“There were some games last year when we sat guys during the preseason and we might do that eventually. But I wouldn’t imagine us doing that in front of our home fans.”
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After the Nuggets, the Houston Rockets come to town, then there’s another preseason game on Saturday against the Los Angeles Lakers in San Diego where Walton, who was born there, recommended El Cuervo Taco Shop as a hole-in-the-wall local favorite destination.
Up next was Marreese Speights and he was asked about his off-season boxing workouts.
“I’m ready to fight someone right now,” he joked, adding a “nah” seven times at the end, just to make sure media (and the league) weren’t taking him seriously.
Diamond Leung of the Bay Area News Group wrote:
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“It’s really fun,” Speights said. “You’ve got your friend coaching you.
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“He ain’t really going to yell at nobody. He’s going to talk to us like men like we all are. He makes sure he communicates with us real good, and we listen to him. We respect him.”
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Finally, Jason Thompson took the interviewee’s chair after working on these moves:
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Asked once more about his seven-year tenure with the Sacramento Kings and his perspectives of the Warriors from a few miles north, Thompson replied, “It’s kinda night and day,” when describing the two franchises.
Poole filed this report:
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“You can tell it’s a first-class organization,” Thompson said. “No offense to Sac, but there was no stability in the seven years that I was there. You could just tell, from Day 1, when the trade went through, how differently things went on and off the court.
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“Regardless of this being my eighth season, I’m trying to learn what it takes to win and be around that atmosphere. I’m kind of soaking up all of the information with a sponge. It’s not going to change overnight, but you can just tell things are sharper and things are going to be more crisp as preseason and as practices go.”
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Thompson’s role, as laid out by coach Steve Kerr, is to provide productive minutes backing up center Andrew Bogut and power forward Draymond Green. Interim coach Luke Walton is following that plan.
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Also seen: Andrew Bogut feeding Leandro Barbosa jumpers:
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Staying after everyone else were Harrison Barnes and Festus Ezeli working on their handles:
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The Warriors will have morning shootaround Tuesday morning followed by the game at Oracle against the Nuggets that night.
(Photo: @letsgowarriors Instagram account via @poormanscommish)
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