For the past two days, LetsGoWarriors has had the fortunate opportunity to attend media availability at the Golden State Warriors‘ facility in Oakland, CA. This would be after the first of two-a-day practices during training camp.
For the upcoming week heading into Saturday’s preseason opener against the Los Angeles Lakers in Ontario, CA, the morning session, according to Coach Mark Jackson, is where the players “go hard”. The evening session consists of so-called “dummy offenses” (going through the structure of set plays) and shooting.
“We have one agenda, which is winning,” said Jackson.
There’s a certain air of anticipation one can feel when walking into the gym. On both occasions while we were waiting behind closed doors, you could hear a scoreboard buzzer sound and a lot of commotion and cheering coming from inside the gym.
On Sunday, we were privy to the Warriors running a 3-man fastbreak drill. The energy was high, as the remaining 14 players as well as coaches not on the floor participating in the drill, were clapping with enthusiasm.
As the practice came to a close and the team huddled at midcourt, everyone seemed focused. Assistant coach Pete Myers and 17-year NBA veteran Jermaine O’Neal led the pep talk at the end of Sunday’s practice. The Warriors broke the huddle with, “Just us!” and went to the their respective stations to shoot free throws.
For Warriors fans, some of the following can be gleaned from the first two days of practice:
Depth
There’s tempered excitement about how deep the Warriors are this year. O’Neal tweeted as much after Day One’s morning session:
Super competitive at every position! No plays can be taken off In practice now because of all the talent that’s on the floor!
— Jermaine O’Neal (@jermaineoneal) September 28, 2013
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Jackson was on the same wavelength and said that the Warriors have…
…accomplished guys at every position so they’re battling against each other. As a former player, there’s times you could take a drill off or a scrimmage off because you’re going against a guy that you’re superior to. This is great and it’s going to make us a better basketball team individually and collectively.
Harrison Barnes also said the depth makes the players better, as they practice against each other.
Klay Thompson further echoed the sentiment. “We’re so deep we don’t have to play David Lee or Steph Curry forty minutes anymore,” he said. Steph also mentioned that the coaches have been mixing up the matchups and seeing different combinations of players, another indication of the Warriors’ depth this year.
Jackson said the difference this year are…
the battles at every position. They’re making each other better. Last year we had young guys facing (Andrew) Bogut or David (Lee), with the exception of Carl (Landry)…this year there’s big, live bodies…attacking each other and making us better.
Barnes also mentioned that Jackson has a more serious tone this year. Jackson said, “I don’t know. That’s interesting…The stakes have been raised.”
Chemistry
The issue of chemistry is evident even as the players broke into groups of two for the aforementioned free-throw shooting. For example, Andre Iguodala and Marreese Speights, ex-teammates of the Philadelphia 76ers, were paired together. There were centers O’Neal and Bogut. Steph was with Toney Douglas. There even seemed to be a commonality of being left-handed for the pairing of Kent Bazemore and D.Lee.
In keeping with the subject of familiarity, and as Jackson reiterated with his oft-used “We-Know-Who-We-Are” cliche with respect to Douglas, Speights, Iguodala and O’Neal, Klay mentioned that he was once not only teammates but also roommates with Seth Curry for the World Tournament.
On the topic of chemistry, Klay added, “It’s all about playing unselfish. That’s what I love about this team. Nobody has any egos.”
Who’s the Starting Five?
Closely related to chemistry is the question of, with the arrival of the versatile Team USA member Iguodala, who’s part of the starting five. On Saturday, the first day of practice following Friday’s Media Day (as covered by our Ryan Brown), Coach Mark Jackson established the party line:
It really doesn’t matter who starts. Jarrett Jack last year didn’t start for us, but played a lot of minutes, played a big role. Carl Landry the same thing. So we don’t get caught up in that. Our mission is to win ball games. It does not matter who starts a game; guys are gonna play. There’s no secret about that…It’s what’s special about this basketball team. It’s just awesome to have options.
By establishing theme of training camp, Jackson has effectively made perhaps the Warriors’ biggest concern into a non-issue.
Second Coming’s Little Bro
As Steph becomes more and more prominent in the NBA, so does, in parallel and thus far, the fandom for Steph’s little brother, Seth. As far as Seth’s progress in training camp, I asked Steph how Seth is doing and whether or not Steph has been showing him the ropes or letting Seth find his own way.
First, Steph said that it was good to see Seth healthy again and knocking down shots playing the point guard position.
“He’s been playing well,” Steph said, “Unfortunately he’s been playing on opposite teams and been killing us a little bit.”
Steph added…
I treat him like any other teammate. During camp I can’t be ‘Big Brother’ all the time. He’s gotta go through the process himself and make some mistakes, learn from them, play well, learn from what he did right. He’s got plenty of coaches here that’ll get on him, so you just let him go through it — if I see something I’m obviously going to tell him and try to make it better when I can but I’m not going to be overshadowing him at all.
So the one that wasn’t even supposed to be invited to training camp is killing the first team. Sounds like training camp is off to a helluva start! Warriors fans have a lot to be proud of, even at this early juncture.
More links from media in attendance:
Rusty Simmons: Training Camp Day 2: Warriors believe they have a head start
Marcus Thompson: Skinny Warriors looking to pick up the pace
IQofaWarrior’s links on GSOM: Warriors 2013 Training Camp: Getting Down to Business
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