The Golden State Warriors returned from their road trip after last Saturday’s loss to the Memphis Grizzlies on 11/9/2013. Coach Mark Jackson, as we’ve seen in the past on game days on Saturdays, gave the Dubs the day off on Sunday — in which Festus Ezeli, Kent Bazemore, and Stephen Curry took the opportunity to partake in the Carolina Panthers‘ upset victory over the San Francisco 49ers at Candlestick Park.
POST-PRACTICE, MONDAY 11/11/2013
On Monday the mood at practice was, as Carl Steward reported (linked later in this post), pretty much how it would feel as a really good team losing two straight games on the road: “still smarting”.
I saw Jackson talking to Jermaine O’Neal, probably about some strategy, in the distance. Soon thereafter, Jackson started his interview with the same disappointed and frustrated tone he had after the Grizzlies loss. The talk turned towards Harrison Barnes and Jackson implied that Barnes had been subject to a cap on minutes in the last two games that he played, as well as that the cap had now been lifted, that he could play HB “as much as I want”.
The topic then moved to Andrew Bogut, which we will discuss further below with Bogut’s perspective on things. I wrote a post on Jackson’s comments about Bogut.
As the conversation shifted to Klay Thompson‘s struggles against both the San Antonio Spurs and Grizzlies, Jackson responded saying that Klay didn’t have the benefit of Steph against the Spurs (as Steph sat out with the ankle/bone bruise), as well as Kawhi Leonard being “draped” all over Klay. Jackson acknowledged that having Klay guard the other team’s star point guard could take a toll but, “We’re gonna ask guys to put a demand on their body, and expect them to come through.”
I asked Jackson about the same high rate of turnovers and how he would address that, and he responded as you would expect: “We don’t wanna throw away possessions. It’s important for us to take care of the basketball. It starts with Steph, and pretty much all the guys on the floor.”
With respect to Steph, Jackson continued, “He’s the guy we’re gonna trust with the ball in his hands…we expect him to continue to get better with taking care of the basketball.”
Klay was up next and Carl Steward had the report on Klay’s multiple responsibilities on offense and defense. Thompson deflected concerns that the tough assignments on defense affected his offense, but also said, “That’s what I signed up for.”
There were inquiries about Andre Iguodala and Jackson reiterated as he has before about how the stat sheet does not do justice to the value that Iguodala provides to the team. He also mentioned Bogut in the same breath.
More questions came up about Bogut, which I included in my report (previously linked), but Jackson ended the talk with another trademark vote of full confidence for one of his players, repeating that the Warriors had “no problems on offense” while referencing the offensive concerns about Bogut.
Meanwhile, Monte Poole was interviewing David Lee, who reported to Monte that the Dubs’ coaches were “drilling into their heads” how good the Detroit Pistons frontline is.
As I left practice, Steph was practicing the high pinch post against one of the smaller (one commenter on our Instagram referenced the size of Nate Robinson) Warriors trainers. For the record, Curry made a few, missed a few. However, Steph does have an array of moves, the most disheartening to a defender probably the turnaround stepback.
SHOOTAROUND, TUESDAY 11/12/2013
At today’s shootaround, Iguodala and Bogut were made available to media.
Dre was very detailed in his description of how Klay would have to deal with the extra burden of covering the other team’s star point guard. Iguodala mentioned the other things that a player can do, to break the game up into parts. I will save the quotes for a piece on AI soon.
Iguodala described the type of team the Pistons are and what the Warriors had to watch out for, which was covered in our preview. He said, “It’s going to be an up-and-down game” and that the Warriors guards are “gonna have to come up with a lot of rebounds”. Not knowing the Pistons that well, I thought that was interesting.
I asked him about Chauncey Billups, who was Iguodala’s teammate on gold-medal-winning Team USA‘s 2010 World Championships squad in Turkey. “I remember he got on me pretty tough one day, that’s when I knew he was a leader.” I hope to do more on Billups along that thread in a post tonight or tomorrow.
Bogut is great to listen to, not just because you have to listen closely as he talks fast and speaks with an Australian accent, but also he just tells things the way they are, right off the cuff. Anyone who describes himself as a “seven-footer who can walk in a straight line” as someone fortunate to enjoy the upper tier riches of NBA contracts is sure to give some colorful remarks.
Bogut reiterated what Jackson said the previous day and, of course, added his own slightly comedic twist.
“Offense will come, I mean I struggled a little bit but I don’t get a lot of field goal attempts — which I’m not complaining about by any means — I just gotta make better use of them. Instead of going 0-for-3, going 3-for-3 or 2-for-3. Defensively, I think that’s where I can win games for this team, so if anyone’s thinking that I’m gonna go out and score twenty a game, that’s not gonna happen on this team,” he said, “Obviously last game, wasn’t great at that (defense). The two games before that, I was pretty good.”
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