WARRIORS PRACTICE FACILITY, OAKLAND, CA — When we last left you, there were concerns about Klay Thompson and Andrew Bogut. After the rout of the Detroit Pistons, in which those problems were addressed, the topic shifted to the Oklahoma City Thunder and the game plan for superstars Russell Westbrook and Kevin Durant. This dovetailed into Stephen Curry‘s defensive role.
WEDNESDAY PRACTICE 11/13/2013
Coach Mark Jackson talked about Durant being the special player he was and how the Golden State Warriors had to stick to the game plan of defensive help on him (and Westbrook). He mentioned how only “dumb coaches” would tell a one-on-one defender, “Do your best,” and that having a game plan was paramount.
Meanwhile, Scott Ostler spoke with Andrew Bogut in a one-on-one.
Jermaine O’Neal sat down and had a usual long talk with media. It’s good and bad when that happens. From the perspective of your vanilla journalist, there’s a lot of transcribing required for a long interview, but I kind of like it when he talks and talks, because I too can talk about the game ad nauseum. To me, it’s worth the long transcription anytime you sit down with JO.
Topics ranged from the usual culture epithets to “Roaracle“, including dodging questions about the SF arena. He said that Oracle is one of the oldest “gyms” but a favorite place for NBA players to play. Monte Poole also had a story on that.
But at the end of the interview, he summed up what he thought the media wanted to hear, that he would do a better job in the post, scoring. “I promise you,” he said.
O’Neal also mentioned that he’d talked to Harrison Barnes about the bench relaxing a little bit more, as their play has been subpar to date.
I also noticed JO had his own Nike logo on his shoe.
Barnes was busy practicing attacks to the rim against Brian Scalabrine, then later came over and discussed a few things with media. He called Bogut’s return to health “Bogut 2.0”. He thought it might be a possibility for him to dribble the ball more because of Toney Douglas‘s injury, but he didn’t think about it much.
Meanwhile, Kent Bazemore made a high bounce trick shot for Warriors TV. I think I might be on the video, wide-mouthed and all. It took Baze about ten tries.
THURSDAY SHOOTAROUND 11/14/2013
I got to the facility with a green screen blocking the hallway. I was told it would be Craig Sager interviewing Andre Iguodala for the TNT broadcast tonight against the Thunder.
Inside, David Lee was practicing baseline jumpers and making a lot of them. And, in fact, “jumpers” may be a misnomer in that his feet barely left the ground — very free-throw-ish.
Then it was Curry giving the interviews. He talked about the game planning again for the Thunder and I got a chance to ask him what I already knew the answer to: if he actually wanted to man up against the best point guards in the league. Marcus Thompson had the story and I did too, in the context of Mark Jackson and the Warriors game planning.
I got a chance to hear the entire Iguodala interview, which will air tonight. When Iguodala left, he told Sager, “The crazy thing is, we can still get better.” Someone on Twitter said that the caveat was, the Warriors haven’t beaten any elite teams, but I noted that that was actually something Iguodala talked about with Sager, another indication of the cerebral approach Iguodala takes to the game. I thought it was interesting how Iguodala was still talking basketball with Sager. Normally, NBA players will take a break from that and just joke around. Well, it might be nothing.
All in all, the vibe over the past few days was that the Warriors were certainly concerned about Durant and Westbrook, but upbeat. And that the road to where they want to be is still a long one.
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