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Kendra Andrews, ESPNOct 14, 2024, 08:00 AM ET
STEPHEN CURRY SAT at his locker at Chase Center after the Golden State Warriors‘ 109-106 preseason win over the Sacramento Kings on Friday night.
To his right was new teammate Buddy Hield, who has moved into the locker next to Curry since coming to San Francisco this summer. They spoke quietly to one another, breaking down some plays from the night’s game.
While Hield is one of several new faces in the Warriors’ locker room, one familiar face is missing.
The absence of Klay Thompson has been felt throughout Warriors training camp and preseason — as has the void he’s left in the lineup.
“We’ve got to find our identity with this team because Klay was such a huge part of our identity for the last 12 years,” Warriors coach Steve Kerr told ESPN. “His absence is a big void, but it’s not anything I’m worried about for Steph and Draymond [Green]. You adapt and you adjust. That’s what professional sports are all about.”
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Golden State is trying to fill part of that void with new additions Hield, De’Anthony Melton and Kyle Anderson. They are also relying on younger players Brandin Podziemski and Jonathan Kuminga to take on bigger roles. But the Warriors know no one can perfectly replicate what Thompson did.
“It’s just a different challenge at that two spot, but there’s nothing really different we have to do,” Curry told ESPN. “We just have to acknowledge what Klay, the skill set obviously, the shooting ability and the attention he attracts in everything on the floor.”
Over the past 10 years, Curry has shot 3% better on 3-pointers when sharing the court with his Splash Brother. Forty-two percent of Curry’s 3s were considered “heavily contested” when playing alongside Thompson, compared to the 50.8% when Thompson was off the court.
But it’s not just Curry, who hasn’t been on a Warriors roster without Thompson since the 2010-11 season. Thompson’s exit has had ripple effects throughout the entire lineup — a lineup that remains very much unsettled with just a week left before the start of the regular season
As it stands, Curry and Green, the two longest-tenured Warriors, are the only players with guaranteed starting jobs. Everything else is a competition, and with the Oct. 23 opener against the Portland Trail Blazers quickly approaching, Kerr is still piecing his rotations together.
“It’s got to be — ‘Who is going to be the 5? Who’s the 4?’ We know that Steph is the 1. But what’s the combination,” Kerr said.
“This feels like a new beginning for us, whereas last year felt like an extension of who we already were. … It gives us a chance to reinvent ourselves a little bit.”
The Warriors used 27 different starting lineups last season, tenth-most in the NBA. Ed Szczepanski/Imagn Images
IN THE SECOND quarter of the Warriors’ first preseason game in Hawaii, Melton reached in and perfectly stripped the ball away from LA Clippers center Ivica Zubac.
He scooped the ball at the top of the 3-point arc to Curry, who dragged in three defenders. Curry started to line up a shot, but instead passed back to Melton, who was wide open. As Melton shot the ball, Curry turned and started to go back on defense, as he’s done countless times on his own shot. He didn’t have to watch to know the result.
Melton is one of three players who are being considered for the starting shooting guard role, along with Hield and Podziemski. Each has started in a preseason game as Kerr tests out how they fare with different starting groups, and each has significant starting experience. Melton started 91 of the 115 games he played with the Philadelphia 76ers over the past two seasons. Hield started 115 of the 164 he played with the 76ers and Indiana Pacers in the same time span. And, as a rookie a season ago, Podziemski started 28 times for the Warriors.
Team sources told ESPN that Melton impressed Kerr and the coaching staff at camp, highlighted by his two-way versatility, giving the Warriors more of a defensive option at shooting guard.
Climbing back up in the defensive rankings is a top priority for Golden State this season, Kerr said. The Warriors finished 15th in the NBA in defensive rating last season, and 17th the year before, after leading the NBA when they won the title in 2021-22.
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Melton’s strength is disrupting the passing lanes; he ranked fifth in deflections per game last season among players to play at least 30 games, according to NBA Advanced Stats.
“[Melton and Curry] look great together,” Kerr said. “They just look for each other. De’Anthony is a really good shooter, a playmaker, and gets in the mix on everything defensively. I’m a big fan of De’Anthony.”
Hield, on the other hand, offers more of an offensive, floor-spacing option next to Curry — aligning with Kerr’s vow to be a high-volume 3-point shooting team.
“We were fourth in the league in 3-point attempts last year,” Kerr said. “Klay probably shot eight or 10 himself. We’re going to have to fill that void. It’s going to come from multiple people.”
Hield has made 1,924 3-pointers in his career, the second-most in the NBA since he entered the league in 2016-17, according to ESPN Research. The only player he trails is his new teammate, Curry, who has 2,154 3-pointers during that span.
He went 6-of-7 from 3 against the Kings on Oct. 9 and afterward said he feels his shot will only get better as he gets more acclimated to his new team and offensive system. So far, Hield is shooting 59% from 3 through the preseason.
Kerr said he anticipates playing Hield during the non-Curry minutes in the regular season and currently likes the idea of him as a sixth man.
“He looks the part, doesn’t he,” Kerr said. “He comes off of the bench and you can feel his impact immediately. He’s not shy and we need that. We need a scorer off of the bench, and he’s been fantastic his first four games. I’m really excited about Buddy and that role makes a lot of sense for him.”
Podziemski is the only candidate who has played next to Curry before, and he’ll be tasked with taking on the most playmaking responsibilities. Podziemski led all rookies in assist-to-turnover ratio in 2023-24, and he brought the ball up for 16.4 possessions per game when Chris Paul was not playing last season (24 games), according to Second Spectrum.
“Brandin is a good fit playing with that front line,” Kerr said of Podziemski starting alongside Curry and a frontcourt comprised of a small forward, power forward and prototypical big center. “When you have that front line, you need that playmaking to go along with Steph’s shooting. Brandin, he’s gotten really good.”
Podziemski studies everything Curry does — whether it’s standing several feet behind him while he shoots at practice or sitting courtside during his pregame routine. He has also initiated several conversations with Curry during the preseason to discuss how to properly spread the floor when they share the court.
But because of his playmaking, Podziemski could also be looked at as an option to run the second unit and play more of a point guard.
“We have options,” Curry said. “We have a defensive-minded guy like Melton. You got a guy who is kind of a connector, can put the ball on the floor [and] create like BP. Me and BP started a couple of times last year. You got Buddy who can shoot [and] space the floor, a veteran who knows how to play.
“To summarize it: I like where we are at in terms of our options.”
A COY GRIN spread across Kuminga’s face on media day when a reporter mentioned that Kerr had said all but two starting spots were up for grabs.
“Starting is always good,” Kuminga told ESPN. “It’s easier to get into the flow of the game. You know exactly where you’re fitting in. But for me, as long as whatever we do leads to winning, that’s the most important thing.”
Entering his fourth year, there are high expectations for Kuminga — both from his coaches and himself.
Kuminga, who has started 74 times in 211 games over three seasons with the Warriors, is eligible for a contract extension until Oct. 21. He and the Warriors have expressed mutual interest in reaching a new deal.
Kuminga is just part of a complicated puzzle for Kerr, who has to decide not only who is starting in the frontcourt, but where.
Kerr made it clear that Green will retain a starting position, either as a small-ball center or at power forward with either Trayce Jackson-Davis or Kevon Looney at the five.
When the Warriors played Green next to a prototypical center last season, the combination allowed Green to play what he called a “free safety” on defense.
“I’m decent at the center but I think I’m really good next to a center,” Green said. “Having that option to go to that is huge.”
Despite Green’s success in the middle of the Warriors so-called “death” lineups in their championship years, Kerr wants to limit his minutes at center. Green agrees that he is naturally a power forward, but complicating the matter is the emergence of Kuminga and Kerr’s desire to play him more — and possibly have him as a high-volume scorer alongside Curry.
If Green starts as a power forward, the only spot for Kuminga would be the small forward. However, there is uncertainty from some coaches if the fourth year player can be comfortable at the three with this group.
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According to Cleaning the Glass, Kuminga played at power forward for 96% of his minutes last season. When Kuminga started at the three alongside Green and Jackson-Davis in their first preseason game, Kerr said the group was “not great,” but there is a desire to have that combination work.
“The combination of athleticism and rim protection, defensively, has a chance to be really good,” Kerr said of that trio. “But it has to flow on the offensive side. We have to get spacing. We’ve got to make sure we can execute against what defenses will do against that group.”
Kuminga’s play at small forward improved in the second game against the Kings, when he started alongside Green and Looney in the frontcourt, with Curry and Podziemski at the guard spots.
But slotting Kuminga in at small forward would also mean relegating Andrew Wiggins to the bench. Wiggins has missed training camp and the first four preseason games, but the Warriors expect a bounce-back season from him after two lackluster years.
They still plan on using him to defend their opponents’ best scorer and he is another candidate to be a high-volume scorer, with Kerr wanting him to attempt about seven 3-pointers per game. Wiggins shot nearly 40% from 3 on 5.7 attempts per game over 2021-22 and 2022-23, but fell to 36% on 3.7 attempts per game last season.
Kerr sits with his coaching staff nearly every day, sifting through a number of different lineups. They look at numbers from last season. They watch footage from practice.
But the time for experimentation is dwindling with just two preseason games left and opening night around the corner.
“Everything got pushed back a little bit with Wiggs’ absence,” Kerr said. “We just have to take it game by game for now. We want a starting lineup to form and establish some continuity, for sure.
“We’ll get Wiggs in there soon,” Kerr told ESPN. “And then we’ll just go from there.”
This season isn’t the first time Kerr has had to make lineup choices. He spoke at lengths last season about struggling to find a group he could trust from a night-to-night basis. That resulted in Golden State using 27 different lineups — 21 of which included Thompson.
During his time with Team USA during the Olympics, Kerr was tasked with choosing which five would start out of a group of all-time NBA players and benched Jayson Tatum in the process.
“[This] isn’t any different other than [with the Olympics] you are telling three Hall-of-Famers they have to sit. That’s the tricky part,” Kerr said. “But we’ve had plenty of seasons here in my 10 years where you’re wanting to play more guys than you can … so it’s never easy, but that’s the job.”
Ideally, Kerr would have a concrete idea of his lineups heading into the Oct. 18 preseason finale, allowing that game against the Los Angeles Lakers to serve as a dress rehearsal for the Warriors.
Kerr tends to settle on a 10-man rotation, but feels this team has at least 13 players who could crack the rotation.
“That’s a good problem to have, but you also want it to sort itself out,” he said. “You want guys to separate and make it really clear who should be playing.”
