Clearing a few notes from the table to make room for Thanksgiving…
Even some around the Warriors have been caught a little by (pleasant) surprise. This is, after all, a team that finished 10th in the Western Conference before Sacramento bounced it by 24 in the play-in game.
“I think there was some feeling of trying to hold on to what we had instead of turning a corner,” one source close to the situation told Heavy Sports. “With Buddy (Hield) and playing a deeper rotation now, there’s a freshness.
“It’s always going to be Steph (Curry)‘s team, as long as he’s here, but more people are contributing.”
Things got difficult in a hurry for Golden State just months after they won the 2022 championship. Jordan Poole chirped at Draymond Green at a practice, and Green punched him in the face. Poole was traded to Washington the following offseason, but one Warrior source told us, “There were trust issues after the incident. Guys were saying the right things mostly, but you wondered what some people were thinking when it got quiet. It just felt uncomfortable at times, and that bled over.”
After winning 44 games that year, the Dubs won two more in 2023-24, but the season was a nightmare. The collapse and death of assistant coach Dejan Milojevic at a team dinner cast a cloud over the club. On the court, things were just out of sorts.
“You had Klay (Thompson) still coming back from injury, and it was hard,” the source said. “He was trying to do things to get himself going and show that he could still be what he was, and that seemed to get in the way.
“You could understand a lot of it. Klay was such a big part of the success, and everybody wanted him to get it all back. It had to be hard on him mentally. He was trying so hard, but when it’s going like that, it makes it hard to play with that easy flow.”
The Warriors have had a smoother go of it this year, securing a very nice win in Boston and hanging in second place in the West as the holiday approached.
“The key,” said a rival assistant coach, “is whether they can play this many people and play the same style when the playoffs get here and every minute is magnified. Is Steve (Kerr) going to keep spreading the minutes around, or does he have to lean heavy on, say, a top eight?”
Payton Pritchard’s Earned His Place
Payton Pritchard was happy to learn that some high school and even college coaches have checked in to say they’ve used the recent story on him here to point out the work ethic needed for their players to grow.
But it was an NBA coach who said, “I wish you’d have talked to me for that story. I’d have given you a damn comment.”
And?
“You’re playing the Celtics and no one has all that much time to prepare for one game in the regular season,” he said. “So obviously at shootaround and before the game you’re focusing on (Jaylen) Brown and (Jayson) Tatum.
“Then,” he added through a laugh, “this little (expletive) comes into the game and starts lighting us up. That (expletive) ain’t fair.”
Speaking of Pritchard’s preparation, we joked with his workout guy, Celtic assistant Craig Luschenat, that it must be hard on his self-esteem to get scored on so much during drills. But he said he gets all the therapy he needs for his “wounds” when he sees Pritchard burying shots during the games.
Larry Bird, Still Hating the Lakers
Nice story from eight-year NBA veteran Jim Petersen, who was in Boston Sunday as a Timberwolves broadcaster.
The former Rocket, King and Warrior was at the recent Hall of Fame festivities in Springfield and recalled a scene from the hotel lobby.
“There were a lot of Lakers there because Michael Cooper was getting in, and a bunch of them were standing around,” Petersen said. “Then (Larry) Bird comes walking through, and he didn’t even look at them. These players today are all friends, but Larry didn’t want anything to do with those guys. It was beautiful.”
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