SAN FRANCISCO — Pressed on his comments about how the young players on his team need to figure out how to play with Steph Curry and stop taking bad midrange shots early in the shot clock, Warriors head coach Steve Kerr cleared up confusion about who was on the receiving end.
His comments were pointed at Jonathan Kuminga and, to a lesser degree, Brandin Podziemski. He said he singled out each of those players during Golden State’s 113-103 win over the Timberwolves.
“I got on both those two guys and during the game, and I’ve gotten on other guys during the season,” Kerr said. “The message was really for our whole team.”
Kerr thinks before he speaks, especially in a setting like a postgame press conference. He’s taken the podium thousands of times in his life and is intentional about his words. He walked off the podium after making some of his most pointed comments of the year, which came in a tight victory after Curry scored 11 straight points in clutch time.
“There has to be an aha moment that this is our team,” Kerr said. “We have Steph Curry, he’s the greatest shooter of all time. He thrives off-ball, Steph. That’s why we pass the ball. So we just have to make sure we are purposeful in our offensive execution and felt like a good time to mention it because of what happened at the end of the game. We need to make that a consistent theme.”
Podziemski, the second-year guard who has come along recently after a slow start to the year, had one of his best games of the season against Minnesota. Kerr said he has “been good,” but is still trying to figure out who he is as a player and needs to focus on “serving other people.”
“Be that player who everyone loves playing with because you’re constantly looking for them,” Kerr said. “That’s kind of BP’s lesson”
When relayed Kerr’s initial comments about passing the ball, Podziemski said he doesn’t think, he just plays before adding that he obviously knows Curry is on the court and is going to pass him the ball when he’s open.
After fan backlash on social media, Podziemski issued a clarifying statement on X.
Kerr’s point was surely more directed at Kuminga, anyway.
On the season, Kuminga is taking 23.7% of his shots nine or fewer seconds into possessions. He’s shooting 33% on midrange shots, but is in the 90th percentile in midrange volume, per Cleaning The Glass.
Kerr wants him doing what he does best: driving downhill and finishing, getting to the foul line, cutting baseline and operating behind the defense from the dunker spot. He’s still one of the Warriors’ most gifted individual shot creators on the team, and is an option late in the shot clock when a possession stalls out.
“There’s a time and place for every shot, and so if it’s the middle of the shot clock, it’s not a great shot,” Kerr said. “If it’s end of the shot clock and we’ve been trying to get a better shot and nothing’s there, he’s one of the few guys who’s capable of creating an open look for himself.”
The Warriors made a very public, very bold decision earlier this month to elevate Kuminga into the starting lineup in Draymond Green’s place. He had scored 31 in a resounding win over Houston without Green and Curry.
“And I know a lot of people in this organization, including myself, that think he’s next,” Green said then. “So if he’s next, at some point we’ve got to see it. For him to do that, he needs the opportunity.”
That experiment lasted about a week before Kerr returned Kuminga back to the bench. In that span, he recorded three straight 20-point games. Since moving back to the bench, Kuminga has gone 2-for-12 and 3-for-11.
Because Kuminga and the Warriors didn’t agree to a contract extension before the season started, he’s set up to hit restricted free agency at the end of the year.
Kerr and Kuminga’s relationship has been a flashpoint for the past couple years. As the most promising component of the Warriors’ two timeline plan, Kuminga has represented both the organization’s push and pull between the present and the future as well as the evolution — or lack thereof — of the team’s style of play.
The head coach said he talks with Kuminga all the time and admires how badly he wants it. He goes over film with him and has tried to find lineup configurations that put him in positions to succeed.
“I think he’s got so much potential and he’s shown a lot since he’s been here,” Kerr said. “He has gotten a lot better, but I’m not going to stop coaching him. I’ve got to keep coaching him. The last two games, his field goal attempts, his decision making has been poor and that needs to improve.”
Trainer’s room
– Draymond Green returned after missing the Minnesota game with left ankle soreness. He started alongside Steph Curry, Dennis Schroder, Andrew Wiggins and Trayce Jackson-Davis.
– Gary Payton II (calf) missed Monday night’s game against the Pacers.
– Moses Moody returned from a four-game absence for knee soreness.