A little bit of a late post, but back on Tuesday of this past week, two days after All-Star Weekend, the Warriors gathered for their first practice, pretty late in the day.
Only Steve Kerr went to the podium and here were the key basketball points:
Kristaps (Porzingis) is really a scorer in the mid-post, low post, turn-and-face, shoot a mid-range jump shot, draw a foul. Jimmy (Butler)’s obviously a guy who will drive frequently all the way to the rim, draw the defense in and then look to pass from there, so they’re very different players and the spacing has to allow for that.
And then Kerr also spoke on the All-Star Break being a good refresh for youngsters like Quinten Post, Will Richard and Brandin Podziemski, whose shots and decision-making seemed fatigued as the Break approached.
Asked specifically about Podziemski, here was Steve’s reply:
He’s a player who has impacted winning for us for three years and I think that will continue. He’s still finding his way, given he wants to be great, so he at times is too ambitious and I’ve talked to him about that. I love the ambition. I love that he wants to be great. I just think that it’s still a process of figuring out exactly who he is as a young player, which is very common.
Often on our watch party livestreams, we do witness Podz’s growing pains. It does seem like he’s figuring out his impact on the game. Obviously, it’s a lot tougher when Jimmy Butler and one Wardell Stephen Curry are sidelined because Podziemski is, indeed, a great complementary player.
The part that could use the most improvement is, imo, something to do with the ego. He complains to the officials about no-calls a lot. A little humility can go a long way. If this were the 90s, the refs may have yelled something back at him. Podz needs to earn the calls and it all goes hand-in-hand with the ambition.
The flip side to this is, it’s the irrational confidence that is one of his special traits. Like everyone else — whether that’s Draymond Green with the technicals or Curry with the turnovers — there will need to be some balancing and ongoing internal recalibration on the upward road to success.
As for the airballs and bricks, one incredible fact remains: BP actually leads the league in Effective Field Goal Percentage with 0 to 4 seconds left on the shot clock 🤯:
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