There’s no questioning the fact that the Warriors have struggled this season. While the Warriors could play the blame game and point fingers at who is the cause for those struggles, doing that isn’t a recipe for success. That creates a bad environment. Following their loss to the Mavericks, Steve Kerr stated that the Warriors aren’t playing as a connected unit right now.
“I love the guys on this team,” Steve Kerr said about the Warriors roster. “We have a really good group, I think they have a good chemistry, they get along well. But, we haven’t found that grit that every team needs. That every good team needs, when you pull together and just play for the group.”
Those comments sent a ripple throughout the Dub Nation and the media, as everyone tries to figure out who Kerr could be talking about. The Warriors head coach has tried to make changes to the starting lineup. On the offensive side, the Warriors are probably one of the best teams in the NBA. Defensively, is where they’ve struggled this season.
As every great coach does, Kerr shared those feelings with his players. However, he didn’t go into the specifics of what was said.
“Not anything I want to share,” Kerr told the media. “But we address everything that happens within this team. I have to pick my times to say certain things, to not say certain things. I felt like it was a good time to say that publicly because we have to turn the corner in that regard.”
Its clear that the Warriors aren’t where they want to be, the frustration has started to settle in. Especially with key members of this roster.
“We are not where we want to be. But I also don’t think we’re that far from being so.”
Sure, the leaders like Steph Curry and Klay Thompson have had some struggles on the offensive side. As have some other players. The biggest breakdowns for this team, however, have come on the defensive side. You can win a lot of ball games when you average 116 points per game but giving up an average of 115 points at the same time makes it a bit harder to do.
Kerr has made some changes to the lineup in hopes that it would create a boost. Before the loss to the Mavericks, he had started veteran guard Chris Paul over rookie Brandin Podziemski as well as rookie center Trayce Jackson-Davis instead of veteran Kevon Looney. That wasn’t enough to solve the issues that have caused havoc for the Warriors this season.
“I know the areas we have to improve in, both on the floor and intangibly,” Kerr said. “And I have a lot of confidence that we can figure it out together and become the team that we expected coming into the year.”
Steve Kerr has a point, it doesn’t seem like the Warriors are playing as a connected group on the defensive side of the ball. The players have started to echo that same sentiment. So, it may only be a matter of time before the Warriors hit their stride.
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