Kerr keeping an eye on G League
MEMPHIS — Golden State head coach Steve Kerr used the off night in Memphis on Monday to watch three of his players — Moses Moody, Jonathan Kuminga and Quinndary Weatherspoon — play for the team’s G League affiliate, the Santa Cruz Warriors, in nearby Southaven, Miss.
A scheduling coincidence allowed Kerr to see them in person, but he figures to watch video of Moody, Kuminga and Weatherspoon playing for Santa Cruz plenty more times this season. That’s because the recent return of Klay Thompson to an already loaded lineup leaves little to no playing time for Weatherspoon and the Warriors’ two rookies.
Asked about how he plans to handle the development of Moody and Kuminga with Thompson now available, Kerr said, “It’ll just happen organically. When people are injured, they’ll play. If not, we’ll try to find them minutes here and there.”
Kerr likes to play a bigger rotation than most NBA coaches, but even he has his limits.
Seldom does he give more than 11 players meaningful minutes. Given that the Warriors boast well more than a dozen helpful players, Kerr has little choice other than to sit quality players.
Weatherspoon, for example, thrived in his Golden State debut on Christmas Day against Phoenix. But after scoring six points on 3-for-3 shooting and making life difficult on Chris Paul and Devin Booker, he was relegated to the end of the Warriors’ bench.
Over the past two-plus weeks, Weatherspoon logged only two garbage-time minutes, in a blowout loss to Dallas. Perhaps more pressing for the Warriors, however, is finding playing time for Moody and Kuminga. Both taken in the lottery of July’s NBA draft, they have a legitimate chance to become a valuable part of the organization’s future.
But even before Thompson returned for Sunday’s game against Cleveland, Moody and Kuminga were struggling to find meaningful minutes. Now, with Thompson ramping back toward his usual 30-plus minutes a night, Moody and Kuminga might have to learn from the sideline, get up extra shots after practice and try to pick up the nuances of the Warriors’ read-and-react system in the G League.
The two have played seven games with Santa Cruz this season. In Monday’s 132-130 win over the Memphis Hustle, Moody was the far more dominant of the two.
He had 37 points on 13-for-23 shooting (4-for-11 from 3-point range). Kuminga posted 11 points on 3-for-12 shooting (1-for-5 from 3-point range), eight rebounds, eight assists and five turnovers. Weatherspoon, who’s on a two-way contract with Golden State, had 34 points on only 16 shots in 30 minutes.
“Moses and Quinndary were both fantastic,” Kerr said. “JK didn’t play as well, but it’s good for him to get minutes and reps.”
All three players were recalled in time for Golden State’s game Tuesday in Memphis, but Kuminga (sore knee) was ruled out. His injury isn’t considered serious.
Staff update: For the first time since suffering a leg injury in late October, assistant coach Kenny Atkinson has joined the Warriors for a trip. That, along with the returns of Mike Brown and Dejan Milojevic from health and safety protocols, gives Kerr his first complete staff in 21⁄2 months.
“Great to have all those guys here,” Kerr said. “We’re looking forward to having all of our players here at some point, too. The whole league is going through this. It’s nothing unique to us, but it’s definitely not easy missing players and coaches. We just try to piece it together.”
Thompson workload: At least in the near-term, the Warriors expect to sit Thompson for part of back-to-backs. They aren’t sure, however, whether he’ll miss Thursday’s game in Milwaukee or Friday’s game in Chicago.
“We’ll take it a week at a time,” Kerr said. “He won’t start out playing back-to-backs. We’ll keep building his endurance and his stamina. We’ll see how it goes.”