Kerr confident in Warriors’ committee to handle non-Steph minutes originally appeared on NBC Sports Bay Area
LAIE, Hawaii – The strange odyssey that was the one-year Chris Paul Experiment came and went for the Warriors and their former rival without a single playoff game and few, if any, memories that will be remembered when his storied career comes to an end. Paul now is a San Antonio Spur, finding as many ways as possible to get Victor Wembanyama the ball for easy buckets.
His new reality is far from being Steph Curry’s backup point guard. In return, the Warriors no longer have a future Hall of Famer to fulfill the non-Curry minutes.
Steve Kerr coming into his 11th year coaching Curry and the Warriors is being tasked with the same question that seems to need answering before, during and after every season: How can he find success with Curry off the court?
That question never is an easy one to answer. There’s no matching the impact Curry still brings to the Warriors in so many different ways at 36 years old. Him simply stepping foot on the floor changes the complexity of the game, making it hard to downplay Kerr’s first choice being a 21-year-old entering his second season as a pro.
“Well I think BP, [Brandin Podziemski] will fill that role,” Kerr said to NBC Sports Bay Area in an exclusive interview.
Podziemski is one of three players, along with offseason additions De’Anthony Melton and Buddy Hield, competing for the open shooting guard spot to starting next to Curry in Kerr’s backcourt. The Warriors, in games that Curry and Podziemski started together last season, went 17-8.
“He might start, and if does start he’ll come out early and then come in for Steph,” Kerr explained. “If he doesn’t start, he’ll come off the bench and handle a lot of the ball-handling duties.”
During the standout rookie’s time playing for the USA Basketball Men’s Select Team, Kerr told NBC Sports Bay Area that Podziemski “is a point guard at heart,” and that’s the role he fulfilled for that makeshift team. Podziemski during scrimmages against Curry and the rest of Team USA’s star-studded squad was always seen initiating and creating offense while directing others where to be on the court.
Then in the few summer league games that Podziemski played for the Warriors, coach Anthony Vereen empowered him to be more of a leader, something that the young guard has taken to heart going into his second season to earn more trust from his teammates.
But Kerr sees shoring up the non-Curry minutes as more of a committee picking up the pieces through their own different skills, as opposed to the burden being placed upon one single player.
“We have other guys who are capable of initiating offense,” Kerr says. “I love Kyle Anderson. He can play kind of a point-forward spot. De’Anthony Melton is really a combo guard. He can also initiate offense. Draymond [Green] has always been a point-forward in a lot of ways.
“We’ll have to figure that out, but I think the biggest key I think will be, can we find the right group? Maybe it’ll be multiple guys handling the ball, but these are all the things that you have to figure out and find out as you go through camp.”
The pieces are there, and each player brings a different positive to the table for Kerr to build off.
He wants to play faster, and though Paul kept his end of the bargain in continuing to be one of the smartest and most protective players of the ball in the league, his age and size disadvantage started to be seen more often. Podziemski and Melton naturally want to push the pace and advance the ball, and like Paul, Anderson isn’t prone to turnovers.
How the Warriors perform in the non-Curry minutes can make or break a season. The options presented in front of him give Kerr every reason to be confident, and now it’s up to his players to prove him right.
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