Reserves having trouble getting into the flow
KANSAS CITY, Mo. — The Warriors had five reserves on the floor Friday night as Miami trimmed a 14-point deficit to three in a 3-minute stretch.
Warriors head coach Steve Kerr reluctantly ended up bringing four of his starters back into the game during the fourth quarter to try to save the lead, but the Heat pulled off the 115-108 come-from-behind victory.
If there has been one glaring weakness during the Warriors’ 4-1 preseason, it has been the bench. There have been plenty of good individual efforts, but there doesn’t seem to be much rhythm among the second unit or an identity for the group as a whole.
“That’s why we’re still kind of playing around with rotations,” Kerr said after Saturday’s practice. “We’re just trying to play around with as many things as we can. We messed around with our lineups, but that’s no excuse for a lack of execution and effort on defense.”
The Warriors’ best bench showing came against the Lakers in Ontario (San Bernardino County) last week, when Andre Iguodala came off the bench for the first time and controlled the second unit with eight assists and zero turnovers.
Kerr has also toyed with pulling starting center Andrew Bogut at the six-minute mark so the big man can re-enter and initiate the offense for the reserves. The idea is always to have two distributors and two shooters on the floor in order to take full advantage of the offensive system Kerr and associate head coach Alvin Gentry have installed.
Of course, this preseason hasn’t been the ideal time to develop an identity for the bench. They’ve got 18 healthy guys in camp and are trying to get minutes for as many of them as possible, but one of the injured guys is backup point guard Shaun Livingston.
Livingston was the Warriors’ main target during free agency, a tall guard who can run the second unit and erase memories of last year’s revolving door at the backup point guard position.
“It’s hard right now, without Shaun Livingston, to really get a look at what we’ll eventually be like,” Kerr said. “We’re kind of searching for the right combinations. We’ve got a whole page of offense we’re going to put in when he’s out on the floor to take advantage of his strengths. We haven’t even gotten to that yet.” Rush checks out OK: Wing Brandon Rush, who sat out Friday’s second half with spasms in his lower back, participated in Saturday’s practice and said he’s OK.
“It’s good, man,” said Rush, who injured his back while lifting two weeks ago. “It just got a little tight on me, and I decided to not even try to go in the preseason. It’s feeling better.” Roster watch: The Warriors are going to have a tough decision among Aaron Craft, Justin Holiday, Jason Kapono, James Michael McAdoo and Mitchell Watt for their final roster spot, but a new rule in the NBA Development League will help a little.
“Four camp players can be retained and sent right to your D-League team,” said Myers, who provided analysis during portions of Friday’s game. “... A lot of the players we brought to camp, I don’t think this is the last we’ll see of them, because a lot of them will head to Santa Cruz and participate with our D-League team. The idea is to create more of a minor-league system.” Back to south Texas: Kerr has never been to Hidalgo, Texas, where the Warriors will play against Houston on Sunday, but he’s been close. As a sophomore at Arizona he played against Texas-Pan American in Edinburg, 20 miles to the north.
“Pan American came into Tucson and beat us the previ- ous year, so we went down there and got a little revenge,” Kerr said of Arizona’s 85-60 victory in 1984, coach Lute Olson’s second year at the school. “I remember thinking, ‘This is an interesting home-and-home.’ That’s an indication of where the program was at that time.”