Kerr makes team sweat in first practice of new era
SAN FRANCISCO >> In the first practice since fivestraight NBA Finals runs, Warriors coach Steve Kerr opened training camp Tuesday with one of the longest practices under his tenure. Two-and-half hours. Probably an hour longer, to his estimation, than any practice last season.
“This is different,” Kerr
said. “We’re having to stop and teach, more stops and starts, more instruction, more whys and hows. The first part of camp will especially be, I think, more detailed. And then once we get settled and once we get in a groove, I think practices will start to get shorter and more efficient.”
Of the 14 players expected to go into the season on the Warriors roster, eight of them are new. Everyone is new to the recently-built Chase Center, a bright and sprawling $1.3 billion facility that will serve as home for the orga
nization. The housewarming is this week, as training camp for the 2019-20 season begins.
Even for established veterans Stephen Curry, Draymond Green and Kevon Looney, they are getting used to new teammates. Rather than a smooth practice running familiar drills, they find themselves guiding teammates during breaks.
“The young guys are all eager and willing to learn,” Kerr said. “So really the burden is on the older players and their willingness to
be patient as we work with these young guys.”
Five players on the roster are within their first two years in the league. D’Angelo Russell, who at just 23 is with his third team and coming off an All-Star season, is a veteran who can take some of the younger players under his wing while also absorbing his new situation.
“Yeah, it was a little bit of everything,” Russell said. “We’ve got a mixture of both (veterans and young players), so just getting a feel for what coach wants and what he wants going into practice and the concepts that he wants. It’s just figuring that part out right now.”
Kerr is leading a revamped coaching staff that will have an eye more toward player development.
Assistants Aaron Miles, Theo Robertson, Luke Loucks and Seth Cooper join the bench as player development coaches. Kerr predicts that the coaches
will go back and forth between San Francisco and the team’s G-League affiliate in Santa Cruz. “We’re trying to develop not just the player, but the professional.”
Among the changes to the staff includes assistant Jarron Collins stepping up into a bigger role coaching defense. The shift in responsibilities comes on the heels of news that assistant coach Ron Adams, one of the most respected defensive specialists in the league, is expected to travel with the team less this season. Adams will continue to have a large influence on the staff.
“Ron has earned the right to carve his own path, and I
want him to feel part of this and I want him to not feel like he has to travel on certain trips,” Kerr said. “My guess is that he’ll go to Miami and L.A. and he won’t go to the Midwest in the winter, but we’ll see.”
Everything considered, the team in training camp feels distinct from the Warriors who closed Oakland’s Oracle Arena with five straight Finals appearances.
“The practices feel different, No. 1 because we’re in a new building, and, No. 2, because of all the personnel changes,” Kerr said. “We’re all just sort of getting comfortable in our surroundings and getting to know each other.”