Golden State Warriors head coach Steve Kerr said he is surprised but not concerned about his team's slow shooting start from three-point range this season.
A 4-2 start is not what the Golden State Warriors had in mind coming off of their record-setting 2015-16 season. So it would be easy for head coach Steve Kerr to go into panic mode after a second 20-point thrashing, this one to the lowly Los Angeles Lakers.
Panic couldn’t be further from what the lead Warrior is exuding, however. In fact, considering his team’s 29.8-percent 3-point shooting (fifth-worst in the league), he thinks his team’s start is better than expected:
“It’s a good sign that we’re 4-2 when we’re losing that battle, that’s one that we usually win.”
Still, the coach is not concerned. The team that has, in many ways, revolutionized the use of the arc finds themselves looking up at teams the likes of the Sacramento Kings and Brooklyn Nets. Kerr said, though, that is something that will change:
“It is a little surprising, but you always have to be careful with small sample sizes, you have to let this stuff play out. I’m pretty confident that, by the end of the year, we’re going to be one of the best 3-point shooting teams in the league.”
The low percentage on the high-yield shots is not matter of bad ball movement, Kerr said, rather just off shooting.
One of the association’s top long-range assassins, Klay Thompson — a career 41.6 percent shooter from distance — has connected on just nine of 46 attempts (19.6 percent).
Still, the coach is not concerned. Kerr pointed to a slow start a season ago for the All-Star off guard. Thompson drained from long range at a very mediocre 25-percent clip last October.
Back-to-back MVP, and single-season 3-point record holder Stephen Curry, has gotten off to his own pedestrian start, making 19 of 56 tries. In the Dubs’ 117-97 loss to the Lakers on Thursday, Curry’s shooting reached a longtime low, when his streak of 157 consecutive games with a made 3 came to an end on an 0-for-10 night.
The only Warrior to have shot the 3 at a 40-plus clip is off-season addition Kevin Durant (42.9) — something that, once again, Kerr is not the least bit surprised by.
Adding to the cold start is the fact that six of the faces in the Warrior locker room are new this season, something that has had a hand in slowing the team out of the gates.
Still, the coach is not concerned. He said:
“We’re a ways away before everybody is clicking and grooving. It doesn’t happen this quickly — it just doesn’t — so it’ll come, but it’ll take some time.”
With the calendar turning to November — a month in which Curry’s 41.5-percent 3-point shooting is supplanted by Thompson’s 39.6 — the Warriors and their coach expect to heat up the chilling Bay Area with their expected red-hot shooting.
Last modified November 9, 2016 9:41 am
This website uses cookies.