The Warriors are in a different position heading into the 2022-23 NBA season.
Heading into the 2021-22 season, Golden State was coming off two campaigns in which it failed to reach the playoffs and consisted of a mix of veterans and young players.
Warriors coach Steve Kerr has a team that has reintroduced itself into the NBA title picture. Kerr joined The Ringer’s “Real Ones” podcast, where he explained how he plans to coach the team now that they have championship expectations ahead of the season.
“So this year is really an extension of [2021-22 NBA season]”, said Kerr. “We still have to develop these young guys. Because our older guys are now on the final nine of their careers, but the knowledge of, ‘Hey, we just want a championship. We know how to do this.
“I think that gives us a bit more confidence in the plan going forward, that as long as we’re healthy and functioning well before the playoffs, we can do it again. So I don’t know that much. “
As the 2022-23 season approaches, Kerr sees clearly that the team’s veterans, such as Draymond Green and Steph Curry, are still hungry for titles in the later stages of their careers.
Meanwhile, young players like Jordan Poole have shown that they are more than capable of stepping into important situations and can improve their game to become all-around players. As a result, Kerr takes a different approach.
However, at this stage of last year that was not the case, which is why Kerr had a different approach for last season, considering that they had to balance the development of young players while challenging for a place in playoffs with some of the veterans still on the team.
“Last year we had this plan to develop our young people [James] Wise man, [Jonathan] Kamanga, [Moses] Moody, Jordan Poole and us thought we could get back into contention for a title, but we didn’t really know,” Kerr added.
“We knew Klay was coming back, so we thought we could do both. And in the end, obviously, we ended up winning the title.”
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Regardless of Kerr’s approach this coming season, the Warriors are back in the title picture, and the young players are more than capable of taking control of a game, allowing Curry and company to save their energy for the playoffs.
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