The Golden State Warriors may not strike other teams as reigning champions a the moment, but they have shown that they can still win games. One thing they haven’t proved yet is if they can win on the road, having lost all of their eight away games.
Warriors head coach Steve Kerr has been figuring out ways to improve his team’s performance and has relied heavily on experimental rotations. Nothing consistently dramatic has happened thus far, but some players have already been presenting a strong case to receive more minutes.
Kerr is aware that the only way to find out who deserves more action is to play each and every one of them. So far, there have been a couple of notable candidates. Let’s take a quick look at who they are.
Golden State Warriors must recognize Anthony Lamb’s improvements
Golden State has Anthony Lamb as a stretch small forward option. The current starter, Andrew Wiggins, is still averaging 33 minutes per game, but Lamb’s performances this season suggest that figure needs to lower a bit in the near future.
In all fairness to Kerr, it seems like he’s also acknowledging Lamb’s improvement, and he has been rewarding the 24-year-old with some playing time. This season has been Lamb’s most active run in the NBA, having averaged 20 minutes per game.
Although his game evidently needs some polishing, he ultimately didn’t fail to deliver, having logged 7.6 points and 3.5 rebounds per game on 44.8% three-point shooting — all career highs.
Jonathan Kuminga must get some of Draymond Green’s minutes
Draymond Green’s presence has not been felt that much thus far, but Kerr is still playing him for 30 minutes per outing. The Warriors have been known for going small-ball with Green occasionally playing the 5. With Jonathan Kuminga possessing a tremendous amount of potential, Kerr has to make a decision on Green.
As it stands, Kerr could either reduce Green’s minutes to for Kuminga — who currently plays 13.7 minutes per game — or go outright small-ball with both players in the frontcourt.
Kuminga hasn’t hit his stride yet, averaging only 4.8 points and 2.1 rebounds per game, but the entire Warriors organization is still banking on his talent. From the looks of it, there’s only one way to find out if Kuminga is really the player Golden State thinks he is, and that’s to play him more each night.
It’s time for Jordan Poole to take over
While consistency is something every NBA rising star needs to work on, Jordan Poole has undeniably earned his stripes. Indeed, Poole had a terrible game against the Phoenix Suns on Wednesday, but barring that, he has been a force on the offensive end for the Warriors.
Thompson pulled off a nice 20-point showing against the New York Knicks in Golden State’s latest victory, but that doesn’t change the fact that the team isn’t getting an All-Star-level performance from him for 28.8 minutes per game.
Poole, on the other hand, is also averaging 28 minutes per outing, and both of them are contributing almost 16 points per game. However, Poole’s 41% field-goal shooting over Thompson’s 36.3% proves that he should get more minutes than the five-time All-Star.
The Warriors will visit the Houston Rockets on Sunday night, and Kerr should give the aforementioned players on this list more playing time.
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