Steve Kerr Reveals Reason for Controversial Decision vs. Mavericks
Golden State Warriors head coach Steve Kerr made a big starting lineup change for Saturday night's game against the Dallas Mavericks, starting Chris Paul and Trayce Jackson-Davis over Kevon Looney and Brandin Podziemski. While the writing had been on the wall for a while when it comes to the Jackson-Davis over Looney move, inserting Paul back into the starting lineup was a bit more controversial.
While Paul's playmaking works well with a lob threat like Jackson-Davis, his insertion into the starting lineup takes the ball out of Steph Curry's hands even more than Golden State's motion offense already does. This is where the move becomes controversial, because while Curry is lethal off the ball, getting him more on-ball touches is also a proven recipe for success.
When asked about this move after the game, Kerr said, "We're looking for a boost defensively. The last couple weeks with that starting group, the defensive numbers really weren't great... We were looking for better defense from the start, and wanted to get Steph more involved as well. We felt like getting Chris on the floor would maybe unlock Steph a little bit."
There are two sides to this discussion, because as previously mentioned, Paul in the starting lineup means less on-ball possessions for Curry. That said, this does not inherently mean he will be less involved, because as Kerr mentioned, one of the goals with starting Paul was to get Curry unlocked.
This is a controversial topic, and one the Warriors are obviously still working through themselves.
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