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00:00He's here live from Minnesota, very much appreciated after a day of travel out to the River Islands guest line.
00:05Time for Coach Kerr, presented by Great Clips.
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00:23Hey, Coach, how you doing?
00:25Good, thanks. How are you guys?
00:26We're doing good, man. We appreciate your time on a night like tonight, game last night, travel today.
00:32We totally get it.
00:33I wonder what your initial reaction is to, you know, you said, game two,
00:39you guys were kind of gathering information on building a new plan and what may work.
00:44Now you've tried to put that plan out there.
00:47What have you kind of learned from games three and four, and is that plan still evolving?
00:52Well, the plan always continues to evolve, and you have to change some things as you go.
01:02I mean, you know, the Houston series was a great example of that.
01:05You just keep plugging away, and things kind of morph, you know, and you have to adapt.
01:13And hopefully, you know, you get to a point where, you know, you can do what we did against Houston,
01:20which was, you know, eventually wear them down.
01:22So obviously, we're in a tough spot now being down 3-1, but we feel very strongly that we can come out
01:28and get a win tomorrow, and all it takes is one win and, you know, the momentum of the series shifts.
01:35What are some of the bright spots you look at from last night?
01:38And, you know, we've kind of been dwelling on the 17-0 run you gave up in the third.
01:41But when you look at things to build on from last night, what do you cite?
01:47Well, I love the pace from Draymond.
01:49You know, I thought he really did a good job of pushing the ball, you know, made or missed.
01:54And we had a lot of good possessions because Draymond pushed the ball,
01:58and we were able to get into things before, you know, before they set up their defense.
02:05They made a lot of shots.
02:06I mean, you know, I give Minnesota a ton of credit.
02:09They made some tough shots, some fadeaway threes, you know, at the end of the shot clock,
02:14some very difficult shots that allowed them to either keep us at bay or even, you know,
02:20push ahead in the third quarter.
02:22So, but we've got to make the miss, too.
02:25And I think our defense got disconnected there in the third quarter.
02:29And so we see everything on tape.
02:32We feel like we can clean some things up.
02:35But, you know, I don't think it's a massive game plan change.
02:40I can tell you that.
02:40It's a matter of us going out and just playing better.
02:44Steve, there's no way around, you know, back-to-back home losses for the fans and everyone involved,
02:49you know, yourself included, of course.
02:50Very deflating.
02:52How would you describe the mood of the team in the locker room last night and on the plane today?
02:59Defiant.
03:00You know, I mean, this is a proud group.
03:02And it's a seven-game series for a reason.
03:05So, you know, there's a lot of basketball to be played.
03:09So we're excited about tomorrow.
03:10When you look at the pace, it seemed like, you know, pushing the pace was good in the first half
03:15and then kind of got away from it.
03:17Is that strategically something that you think that can give you an edge against a younger, more athletic Minnesota team?
03:24We have to push the ball.
03:25I mean, just given, you know, where we are, you know, roster-wise without Steph, you know,
03:32with some of the lineups we're putting out there,
03:36we have to push the ball to create tempo and flatten the defense out
03:40and be able to attack early in the shot clock rather than late.
03:43So, yeah, that's definitely part of the plan.
03:46Steve Kerr with us, Willard and Dibs, as he is every week on 95.7 The Game.
03:50Coach, we know an update is coming tomorrow,
03:53but sort of curious what the process is for Steph Curry.
03:57Like, what is he doing with you guys and on the side as he continues to work his way through this?
04:03Yeah, well, that's kind of the point of the update.
04:06So, I appreciate, you know, you asking the question,
04:10but I'll just hold off until the update tomorrow.
04:15So, nothing, you can't share anything specifically about, like, a ramp-up
04:19because, you know, normally there's a process to it of individual work and then two-on-two.
04:24Is the timeline somewhat accelerated, knowing that the end of the season could be near?
04:29It doesn't work that way.
04:33You know, you don't rush these health decisions.
04:38And so, Rick has been with Steph every single day,
04:42and they're rehabbing and working together.
04:46And, you know, they're just plugging away.
04:50So, tomorrow we'll have the update.
04:52I gave you as much as I could.
04:54I appreciate it.
04:56Any time we should look for the update.
04:57Does 830 work for you?
05:02I wonder this, Coach, with regard to just the idea of losing a star.
05:08You know, we watch Boston now, unfortunately, go through this yesterday as well.
05:13You get it.
05:14The fans are emotional.
05:15They want everybody to just go out there and not miss a beat.
05:19Like, how prepared is an NBA team to lose a star?
05:24Well, every case is different, of course.
05:29You know, every player is different, and every roster is different.
05:33So, it's never an easy thing.
05:37I mean, there's a reason these guys make $40 million a year.
05:41You know, they're the only people on earth who can do what they do.
05:43And so, it's very difficult, you know, to lose star players in the playoffs.
05:51But that doesn't mean you can't win.
05:54And we've proven that over the years.
05:56You know, Steph's missed a lot of playoff games over the years.
05:59And granted, we've had, you know, we've had teams that were maybe deeper or younger or whatever.
06:05But we know the formula.
06:08You have to defend.
06:09You've got to be really sharp.
06:11The margin for error is slim.
06:13And so, you can't make mental errors.
06:16You've got to compete for 48.
06:19And that's the plan.
06:20Not having Steph, does it change your approach offensively to where you don't look for as many threes
06:26and you become more of a two-oriented offense?
06:30Well, we'd love to shoot a million threes.
06:33But it's just not easy to do that, you know, without Steph.
06:38Steph is our main shot creator, you know, just in terms of breaking the defense down,
06:43coming off pick and roll, generating rotations from the defense.
06:47And, you know, that's the whole key.
06:50And if you want to get threes, you've got to do it in transition.
06:52You've got to, you know, break teams down, force a rotation, move the ball.
06:56And it's obviously much more difficult to do that without Steph.
07:00So, we're probably not going to get as many threes without him.
07:04But we also feel like we can play a lot better than we did yesterday and generate more looks.
07:10Coach, you mentioned about how the plan is always evolving every game.
07:13Can you take the fans through the process of how you're looking at Jonathan Kaminga,
07:18considering how well offensively he's played in this series?
07:24Was there any thought to, you know, moving up his entrance in the second half or anything like that?
07:31Well, we did.
07:32We put him in.
07:33I think I took a timeout just under nine minutes.
07:36And I didn't like what I was seeing, you know, to start the third.
07:41So, I took a timeout and got him right in.
07:44And, unfortunately, that group didn't do great.
07:49You know, it was a lineup we'd never played before.
07:52It was, I think, Draymond, Trace, Jimmy, and J.K.
07:57So, obviously, not a traditional spacing lineup.
08:01But it was, you know, our most athletic, biggest lineup.
08:04And we thought maybe we could get some stops because they were starting to dice us up there early in the third.
08:09And so, unfortunately, it didn't go well.
08:14But that doesn't mean, you know, we won't do something similar tomorrow in terms of, you know,
08:20changing the rotation or getting Jonathan in earlier or something like that.
08:25Does his offensive skill set really have much more of a positive impact when he's more center in the offense,
08:31meaning, you know, stuff is run through him and he has more of a chance to have the ball and attack as opposed to playing off the ball?
08:39Yeah, for sure.
08:40He's best when he has the ball in his hands, for sure.
08:44Coach, I wonder about all, just the role of all of these players.
08:48Like, can you put into words how different everybody's role is when Steph is not there?
08:59Well, it just makes everything a little bit more difficult because of what we were just talking about.
09:07You know, the rotations that are not being generated defensively for Minnesota.
09:13It means there's just going to be more possessions where you have to beat someone one-on-one.
09:17And so, you know, that's kind of the game.
09:21That's the NBA game.
09:23And you take anybody's best player away, their main shot creator,
09:27and the exact same circumstances are going to happen.
09:31And then it's up to the players to really execute and to the staff to figure out lineup combinations
09:36to generate the best looks offensively.
09:41Coach, I also, just watching him play last night on the other side of the ball there,
09:46Anthony Edwards, I was reminded, and we talked to you about it once before,
09:50the conversation that was caught on Court of Gold with you and Anthony Edwards.
09:56And it felt to me like you were almost insinuating to him at that time.
10:00Like, you have the ability to maybe be the best player in the NBA at some point.
10:06What are you watching with his evolution at age 23?
10:09Because he looked, at times, unstoppable last night.
10:13Yeah, I mean, he's an electric athlete.
10:16He's unbelievably confident and skilled.
10:20And, you know, he's really kind of, I think, had a natural progression to this stardom where he is right now.
10:32I mean, he's been really good now the last few years.
10:35But he's now entering that, you know, that top 10 level of player.
10:41And this is where you really see it in the playoffs, you know, when the states are the highest and the defense is the toughest.
10:50When you see guys able to break down defenses in this setting, you know they're the best players in the league.
10:58And that's where Ant is right now.
11:00He's become that guy.
11:02And the other side of it, unfortunately, is Brandon Podjemski, four for his last 24.
11:07And you talked earlier in the year about a crisis of confidence.
11:09Where is he right now after the last couple of games in terms of, you know, having the faith in his shot?
11:16Well, the confidence in the shot right now is not there.
11:20But let me tell you something.
11:22This guy is a ball player.
11:24And every game, you look at the plus minus at the end of the game.
11:28And he's at or near the top for our team.
11:32So he does so many other things besides shoot that are crucial for us.
11:39He's still going to be out there.
11:40That's why I'm still playing him as much as I am, despite his shooting struggles.
11:45He's a crucial player for us.
11:47And so these are great experiences for him, you know, to go through and to learn from.
11:55And I'm confident in his ability to, you know, get past this shooting funk and have a big game tomorrow.
12:05Because he's got a lot of confidence in himself.
12:07Steve, I wonder if you'd expand on that.
12:09Because I know you get it.
12:10Fans, we're sitting there watching on TV.
12:13And there's only so many things, the intricacies of the game that we see.
12:18And so our listeners, our callers today, there's a lot of frustration around Brandon Projemski.
12:24And people are wondering why his minutes don't go down.
12:27Can you speak a little further to some of the specifics that he does that, for you, keep him in the game?
12:36He reads the game.
12:37He handles the ball.
12:38He passes.
12:40He's a great rebounder.
12:43He sees things defensively, so he's always in the right spot.
12:47The game just connects when he's out there.
12:49It just makes a lot of sense for the rest of the group.
12:53And that doesn't mean he's perfect, but he does a lot of things that just make the game make sense.
12:59And not every player does that, frankly.
13:02So Brandon, despite his shooting struggles, continues to connect lineups and make good basketball plays.
13:11And those are the things that help you win.
13:14Yeah, four steals last night as well.
13:16And, you know, as you look at the box score and you watch the game,
13:18one thing that stands out to me, Coach, is Jimmy Butler, just nine shots last night.
13:23It looked like he might be a little tired.
13:26I don't know if he was under the weather.
13:27Could it be that all of these heavy minutes and, you know, game after game after game,
13:32is it starting to catch up to Jimmy?
13:35Well, he was under the weather last night.
13:37He really was not feeling well.
13:39And I think that definitely impacted him.
13:41But I think it was, you know, it was good that, you know, the fact that he only played 34 minutes.
13:49You know, he's been up over 40 several times in the postseason.
13:53And, you know, last night, obviously, the game didn't go our way.
13:57But, you know, nobody got overloaded.
13:59And I think everybody will be ready to go tomorrow.
14:02And I know who Jimmy is.
14:05Everyone knows who Jimmy is.
14:06He's one of the great playoff performers.
14:08And I expect him to have a big game tomorrow.
14:11Coach, I'm not going to lie to you.
14:12It must be the emotions of the playoffs.
14:14But this challenge system that the NBA has got right now, I'm finding very, very frustrating.
14:21And I wonder, you know, specifically the idea that basically if you challenge one time
14:25and then other people decide that you're wrong, then that's it.
14:29You have no recourse anymore the rest of the game.
14:33And, first of all, how do you feel about that?
14:36And, secondly, how does it affect the way you decide whether or not you're going to challenge something?
14:43Well, I'm not a fan of replay, as you guys know.
14:46I would eliminate all replay other than buzzer beaters at the end of each quarter, you know,
14:51to see if a guy got a shot off in time.
14:54But I just think almost every call in basketball is subjective.
14:58And so, you know, in our quest to get everything right, we've got all these replays,
15:04all these challenge systems, and then there's these unintended consequences from that.
15:10So, to me, it just opens up a can of worms.
15:12I'm just not a huge fan, but it is what it is.
15:15And so, we've had to, you know, kind of think about the best uses of the challenges,
15:21when to use them, when not to.
15:24It's not an exact science for sure, but you try to, you know,
15:29you try to hang on to them for when you really need them.
15:33And an example would be game three, Draymond's fourth foul.
15:38Sure felt like a charge, but those block charge calls, you just never know.
15:43They're subjective, and so if it goes your way, great.
15:47And if not, you have to take that chance.
15:50Yeah, and we stand behind you, Steve, in the challenge.
15:52I was twirling my finger at home, and I mean, that, to me, was a no-brainer.
15:56And then the cockamamie one on the other end where it's a foul on Randall,
16:00but then we look at the tape, and it's like, ooh, Draymond had his arms on him.
16:04That's Draymond.
16:05That's got to be five, and you can't challenge it because you're out of challenges.
16:09Well, I think that one was their challenge, if I'm not mistaken.
16:12They called the foul originally on Randall, and then the Wolves challenged it and won.
16:21So, yeah, I mean, replay is what it is.
16:24I mean, I think officiating a basketball game is one of the most difficult jobs in sports,
16:29and every call is subjective.
16:31Like I said, this is not tennis where the ball is either in or out, you know.
16:34And I just think that it's a brutal job, and, you know, we're trying to get everything right.
16:44The league's trying to get everything right, but it's impossible to do so
16:47because, you know, all these plays that we're talking about right now, you know,
16:52you might see it one way.
16:53I might see it another.
16:54And so it's the refs have the same issue, right?
16:59They all see it, you know, the way they see it.
17:03Coach, the experience that you and Draymond have in these situations,
17:06obviously it's a long resume.
17:10But as he approaches danger area in technicals and flagrants,
17:14any conversation between the two of you recently about it?
17:18Yeah, we've talked about it, and, you know, it's one of those things, Dray,
17:24is he's such a passionate, emotional player, and that's what drives him.
17:29And he knows he's just got to walk the line.
17:32He can't cross it.
17:33And so, you know, let's hope we can continue, you know, this season
17:41and get out of this series and have to worry about that going into the next series, you know.
17:46But it's something we have definitely discussed.
17:50I thought he showed great restraint last night with a very tech-heavy crew traditionally,
17:55and he emerged unscathed.
17:57I wanted to ask you, Steve, about your closing lineup last night,
18:00which I don't know if you'd planned on closing with that five,
18:03but the plucky little five that went out there and almost made a game of it,
18:08what was that like from your vantage point?
18:10They were awesome, weren't they?
18:12I mean, that was really fun to watch.
18:14They brought great energy.
18:16They turned Minnesota over.
18:18They made them keep their starters in.
18:20The ball moved.
18:21They played with pace.
18:23So that was fun.
18:24And I think it's important.
18:26I don't ever discount those minutes.
18:27I think every minute counts.
18:29And those guys did a really good job of kind of setting a tone for tomorrow night.
18:34Safe to say they start tomorrow, Steve?
18:37Yep.
18:38Yep.
18:38They'll be in the starting five.
18:39Lock it up.
18:40There it is.
18:40I'm going to tweet that immediately.
18:42It's breaking from the dibber.
18:43Thank you, Steve, for that little nuggy nugget.
18:45Oh, gosh.
18:46No, I assume facing elimination, though, like, and again, I know you're not going to give us any specifics,
18:54but, like, when you face elimination, is there a little bit more of a shorten the bench,
19:00kind of a game seven vibe that you take to the game?
19:04Well, I mean, you know, the last two games, we've basically had an eight-man rotation.
19:11You know, three and four, we sort of, you know, we just went to Loon and Gary and JK off the bench,
19:20and that was it.
19:21So we can't shorten it much more than we've already shortened it.
19:24All right, Coach.
19:25Well, here we go.
19:27We hope that this is not our last in-season conversation with you.
19:31And, again, really appreciate, on a day where there was a game last night and a plane flight,
19:37I'm sure everybody's tired.
19:38Thank you so much for spending a little time with us.
19:41You got it.
19:42All right.
19:42Talk to you guys next week.
19:43Thanks, Steve.
19:44There it goes.
19:45Steve Kerr, live in Minnesota, backs firmly up against the wall.