It normally takes more than just the first few games of the season to determine if a starting lineup is concrete. The Golden State Warriors have had a pretty consistent starting five since the first game of the season with little to no change to it. The only major change that came to this starting lineup was adding Draymond Green in after his absence for the first few games of the season
Although the Warriors seem to have finally established their rhythm and are playing harmoniously together, head coach Steve Kerr says he still needs more time to decide what his starting lineup will be, but for now, he doesn’t plan on changing it.
Steve Kerr Reveals Why He Won’t Be Changing Lineup
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Golden State’s starting five consists of All-Star Stephen Curry, Draymond Green, Andrew Wiggins, Kelly Oubre Jr., and No. 2 draft pick James Wiseman. Kerr says that setting a foundation for the team’s defense early on is very essential and the starting lineup that he has now has been doing a great job thus far.
Kerr says that it was going to take at least 20 matches for him to solidify his starting five for the rest of the season. He doesn’t see himself adjusting his current starting five mainly for defensive reasons. Kerr said:
I’m not making any changes to the starting lineup, there could be changes rotationally, pairings that sort of thing, we might try some different groups together during the game, but I think the biggest thing that we’ve been trying to do is build our defense from the beginning. If you can’t defend you have no chance, if you can defend then you got a chance in every game, so we’re trying to put our length and athleticism out there defensively with Kelly (Oubre) and Andrew (Wiggins) and obviously James (Wiseman).
Why This Lineup Works
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The Warriors are now 7-6 for the season coming fresh off of a win against the reigning NBA champions, the Los Angeles Lakers. The current starting lineup has been together for nine of those games and Kerr doesn’t want to alter this five anytime soon.
Andrew Wiggins in particular has been catching the league’s attention with his much-improved defense. He’s ranked in the top 10 of the entire league in blocked shots per game and is growing to live up to his No. 1 draft pick expectations.
Although Kerr is pretty confident in the team’s defense, he also stated that this lineup isn’t set in stone, so the team needs to pick up on the offensive end. The Warriors had a somewhat slow start to the season and were struggling to control the game offensively. With a somewhat new roster, the Warriors seem to be figuring out why this starting lineup works.
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Steve Kerr Reveals Thoughts on Changes to Warriors’ Lineup