In the off-day interview with reporters the day before Game 4, Steve Kerr praised Trayce Jackson-Davis’ athleticism and said, “We liked Trayce’s size and finishing… He’s traditionally played very well next to Draymond (Green).”
Jackson-Davis only played 11-plus minutes in Game 3, even though he started, and by comparison, Kevon Looney ended up with 18 minutes played and fouled out. Trayce only committed two fouls.
Will we see more TJD and less of Loon? Well, actually, I think the rest of what Steve said (transcript below) reveals the answer.
I’d actually love to see a starting lineup that includes both Jonathan Kuminga and Trayce. That would move Buddy Hield to the bench, but despite the fact that Kuminga gave up that ferocious dunk to Anthony Edwards with poor point-of-attack defense, imo JK needs to be the defender on Ant for the meat of the game, just as a similar-sized body.
Maybe in clutch late-game situations you can have Gary Payton II or Jimmy Butler switch onto Edwards.
As for offense, there’s been a lot made about JK playing next to Butler — all favorable including from Jimmy — but there would be no three-point spacing with the starting lineup I proposed above (before Game 3, I proposed JK instead of TJD).
Well, Kerr actually addressed that, too, top of mind, yesterday: “We have to put two-way lineups on the floor. We gotta get stops. As I said, we’ve gotta win this game and this series with our defense, so the challenge is you put your best defensive lineups on the floor and you may not have a ton of spacing, so then, how do you counter that? You counter it with pace and energy and offensive rebounds and second-chance opportunities, force turnovers, get out in transition.”
There’s even more in the transcript, below the paywall 👇 that addresses the half-court sets with, presumably, no spacing.
That would actually be pretty amazing if Steve started a Warriors lineup that had no three-point shooter 😳 but we shall see. These are all tough decisions that we shouldn’t be arm-chairing if we haven’t rewatched the tape like members of the coaching staff would. Bonus video from pregame Game 3 and then off-day Zoom call below…