The Warriors have won back-to-back games in a stellar start to the season to push their record to 4-1 after the first five games. They beat the Grizzlies 131-118 yesterday and easily overcame the shorthanded Clippers tonight as the final score was 98-79 in their favor.
Before the game, Steve Kerr confirmed that Jonathan Kuminga will be a permanent starter now in the foreseeable future for the Warriors. Since Al Horford was coming off a toe injury, the belief was that he was not starting only as a result of missing two games.
However, Steve Kerr has now confirmed after the game that he plans to only bring Horford off the bench in the near future and play about 22 minutes per night. While addressing the Warriors’ new starting lineup after the win against the Clippers, Kerr spoke about the 39-year-old veteran’s role on the team.
“I think this is going to be the pattern for us. I really just want to bring Al [Horford] off the bench. If he’s going to give me 20 to 25 minutes, I’d rather have him come off the bench and be able to close with him if we need to, like we did against Denver,” said Kerr in the post-game press conference.
“So we’ll probably go back and forth between Post and BP depending on what the center matchup looks like. I thought BP was great. I didn’t play him enough in the first half. I think I only had him out there for nine minutes, so I guess we missed his playmaking.”
This is a great step up for Podziemski, just a day after Kerr said that he felt the Warriors youngster was struggling. He had 12 points, five rebounds, four assists along with one block, and one steal to stuff the box score with his contributions.
“I need to do a better job at doing what we did in the second half, which is finding lineups that could play-make a little bit more. But I mean, QP was the story of the game. Fearless out there, hit big shots, played great defense. So good for him and good for us on getting a player like him late in the second round a year and a half ago, and he’s turning into a really good player.”
Post finished the game with 12 points and eight rebounds, while shooting 57.1% from three-point range.
This shows how brutal the game of basketball can be. Horford joined the team with the anticipation that he would be the starting center for the Warriors. However, it seems that they have now pivoted to bringing the veteran only off the bench while Podziemski or Post takes up his role as a starter.
The veteran Horford looked rusty while he came off the bench for the Warriors tonight against the Clippers. He finished the game with only two points and four rebounds in 21 minutes played. Horford shot 20% from the field and missed all three of his shots from beyond the arc.
A former NBA champion with the Celtics, Horford was reportedly considering retirement during the summer before he decided to put it on hold to play alongside Stephen Curry and compete for a championship.
Maybe we are witnessing the slow decline in the imminent downfall of a veteran player nearing retirement. He has a two-year deal with the Warriors, but I anticipate that he will eventually lose his rotation minutes soon if he doesn’t improve his performance.
Other promising players like Buddy Hield and Gary Payton II are in the rotation seeking more minutes. Therefore, one slip could end up being costly for Horford from this point.
