After finishing the preseason with three wins and two losses, the Warriors were able to give meaningful minutes to their budding players, see Stephen Curry get back in action, and test out lineups for a roster that has just come together.
The former Spurs shooting guard Stephen Jackson believes they’ve sorted out one thing; the best starting lineup in the league. The NBA veteran was breaking down the win-loss record predictions on his podcast, ‘All the Smoke’ when he expressed his bold claim for the Warriors.
“I want to go on record saying this to the world, the Warriors can win the championship. This lineup I’m about to say is the best in the league this year. Steph at the one, Jimmy at the two, Kuminga at the three, Draymond at the four, Horford at the five.” Jackson said.
Jackson’s claims did not sit well with the NBA world. Fans chimed in quickly saying how absurd his take sounds as the Warriors are still figuring out the basics of their roster. These reactions sum up the sentiment most of the NBA world had over his claim:
“Why everyone so delusional today bro”
“Steph at the one, Jimmy at the two, Kuminga at the three, Draymond at the four, Horford at the five. This lineup I’m about to say is the best lineup in the league… in 2019”
“I’m pretty sure he said the OLDEST starting lineup in the NBA. This is a typo”
“Warriors lineup is tremendous but unless Kuminga starts chopping more of the wood and carrying more of the water, rest of these guys will break down bore post-season.”
“Butler is one knee to knee away from being out of this league”
“They’ll be lucky to get 4 boards against Houston. LOL”
“Someone tell him Kuminga ain’t starting because Kerr is obsessed with some dude named Brandin Podemszki”
The Warriors’ starting five is a contentious issue. Steve Kerr has been on record saying they have the talent but not at the right age so they can’t just let the five most talented people on the team take over. The 60-year-old head coach explained how they know that they can start Al Horford to intimidate other defenses.
But since the 39-year-old center can only play 20 minutes a game due to load management, he can’t start and finish the game in that time. So even though, it would suit them better in a single game to have this lineup, it could easily be counterproductive in the long run.
Injury is a huge concern because their top stars are towards the latter half of their legendary careers. The Warriors have done one thing well during the course of their dynasty, and that is develop young players. This year as well, they have a solid budding bench and Jackson sees them making it work.
Stephen Jackson Compares Warriors Situation To 2003 Spurs With Steve Kerr
Stephen Jackson played for less than four years with the Warriors from the 2006-07 season to the 2009-10 season (traded between both seasons). He has seen the team in an era when they weren’t a household name and a modern NBA dynasty.
“When you add the young and the old together, I think I was able to see that in San Antonio. The year we won the championship, it was me, Tony (Parker), (Manu) Ginobli, Malik Rose, who were the young guys. We had Danny Ferry, Kevin Willis, Stebe Smith, David Robinson was in his last year,” Jackson said.
Stephen Jackson reminded everyone that Steve Kerr is not facing this kind of a situation for the first time. Being on the San Antonio Spurs that won a championship in 2003 with both aging and young stars, Kerr and Jackson both saw closely how to navigate and win through a similar issue.
Spurs were led by David Robinson, in the final season of his career to a championship in 2003. While a new dawn was upon San Antonio, as 26-year-old Tim Duncan was starting to lead them into a glorious era.
The average age of that roster was 29.1 years and their most common starting line up had the average age of 26.1 years of age. Therefore, this time with the Warriors, Kerr has an additional challenge since while the roster has an average age of 27.5 years, the starting lineup is the oldest in NBA history, and ranges from 34.2 to 36 years of age.
“I think it can work. And the experience of Steve Kerr, he was there on our team as well. So I think he knows how to mix the old and the new.” Jackson added.
Kerr said last week that the trickiest situation for the Warriors is the starting lineup and they are definitely going to try multiple lineups through the regular season.
