"So what's the wildest but most realistic lineup Kerr could throw out there? How about Curry, Andrew Wiggins, Kuminga, Green and Trayce Jackson-Davis? That's not as wild as Favale's proposal, but it could be more effective and, therefore, more realistic.
The defense could be elite with Wiggins on the perimeter, Kuminga using his athleticism to fly around the floor, Jackson-Davis proving the interior presence, and one of the league's best-ever defenders in Green quarterbacking the entire operation.
Offensively it could well be a struggle. However, it may also be functional enough if Wiggins can revert to shooting 37-40% from three on decent volume, Kuminga takes another step as another genuine scorer/shot-creator, and Green can replicate his career-high 40% shooting from three-point range last season."
I think considering everybody performs the way Kerr highlighted, he needs them too, then this could be our starting lineup. Kerr has said in the past that he sees Wiggins and Klay as interchangeable, so if Wiggins has returned to form, he could move to the 2 and Kuminga to the 3 if he takes the leap. Kerr said he needed to move there, and Draymond moved to the 4 and TJD to the 5. The potential chemistry and defense from that group are great, and that could translate to offense for them. It would potentially be an imposing starting 5.
Swapping TJD out with Podz (and moving positions back) would still be a great lineup if you want Draymond at the 5. But we don't have to run that as our starting.
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This is the best potential starting unit imo
This is the line up I like too pods can be like Poole shooting 8 3’s as 6 man
The only way that line up works is if jk is the poa defender.
Wiggs is good at poa, but he’s an elite off ball defender.
Jk is an average poa defender, but among the worst off ball defenders.
To maximize them is to put players in positions to succeed.
By putting jk and klay at off ball last year, it didn’t allow dray to be dray nor wiggins to be wiggins on defense.
Honestly for the first time in the Kerr era, our current potential is dependent on the current crop of young players improving.
Can Podz really be a volume 3pt shooter? Can TJD play 30 min a night and go toe to toe with the great centers around our league. Can Kuminga take an even bigger step than last year, improve his court vision and his shooting.
And can they all do this fast enough to really be enough to compete against veteran lineups? We’ve always had the advantage in that regard. The Warriors have beaten better teams off of experience and grit. The 2022 finals against the Celtics, the 7 game series against the Kings. But now, we’re a mix of really old and really young. So who knows how this year will go
That’s a blackhole on offense and actually not that good defensively if Kumings doesn’t improve his defense IQ and Wiggins doesn’t get some motivation again.
Replace Kuminga with Melton, good perimeter defense and will probably shoot 37-40% from 3 with Curry’s gravity.
Curry, Andrew Wiggins, Kuminga, Green and Trayce Jackson-Davis
Tell me you don’t really understand basketball without telling me. (Not you the article author).
I’m interested enough to want to see it that Wiggs in the backcourt lineup but Dray and Podz are the connective engines that make the players around them better my opinion is Steph Podz Kuminga Dray TJD permutations should get a look too… do we believe in JKs shot? If you believe Kuminga can knock down open shots that’s prob the most intriguing lineup.
I think the lineup will be the Steph Podz Wiggs Kuminga Dray to be honest.. as much as we hate to have Dray getting bludgeoned over 82 games that was definitively a great lineup.
This lineup will never see the light of day due to the obvious spacing issues.
But I’d certainly like to see it given a fair shot.
Line-up only works if Wiggins is back to his Pre-2023 self.
Yeah trace has to get starting minutes at the 5 no matter what.
Crazy that I hadn’t thought of moving Wiggins to the two. Guess he’s been that bad recently.