Why Williams questions Kerr’s confident assertion about Warriors depth originally appeared on NBC Sports Bay Area
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Lou Williams doesn’t buy Steve Kerr’s statement that the 2024-25 Warriors are the deepest team he’s ever coached.
The 17-year NBA veteran was asked why Kerr would make such a claim and offered his opinion on the deepest Golden State squad.
“Because this is your current team, these are the guys you’re here to motivate,” Williams said on FDTV’s “Run It Back.” “You’re not here to encourage the guys who won you championships years and years ago, they’ve moved on. I’ll be curious to see if Steve Kerr would want to go back to Mo Speights, Andrew Bogut, Andre Iguodala, Leandro Barbossa and David Lee, those. [were] deep basketball teams [in 2015-2016].”
Kerr has talked about this iteration of the Warriors since the preseason began, praising the additions of Buddy Hield, Lindy Waters III, Kyle Anderson and De’Anthony Melton. While the team is to a hot start at 6-1, Williams believes the tactic is more about motivating this current group.
“So, does he really feel confident about them being with this group?” Williams said. “Sure, he’s trying to light a fire under this group. So, to say such things, it is important that a coach tries to get the most out of your group. But I’m putting a cap on him saying this is the deepest team he’s ever coached considering Klay Thompson just left and you don’t have one of the greatest shooters in the world on that team.
“And now you have some other guys — like no offense to them, no knock on them — they’re a deep basketball team. This is going to be great for them coming down to have so many different guys but ever? Caps.”
Golden State raced out to its best start to season since the 2021-22 NBA title squad, and many around the league are surprised by the team’s performance. There’s no denying that’s in part due to a deeper bench, with Hield lighting up the scoreboard every time he takes the court.
However, most of the wins came against inferior competition, so the next part of games will determine how legitimate the team is. Three road games await against the Boston Celtics, Cleveland Cavaliers and Oklahoma City Thunder, the three best teams in the NBA so far this season.
If the Warriors come away with a winning record at the end of this road trip, it would add a lot of credence to Kerr’s claims and go a long way in re-establishing the franchise as one of the best in the league.
