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Lou Williams is not buying Steve Kerr’s declaration that the 2024-25 Warriors is the deepest team he ever has coached.
The 17-year NBA veteran was asked why Kerr would make such a claim and offered his take on the deepest Golden State squad.
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“Because this 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 motivate 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 been talking up this iteration of the Warriors since the preseason began, lauding the additions of Buddy Hield, Lindy Waters III, Kyle Anderson and De’Anthony Melton. While the team is off to a hot start at 6-1, Williams believes the tactic is more about motivating this current group.
“So, does he feel really confident about they are with this group?” Williams said. “Sure, he’s trying to light a fire under this group. So, to say those types of things, it’s important for a coach to try to get the most out of your group. But I’m calling cap by him saying this is the deepest team he’s ever coached considering Klay Thompson just went away 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 diss to them, no knock to them -- they are a deep basketball team. This is going to be great for them coming down the stretch to have so many different guys but ever? Caps.”
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Golden State has raced out to its best start to a season since the 2021-22 NBA title squad, and many around the league are surprised at the team's performance. It can’t be denied this is partly due to a deeper bench, with Hield lighting up the scoreboard every time he takes the court.
Still, most of the wins have come against inferior competition, so the next stretch of games will determine just how legit 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 out 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 reestablishing the franchise as one of the best in the league.