SACRAMENTO — On multiple occasions since joining the Warriors as part of a historic six-team trade over the offseason, Buddy Hield has said he probably wouldn’t have gotten so high if it weren’t for new teammate Steph Curry. While Curry was winning his second straight NBA Most Valuable Player award, Hield was putting on a three-point clinic of his own during his first season at Oklahoma.
His brilliance on the long ball led to him winning every major college award imaginable before he was taken sixth overall by the Sacramento Kings in the 2016 draft. It’s been several seasons since Hield last donned a Kings jersey, but he certainly reminded his former team of what he looks like It’s when he gets hot from deep, where he scored a game-high 22 points off the bench in the Warriors’ 122-112 preseason. Win Wednesday night at Golden 1 Center while going 6 of 7 from 3-point range.
Steve Kerr’s offense has always been heavily influenced by 3-pointers. The Splash Brothers of Curry and Klay Thompson were already in Golden State before Kerr arrived in 2014, though his offensive mind took them to another level. The newcomers appear to be thriving beyond the arc in Kerr’s system as well.
So, it was easy to envision Hield making a smooth splash of his own in a Warriors jersey under Kerr. But she’s a new addition to the Warriors’ coaching staff that is already paying off in big ways. Kerr brought in former Portland Trail Blazers coach Terry Stotts to help him offensively, and players like Hield should thrive.
“The stuff we put in with Terry, the Portland stuff, you saw some of that in the second half,” Kerr said after the win. “Torches, friends are built for this.”
Stotts spent nine seasons as the Blazers’ coach from 2012 through 2021, winning 402 regular-season games and reaching the playoffs in all but his first season. An undersized but sharp-shooting backcourt of Damian Lillard and CJ McCollum excelled in Portland under Stotts, unleashing their three-point prowess and even reaching the Western Conference Finals against the Warriors in 2019 as a small-market team that was not similar to the All-Stars, rather than Getting the best out of her inner talent.
While Hield was hot on a summer day in Sacramento shooting the ball, it was the time he gave up the ball that showcased a key element of Stotts and Kerr together.
Early in the fourth quarter, the Warriors ran a pass to free up the ball for Hield for a three-pointer in the corner, but it wasn’t there. What happened next was a split between Kyle Anderson in the post that ended with Brandin Podzemski putting in a two-pointer at the rim.
“That was Terry Stotts’ work, the Portland stuff he ran with Dame and CJ,” Kerr explained. “Part of the idea of bringing Terry in was that his offense was similar to ours, but he had a more personnel-based structure. What was interesting about that play was it was all old Portland stuff. And then we didn’t get anything, and then we went back to the game.” The division we’ve been playing forever.
“And that’s what I like about some of the things we’ve been trying to add, they seem to blend well, what they’ve done and what we’ve already done.”
For more than a decade, the Warriors — led, of course, by Curry — have been credited with revolutionizing the three-point shot. This season, they’re looking to up the ante, having already attempted 100 triples through their first two preseason games. They shot 52 on Wednesday night, making 28, which would have been a franchise record if it had been a regular-season game.
Those 28 threes also gave them a 63-point advantage behind the three-point line. When asked what he liked most about the look of the threes, Podzemski, who had eight assists, credited the ball movement and involvement of everyone in attack. Offhandedly, his answer also included praise for Stotts.
“Shout out to Coach Terry,” Podzemski said. “He drew some good things out of timeouts that gave us some easy looks as well.”
Throughout the preseason, Kerr will transition his duties to his assistant coaches for games. As the game progressed, Stotts was seen handling the offense and getting everyone on the same page while Kerr watched from afar. The Kings made it a three-point game with three and a half minutes left when Kerr had seen enough and called a timeout.
In those 60 seconds, Stotts controlled the offense and made sure Sacramento never got within striking distance again. Lindy Waters III immediately hit a three out of the timeout. Waters scored another three points a minute later to put the Warriors up 11 points, and Reece Beckman’s 3-pointer with three overtimes to play was the cherry on top that put the game out of reach, putting the Warriors up by 14 points. .
“He’s a very good communicator,” said Jonathan Kuminga, who scored 16 points and made four 3-pointers. “He’s been a head coach and knows what he’s doing. Every time he sees something and he helps us on the offensive side. He’s out there just trying to communicate as much as he can.”
“It definitely helps us.”
Kerr and Stotts coached against each other on opposite sidelines for seven seasons, and saw each other three times in the playoffs — all of which ended in the Warriors’ favor. Early on, joining forces is the perfect offensive creativity for the two that these Warriors embrace warmly.
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