Some perspective on this game and the future
Today was a pretty bad loss, and as with any big loss, a lot of reactionary takes are made by a lot of the fanbase. There are some points that I want to hit about today's game as well as why some current moves.
1. Steph's very illustrative display at the bench was more emotional than we've seen Steph in a long time, especially with his teammates; however, it doesn't mean he was necessarily angry at them. Yes he may be frustrated with losing, but he also has a newer role in the lockerroom. During the peak of the dynasty there were emotional vets that used to get the younger players sparked. We had Iguodala, Livingston, West, and Draymond. Now we only have Draymond. Even after the game, Steph was pointing towards leadership, and sometimes that just means trying to get a spark going for the team. Another thing to note is that he was also having a pretty bad shooting night by any standards and sometimes that type of riling up is not only to hype himself up but also just show the team he hasn't folded yet.
2. Poole and Mannion did not play great today by any means; however, I think the reason Kerr is playing them now is not only because they had great G League bubble showings but also because Wanamaker is not part of the future. Because of this, the goal is to develop our 2 young guards into competent playmakers and scorer so Draymond and Steph do not need play every minute together. This game was one of their first with real minutes with the Steph and Draymond playing and they got thrown into the fire with the Clippers, a championship contender. They'll probably get more in a rhythm after the Jazz game when they have some easier games. We could still use Wanamaker in my opinion, if nothing else for defense, but we probably want to play 1 of the 2 younger guards (Poole definitely seems like the better shot right now) with him just to develop their playmaking and scoring.
3. Our shots just weren't falling. Steph was 1-8, our team shot 18% worse from 3 than the Clippers. Our looks may not have always been the best but they weren't that bad, we just weren't knocking them down.
4. There was some general lethargy, no doubt, this comes from just a long break. We started the game with a silly Draymond foul and it only went down from there. Players will lock in and get back in the flow of the game. We've seen the defense this team had earlier this season, there's no reason why we can't get back in there and our offense can't get better as players get more acclimated with the system. There's a lot of importance in roster continuity. Systems aren't learned in a day.
5. Remember, we had the 8th easiest strength of schedule for this half of the season and that was including this tough stretch we have. We're 3 games from the 5th seed and almost every team above us has a harder schedule. It's a marathon not a sprint. The best thing we can do is have the team play within the system, keep learning roles, cut down on silly fouls, and hopefully shots fall. If we can get into the playoffs this year that'll be great and hopefully next year, we can retool with the players who we deem to be useful in our hopeful contention.