Steve Kerr Explained Why Steph Curry Is In A Role That ‘May Not Be Ideal For Him’

The Golden State Warriors are trying something new, and so far, the results have been mixed. Steve Kerr is staggering his lineups so that Steph Curry starts second and fourth quarters, comes out to get a quick breather, then re-enters the game. It is a practice that started nine games ago, and in that time, the Warriors are 5-4.

Naturally that record has led to people wondering if this is a good idea. While conceding that it isn’t the best role for Curry, Kerr spoke to the media on Saturday and commended the former league MVP for how he’s handled being asked to change up his role.

“He’s done a great job of handling it,” Kerr said, per Mark Medina of The Mercury News. “It may not be ideal for him. But he understands this is the best thing for us right now. We have to put the best groups together. We’ve tried a lot of different things this year. Beginning of the second, beginning of the fourth, we’ve tried [Kevin Durant] in that spot, we tried Klay [Thompson], now we’re trying Steph. This is the one that has looked the best, that has felt the best.”

Kerr went on to explain that Curry’s fourth quarter minutes have gone up ever since the change in the rotation, and that there’s no guarantee as to whether they stick with this all year or whether it’s just a matter of tinkering until the right way to handle these situations pops up. It’s all been part of the general lineup chess Kerr has had to play this season — one example of this is how the Warriors have needed to play Curry and Durant less with one another.

“I think the whole idea is to stagger Steph and KD as best we can,” Kerr said after Golden State’s loss to Houston, per Anthony Slater of The Athletic. “We didn’t do much the last couple of years, but we had a different team the last couple of years. With this year’s team, we feel pretty strongly that we have to stagger them.”

The Warriors’ general depth issues mixed with Thompson and Draymond Green struggling on the offensive side of the ball has tied Kerr’s hands together, so to speak, so it makes sense he’d want Curry and/or Durant to be on the floor as much as possible. The regular season is long, and tinkering with rotations will invariably happen, for better or worse. As long as Golden State has it all figured out by the time the playoffs roll around, though, they’ll surely be fine with the struggles they went through before the All-Star break.