Dub Hub: Klay Thompson embraces new role coming off the bench

Rounding up all Warriors and NBA related news for Friday, February 16th.

Warriors News:

Klay Thompson explains how he accepted coming off the bench for the first time in his career

Kerr earns 500th career win with Warriors’ victory over Jazz | NBC Sports Bay Area

Kerr reached his 500th win in just 764 games, boasting an incredible .654 regular-season winning percentage in the during his 10 seasons as the Warriors’ coach.

Thursday’s win improved Golden State to 27-26 during the 2023-24 NBA season, but more importantly, gave the Warriors a 2.5 game cushion over the Jazz for the Western Conference’s No. 10 seed — the final spot in the Play-In Tournament.

Kawakami: Warriors’ Joe Lacob on the luxury tax, Jonathan Kuminga, Steve Kerr and the A’s | The Athletic

“Our Plan 1, or 1A, is actually we’d like to be out of the tax, and we think that we have a way to do that,” Lacob said. “That kind of is the plan, not just under the second apron. I’ll tell you why that’s important, because the truth is that we need to be out of the tax two years out of the next four, below the tax line, in order to get this repeater thing off our books. We don’t want to be a repeater. It’s just so prohibitive, not to say we wouldn’t do it if we had to, but you’ve gotta look at what the downside is to doing that. …

“There’s a Plan 1B, I guess, and 1B is we could go even further than that and we could make big changes if we had to. If this team were to slide all the way down and not do well the end of the year here, you know there’s gonna be big changes. But if we do really well, we might decide to go the other way. So everything’s open, we have to be flexible, I can just tell you that the goal is to not be a lottery team ever. The goal is to be competitive, the goal is to win and ideally, if it’s possible, to win championships or compete for championships.”

X’s and Mo’s: Shai Gilgeous-Alexander as a decoy, Steph Curry as a late-game weapon and more | The Athletic

In the past, Kerr has used Curry as a decoy occasionally and used Klay Thompson at the end of games.

However, Curry has been called upon more this season. In a recent win over the Phoenix Suns, Kerr diagramed a gem: a play with a lot of misdirection, which led to the Suns chasing Curry.

The Warriors are down two points with 3.3 seconds. The initial alignment has Draymond Green posting on the strong-side block. Curry is on the weak-side elbow with Andrew Wiggins and Thompson stationed above the three-point line. Brandin Podziemski is the trigger man.

Steph Curry and Sabrina Ionescu discuss their upcoming 3-point competition for All-Star Weekend

NBA News:

Q&A: Adam Silver talks participation policy, media rights deal and All-Star | NBA

With regard to expansion, what do you make of LeBron James’ very public desire to be part of an ownership group for a team in Las Vegas, and is Mexico City a realistic destination?

I’m proud of the fact that a player of LeBron’s caliber dreams of not just being one of the greatest players ever but also entering ownership. We saw that with Michael Jordan in Charlotte and Grant Hill now with the Hawks. Shaquille O’Neal was involved with the Kings, David Robinson in San Antonio and Dwyane Wade with the Jazz. I think that’s a unique feature of our league that players not only dream of having incredible playing careers but also see this as an opportunity to be part of ownership as well.

In terms of Mexico City, we’ve played many regular season games in a first-class arena there. It’s the largest market in North America and there’s a huge Hispanic and Mexican American population in the U.S. A potential expansion in Mexico City is on our radar. It’s probably not going to happen in the next wave of expansion but I think over time it would be very realistic.

Bored by the NBA Trade Deadline? Let Speculation Season Begin. | The Ringer

The Minnesota Timberwolves—now leading the West at 37-16—have soaring expectations and a soaring payroll that will almost certainly have to be reduced soon to avoid a massive luxury-tax bill under the new CBA. The most likely solution? A trade of Karl-Anthony Towns. “I think it happens this summer,” said one Western Conference exec.

“How much tax are they going to pay when [Anthony Edwards’s] extension kicks in and KAT’s extension jumps?” said an Eastern Conference exec.

The same goes for the rising New Orleans Pelicans, who have three pricey stars and a surplus of talented young players who will be getting big raises soon—a major strain for a small-market team that’s allergic to paying the luxury tax. “New Orleans has to make a decision between Zion [Williamson] and [Brandon] Ingram,” said an Eastern Conference exec. “I think that happens this summer.”

Grizzlies send Bucks into All-Star break with upset loss | ESPN

Giannis Antetokounmpo led the Bucks with 35 points and 12 assists, his 43rd double-double of the season. Damian Lillard finished with 24 points and seven assists. Bobby Portis added 15 points and Brook Lopez had 14 points, 11 rebounds and four blocks, but coach Doc Rivers thought some of his players got caught looking ahead to the break.

“We had some guys here, and some guys in Cabo [San Lucas],” Rivers said.

The Bucks closed as 14½-point favorites, according to ESPN BET, making it their third-largest upset loss in the past 30 years.

In case you missed it at Golden State of Mind:

Player grades: Warriors vs. Jazz

Lester Quiñones

16 minutes, 6 points, 1 rebound, 4 assists, 1 steal, 1 foul, 1-for-2 shooting, 1-for-2 threes, 3-for-4 free throws, 79.8% TS, +10

Quiñones is really impressing with his playmaking ability. He’s crisp and quick, rushing the ball to open teammates as soon as he catches it. And when the defense sells out to cut off passing lanes, he either pops a three or drives to the hoop. He’s really been showing a lot over the last few weeks.

Grade: A

Post-game bonus: Best plus/minus on the team.

A tweet to end the week:

Follow @unstoppablebaby on Twitter for all the latest news on the Golden State Warriors.