Just the other day, Hugo Kitano made the case for Quinn Cook getting more minutes in Stephen Curry’s absence as a way to give the team a scoring boost.
And after returning to the starting lineup — along with Andre Iguodala — against the Oklahoma City Thunder on Wednesday night, Warriors coach Steve Kerr is going with Cook once again in a starting lineup that will feature Kevin Durant at the power forward spot.
Kerith Burke of NBC Sports Bay Area shed some light on Kerr’s decision-making regarding Cook in a Q&A with her Twitter followers, which was published earlier today.
Quinn Cook cannot bring the same chaos as Steph. Quinn prefers a whiteboard approach, where plays are drawn out and executed as planned. Quinn is a very capable player who’s trusted to lead the offense, but stylistically, he’s different than Steph. Less free-wheeling, more structured. Everyone is getting used to that on the floor.
KD, Klay, Shaun and Andre can be ball-handlers, too, but everything feels much better when Steph’s on the court. Andre will start at point guard, too, when the matchups don’t favor Quinn.
With more ball handlers on the floor in Curry and Draymond Green’s absence, one would hope that they’d be less bogged down in halfcourt sets. Yet as Joe Viray detailed after the previous game, they’re still looking sluggish as their “supporting cast” is still struggling to generate scoring opportunities.
Feel free to share your thoughts on the starting lineup and observations of the game in the comments below.