Prior to Friday night's game against the Milwaukee Bucks, Steve Kerr was asked to comment on the Golden State Warriors ranking 19th in 3-point attempts this season. According to Anthony Slater of The Athletic, Kerr doesn't really care if the Warriors rank that low in 3-point attempts, as long as they take good shots:
Steve Kerr on the Warriors' currently ranking 19th in the NBA in 3-point attempts: "I don't care…I'd rather go 6-for-12 from 2 and have the team take the ball out of the net six times than go 4-for-12 from 3 and have to deal with eight fastbreaks." pic.twitter.com/Nd5MKb3TSq
— Anthony Slater (@anthonyVslater) December 8, 2018
Fast-forward to the game, and the Warriors launched a whopping 46 3s, which bumped them up to 12th in the league. Golden State made 19 3s on the night as they nabbed a 105-95 victory and avenged an earlier loss against the Milwaukee Bucks. After the huge win, Kerr found time to joke around following the irony of his pre-game comments:
Steve Kerr: “Like I said pregame, I just want to shoot more 3s than the opposition.” *smirks* pic.twitter.com/uKm5RBEdaa
— Anthony Slater (@anthonyVslater) December 8, 2018
Nonetheless, Kerr doubled down and explained the Warriors' mindset on shooting 3s, saying that those were the shots available to them during the game.
When Steve Kerr took over in the 2014-15 season, the Warriors had a reputation of being an outside shooting team. However, this season indicates otherwise, as they are currently out of the top 10 in terms of 3-point attempts. In fact, over the past two years, Kerr's offensive strategy seems to have veered away from focusing on the 3-ball as their main offensive artillery. They ranked 17th in that regard last season.
Reading into his postgame comments, it looks like he still doesn't care what kind of shots they get, as long as their offense is able to generate good looks.
Regardless, Golden State is still the best shooting team in the league. Despite their low ranking in attempts, the Warriors still rank first in 3-point percentage at 39.2 percent. Moreover, they also top the league in overall field goal percentage.