OAKLAND -- Steve Kerr expressed a desire for the Warriors to draft someone able to contribute immediately on a team favored to win its third consecutive NBA title. That’s a high bar, maybe even unfair, for a rookie to clear.
It was evident in Summer League that the player the Warriors drafted at the end of the first round in June -- Jacob Evans III -- was going to require a measure of patience.
Kerr now concedes as much, as does Willie Green, head coach of the Warriors' Summer League squad and the assistant who spends the most time developing Evans.
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SIGN UP HERE “He’s making tremendous strides,” Green said on the Warriors Insider Podcast. “What I saw in Summer League was a kid that really understands the game. He can see what we call ‘the pictures.’ He can read defenses. He can read the pictures on offense.
“It’s about just getting his body ready to handle an NBA season. Getting him in the weight room, getting him accustomed to being on time. It’s a lot that comes with being a professional. So he’s learning all of those things.”
A 6-foot-6 combo guard, Evans has played in six of 10 games so far, totaling 37 minutes. He’s 2 of 7 from the floor and has yet to take a 3-point shot. He does, however, have seven assists.
The concern is with his shooting stroke. It looked awkward in Summer League, where he shot poorly, and it’s going to take awhile to smoothen.
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Green believes he knows why.
“He injured his hand in college,” Green said. “He injured the ligaments in his finger. He didn’t know what was wrong with his hand at the time, but he kept trying to play through it. Because of that, it caused him to catch the ball weirdly. We’re just trying to get him catching the ball and having a seamless transition from the catch to the release. That’s what he struggled with when he first got here.
“It’s going to take time for that to come along, but we want to get that going, along with getting his body ready for the physicality of the NBA.”
The Warriors need to wait, and they can afford to do so. The reserve guard minutes behind starters Stephen Curry and Klay Thompson have gone mostly to Andre Iguodala. With Shaun Livingston missing the last four games, Alfonzo McKinnie has picked up a few minutes, despite being more of a small forward.