The Golden State Warriors dropped a heartbreaker to the Philadelphia 76ers on Thursday night, with head coach Steve Kerr's comments afterwards only creating more pressure for two young players in Brandin Podziemski and Jonathan Kuminga.
Speaking about the effort of Pat Spencer and other typically unheralded players provided during the game to even make it close, Kerr's comments revealed what he is looking for from the team and subtly suggested that he is not getting that from some players:
Steve Kerr reveals what he is looking for from injury-riddled Warriors
"Organizationally, you just want to stand for something. You know, you want to have an identity. And it's gotta be about competitive spirit and just playing together and competing and that's what was so beautiful about what that group did down the stretch," Kerr said.
In games like we saw on Thursday when the Warriors were without Stephen Curry and Jimmy Butler, while also losing Draymond Green early in the game through injury, one would have expected players like Podziemski, Kuminga and Moses Moody to be the ones asked to step up.
That is not what happened as the Warriors turned to guys like Spencer and Gui Santos, along with De'Anthony Melton who was playing in his first game in a year after recovering from an ACL injury, to get them back into the game after an atrocious start.
Kerr was asked about the fact that Podziemski, Kuminga and Moody were on the bench for much of the second half and gave a rather diplomatic response, suggesting that in the next game it could be those three who step up and play well with the veteran stars injured.
But his comments about integrity and competitive spirit, a theme he returned to later in the press conference, only further fuel the narrative that the likes of Podziemski and Kuminga are not delivering what the team needs right now.
It's very easy to overreact to games from Podziemski and Kuminga and speculate on what it could mean for their future with the team. But these are not isolated incidents, rather we've seen throughout the season that those two players have been subtly called out or benched if they're not doing what's needed for the team.
We also know they can be valuable players when they are on their game, but right now it seems that guys like Spencer are the ones deserving of playing time because of the way they compete and contribute to the team.
This narrative is not going away any time soon, so maybe Kerr's comments will be an extra push that Podziemski and Kuminga need to hear to help them get back on track.