OAKLAND–Nick Young said he was in shape to play.
And for most teams, Young probably would have fit right in.
But when Young arrived for the Warriors’ preseason training camp, he admitted the shape he was in didn’t necessarily mean he was in the right shape to play in Golden State’s up-tempo system.
“I think it’s more just for the system,” Young said. “Stuff I wasn’t used to. I figured I was in shape enough for the teams I’ve been on.”
Young said the hardest parts of his transition from playing for Luke Walton’s Los Angeles Lakers to Steve Kerr’s Golden State Warriors is adjusting to the flow of the Warriors’ games, anticipating the team’s backdoor cuts and learning how to assimilate to a significantly different atmosphere.
Joining a new team isn’t a novel challenge for Young, as he played for four different teams in four seasons between 2011-2014. Joining a team as talented as the Warriors, though, is a distinct test for any player, but especially for someone like Young, who has largely played for franchises destined to finish the season jockeying for lottery picks.
“I’m used to playing with rookies and start-up teams and building teams, and you come to a team that’s already got everything in place and just won two championships out of the last three with four All-Stars, a great core off the bench, I’ve got to adjust to it,” Young said.
Kerr said Wednesday that Young is beginning to look more comfortable as the preseason progresses, and that he’s spoken with the free agent acquisition about the mindset he’ll need to adjust to a new role. Though Young has been a bench player for the majority of his career, his minutes have largely been steady. As the Warriors’ season progresses, it’s likely Young will carve out a role with Golden State’s second unit, but at the outset of the year, his playing time will fluctuate.
“I think he understands it’s never easy going to adjust to a new team, especially after you’ve been in the league for 10 years,” Kerr said. “New environment, new offense, new teammates, all of that stuff. He looked much more comfortable today. I told him today, he’s going to make a major impact on our team, but this is a different situation than he’s ever been in. This is the deepest team he’s going to ever play on, probably the deepest team we’ll ever have here. And so there’s times where he’s not going to get much of a look and there’s times where he’s starting and scoring 25 points and that’s the challenge of being on a team like this. But he wants it, he’s been on a lot of bad teams in his career.”
Because he played for Walton, a former Warriors’ assistant, last season, Young said he understands much of what the Warriors are trying to accomplish on the offensive side of the floor. However, he said that to truly familiarize himself with the team’s system, he needed to visualize and participate in plays in a practice setting.
“Luke, from the style of practice to some of the plays in the game, Luke was great,” Young said. “He teaches some of the stuff and some of the stuff I just needed to see so I’m doing it now and doing it over and over.”
Warriors’ point guard Steph Curry said Wednesday that Young figures to make a big impact with the team this season, and that he feels that Young is progressing everyday. Curry said Young understands what he needs to do to get in shape, and that having Young ready to go will make a difference come the start of the season.
“I don’t know, it seems like he’s learning every day our tendencies and our fundamentals from the team’s standpoint and it’s been an unorthodox training camp schedule-wise and I know he wants to work on himself to get ready for the regular season and there’s time for that,” Curry said. “No doubt it’ll have a huge impact on our season throughout the year.”
After the Warriors’ practice Wednesday, Kerr said the team still hadn’t completely recovered from the jet-lag induced by Golden State’s flight home from China, but that he hoped the team would be able to run through a more efficient practice on Thursday. As for Young, his assimilation to the Warriors is clearly a day-by-day process, and it’s possible that process drags into the early portion of the regular season. Even if it does, the Warriors’ newest guard is excited about the possibilities that come with joining a championship-caliber team.
“Coach talked to me about that, don’t get frustrated, just stay focused on the game because at the end of the day, you’ll be playing for a championship and I think my swag will be more, I’ll be more Swaggy P,” Young said.