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GOLDEN STATE WARRIORS MEDIA CONFERENCESeptember 30, 2019Stephen CurryOakland, California Q. How much contemplation this summer did you give to the leadership role that you'll have to continue on and maybe even up to another level this year with all the roster turnover? STEPHEN CURRY: There's always an awareness of what the situation is going into any season. From a leadership perspective, it doesn't change much in terms of what are the specific things that this team needs to be successful. Obviously we have a lot of new guys, a lot of young guys, myself, Klay whenever he comes back, Draymond, Kevon able to help set the tone for what our DNA is here, how we do things, our championship kind of mentality. But at the end of the day, it's just about continuing to do the things that help me being successful and helped me lead teams in the past, and it's just a level of awareness and trying to be as proactive as possible trying to make everyone comfortable building chemistry and leading by example. I don't have to change much in that respect. Q. Steve was talking about you're one of the -- you're the oldest guy on this roster now -- STEPHEN CURRY: Stop reminding me. (Laughter). Q. How strange is that just considering where you started obviously in this franchise, and to be where you're at now? STEPHEN CURRY: I mean, just hearing it is weird, but I'm still young. I wake up every day with a smile on my face, with the opportunity I have in front of me, being in my prime, being able to play basketball at the highest level and do it with this team and in front of our fan base, and I know I have a lot, a lot of years left at this level. It doesn't change anything but just make me laugh, and for people to notice some gray hairs that might pop out every once in a while. But other than that, it's kind of business as usual. I do miss Shaun and Andre for that reason, though. (Laughter). Q. Have you got to run the court with D'Angelo a bit, and how are you feeling about the two of you as a backcourt? STEPHEN CURRY: Yeah, we've played a couple times and worked out a couple times over the summer, and we've had a lot of conversations about what it could look like. This next three weeks will be important for us to create a vibe and continue to build chemistry. I'm excited about some of the stuff we talked about and some of the options we have to kind of work off each other. I know the coaching staff and whatnot have a lot of opportunity to kind of mix and match lineups and try to figure things out as we go, and there's going to be a lot of fine tuning and testing things out. But at the end of the day, two talented guys that know how to put the ball in the basket, know how to make plays for each other and teammates, and have proven what we can do in this league, and if you have the confidence you can figure it out. Q. With all the new guys and maybe D'Angelo aside, is there some factor you're most intrigued by? Is there one player that you go, okay, that could be interesting? STEPHEN CURRY: I mean, I could talk to you about every single guy that's on the roster right now about what they could provide for our team and that they're going to need to provide for our team for us to be successful. But at the end of the day, I kind of don't know how things are really going to shape out. I'm just excited to get going, playing a preseason game on Saturday, and kind of seeing what the new look is going to be. Every guy in that locker room is going to have an opportunity to help us succeed. I know you don't want that cheesy answer, but it's literally more relevant than any other year where we're doing it by committee and having guys take another step in their careers, solidify themselves as NBA players, young guys in the league, and just continuing to get better, collectively and individually. There's an importance on player development more than there ever has been, so I'm excited about that. Q. What sense have you gotten from Steve and the training staff on what your workload might be this season? What would you like it to be? STEPHEN CURRY: 48 minutes a game for 82. (Laughter). It's pretty much confirmed by Coach Kerr just a minute ago. Very excited about that. Q. It seemed like teams around the league view you guys as being more vulnerable than you have been in the past years. I'm curious what your reaction is to what other teams in the conference have done and if it feels different going into the season without the exact same sort of expectations that have been exteriorly been on you guys in the past? STEPHEN CURRY: I mean, every year since we've been at this stage, every team is trying to get the better -- to knock us off when we won or just retool to win a championship. That's what everybody is in this business to do. You know, look at every era of basketball, for a team to sustain this type of level of play and this greatness, it doesn't happen that often, and when you need to retool, it may look different, but the great teams, great players figure it out as they go. No surprise there's a lot of talent and a lot of powerful lineups that you look at, Western Conference, Eastern Conference, whatever it is. But we want to be a team that's feared across the league. When you see us on the schedule, regular season, we get to the Playoffs, they know what they're in for. It doesn't mean that people are going to say we're the greatest or pick us as favorites or whatnot, but you know who those teams are, and we're going to be one of them. Q. Steve called this building a metaphor for the new season and kind of all the unknowns. I'm wondering personally is that exciting to you where for four years you guys have been chasing the championship and with a lot of knowns and expectations, what's the feel for you in the new building, new season, so many unknowns? STEPHEN CURRY: Yeah, even being in this room is like weird, having gone through a certain routine for me for 10 years. Knowing this move was coming, we kind of just had to go through a couple days, weeks, months and just kind of get used to the new surroundings and the new settings, new routines. As a team, for me, I've just been thinking about how this building is going to create an opportunity for us to kind of walk into a new era, appreciating the accomplishments we have, the five Finals in a row, chasing more, all the things that we did in Oakland and at Oracle, but for all the new guys, we are going to be a different team and to embrace that. This building gives us an opportunity to create something new and create something special. We don't have to live up to a style or any expectation that we had in the past. It's more so just how we're going to walk into this new chapter with a fresh start. That's easier to say with a new building than with the sights and sounds of Oracle, honestly, with all that happened in that building. So I'm excited about that part for sure because if you're a newcomer to this team or one of the young guys, you know about it, but you kind of don't know what it feels like. This can be something that we create on our own, and that will be special and an advantage for us. Q. You joked about playing 48 minutes a game. I'm assuming that's a joke. But in all honesty, how do you see your workload in this season considering that Kevin is gone, considering Klay is going to be out for some time? Do you see an extra responsibility, particularly on the offensive end this season? STEPHEN CURRY: Yeah, I mean, I always say I have the same mentality no matter who's out on the floor and working off those guys and how I can make an impact on the floor. It doesn't mean I'm taking every shot. You try to make other players better. I've been fortunate to play with some extremely talented guys, and we've all made each other better. But coming into this year, it's the same mentality. You just go out there, for me, have an idea of what I want to accomplish, how I want to go about it, always work off my teammates really well no matter who's out there and try to uplift everybody, so I'm going to have that same mentality. I don't know what it's going to look like, how many minutes I'm going to play. We haven't really honestly talked about it that much, but it's just an opportunity to take another step and evolve. I'll put the work in and we'll continue to do that for as long as I can. Just excited every time I get to play basketball. I'm looking forward to having fun and playing the game I love. Q. As the team's acknowledged elder spokesman now -- STEPHEN CURRY: Thanks, that's a better way to say it. Q. Curious your take on today's development, the California governor signing that law that will allow college athletes to be compensated for their likeness and how that could have potentially affected you? STEPHEN CURRY: I don't know, that's so long ago, my college days. But anything that kind of speaks to creating opportunities for athletes to take advantage of what they put into their craft and you know how much money the NCAA is making is obviously -- somebody to base going on of whether it's good or bad, actually I love player-friendly things that put people in positions to be successful and to get what they're owed and deserved. I know Draymond has been very active in kind of planting the flag on that, LeBron with having Mayor Gavin Newsom on the show and all that type of stuff. Creating change and creating opportunity is huge. I know there's still a lot of work to be done in that respect, but this is a nice step in the right direction for sure. Q. Last year at media day, the number one topic was probably free agency, not just with Kevin, Klay was getting questions, Draymond was kind of in an unknown spot. Your main core is now locked in for at least three to five years. Can you feel that cloud kind of lifted from the franchise a little bit, and will that help you? STEPHEN CURRY: Honestly, I think that conversation just blends in with everything else that's, quote-unquote, changed in terms of new roster, new building, what happened at the end of last year in the Finals. For us, yes, it's nice and we've talked about it a little bit in between our groups or over the summer of how cool it is for especially me, Klay and Draymond to have been the young guys at one point and now we are -- how did you say it? Elder spokesmen that are now kind of leading the charge and locked in for the foreseeable future to kind of reshape what we want to accomplish and how we want to go about it. There's a level of just -- you know, comfortability in that, I guess, as you go through and saying, okay, we know who we are, there's new pieces, we're going to put it all together and we're going to have the same expectations and just grind our way -- we'll grind our way through it. Q. You mentioned Andre and Shaun, but what will you miss about them? What will have to be replaced and can it be replaced, the things they brought to you guys the last few years? STEPHEN CURRY: I mean, it's going to be really hard, not just what they do on the floor, and the intangibles and just that winning mentality that they brought every single time they stepped foot on the floor. It was kind of the idea that you had two guys that just knew how to handle their business, that were ultimate professionals, were extremely savvy and knowledgeable about how the game worked, how the business of basketball worked, and you didn't have to worry about them. They said the right thing at the right time, they led by example, and you respected them when they walked in the room because of who they are and what they had gone through in their careers. There's an opportunity for somebody to step up in that role in terms of filling the gaps on the court from X's and O's standpoint and helping us be successful and win games, and we'll develop the chemistry and that locker room presence that's needed. At the end of the day, myself, Draymond, Klay are going to lead the charge on that front, D'Angelo is going to have a huge opportunity to be a vocal leader for this team, and he's going to need to be. But at the end of the day, there should be some unsung hero -- some guys that can step up in terms of being consistent with their work ethic and demonstrating that every single day, being vocal and understanding that their voice can carry and helping us get to where we want to go. Q. You guys obviously were looking forward to integrating Willie Cauley-Stein in training camp and he's going to be out for a while. How much of a setback is that? And sort of a semi-related question, Looney's development last season was pretty striking from the outside. How much of a step forward did he take and in what ways is he more ready to take on a bigger role? STEPHEN CURRY: I mean, he's just -- to answer the second question, Kevon just keeps getting better. Whether it's talked about or not, he puts the work in, and he's come back from his surgeries and his setbacks and just stayed steady, and I think that's important in terms of that could have taken somebody's confidence away in terms of putting doubt in what they are as an NBA player, and he's kind of moved on from that in a very strong way, and it's been awesome to play with him, just to watch him grow, to see him have impacts on the biggest stages, and you expect that same kind of step up this year with the added responsibility and maybe the added workload and whatnot. We'll rely on him heavy for sure. And with Willie, it's a tough blow early before we even get to training camp. But hopefully in the long-term he'll come back strong and healthy. I'm excited to see him kind of fill that center position and the minutes that he'll get out there and add a rim attack, a defensive presence, and just energy. I saw him playing with Sac and that was something that always stood out. He could run the floor. He could put pressure on the rim on both ends, and I think for him, especially defensively, he can be a huge spark plug for us, kind of man the paint, blocking shots, and just being a force at the rim on both ends, and excited for him to have the opportunity to play with a team that hopefully is playing for something big. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports   |
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