Golden State Warriors—From Santa Cruz to San Francisco
Seth Cooper: A big role of Santa Cruz is being able to support the Golden State Warriors.
Anthony Vereen: When Steve got here, I definitely felt like it kind of changed and the synergy was felt even on the Santa Cruz side.
Steve Kerr: I think the Santa Cruz operation has been a huge success story for the Warriors. From where it was when I came in nine years ago to now is really dramatic.
Anthony: 2014 was when I really felt like, "Hey, I belong not just in Santa Cruz Warriors, but I'm a part of the Golden State Warriors." Especially in big games that we had, you would see Klay and Draymond and Steph come to the games. You just felt a part of the whole organization. We were all pulling in the same directions.
Steve: Back then, there really wasn't a lot of contact between the coaching staffs. Now, the Santa Cruz coaching staff takes part in our training camp every year and in Summer League and in our preseason discussions about how we're going to play. Now we're looking at a situation where we run the same plays on offense. We have the same terminology defensively. Seth Cooper and I talk all the time, sharing information about our young players who are going back and forth.
Seth:
Us giving them the support of our team and our coaching staff and us having a little more bodies and sometimes practice days that those guys can come and build up through their rehab, like Steph Curry has, like Klay Thompson did last year and practice with our team. To also supporting the players that aren't getting minutes and that are playing low minutes and allowing them to come play in games and practices and continue to develop when those game opportunities are not there with Golden State. Another big advantage that Santa Cruz provides is we have 10 players that are as close to NBA players as you can get that aren't in the NBA, and to be able to use our team and have our team support them with that, and then for our players to get the experience of playing against some of those guys, that allows our players to be better, but also allows us to support Golden State in that matter as well.
Steve: It's really developed into a fantastic sort of funnel from the players there leading to better development so that they're more prepared when they arrive here. I think the Santa Cruz franchise is something that we're all really very proud of.
