Steve Kerr Says How New Assistant Coach Frank Vogel Will Help Warriors

Defense slipped badly for the Golden State Warriors last season, as they ranked 17th in the NBA in defensive rating and finished 37-45, 10th in the Western Conference.

They beat the Los Angeles Clippers in the play-in tournament but lost at Phoenix two nights later, so the season ended without a playoff trip.

Fixing that end of the floor is the main reason Frank Vogel is now on head coach Steve Kerr's bench as associate head coach, and Kerr explained what that looks like after the second day of training camp.

"Frank is running the defense, obviously, so we're using some of his transition defensive drills, some of his rebounding drills," Kerr said, per Warriors Wire.

Kerr added that the team had been watching tape of the drill work Vogel ran in Dallas training camp last year, until Vogel told the group there would be no more Dallas tape because players do not like watching other teams, according to Heavy.

Kerr also called Vogel a great coach who is doing a really good job getting the players organized, and he said he is very confident the Warriors are going to have a good defense.

Vogel has been a head coach for four different franchises across 12 seasons, and he led the Los Angeles Lakers to the 2020 championship and took the Indiana Pacers to two conference finals, according to ESPN.

He spent the past two seasons with the Dallas Mavericks, starting as a consultant before moving to the bench last season, and ESPN reported he would step into a primary role in defensive game-planning after Terry Stotts left. Golden State added a coach with a title on his resume for exactly this reason.

This is a smart hire because the Warriors do not need a new identity on offense as long as guard Stephen Curry and forward Draymond Green are running the show.

What they need is more stops, more rebounds and better effort getting back in transition, and Kerr said those are exactly the areas Vogel is drilling in camp.

Handing one voice full control of the defense should also help every player learn the same rules and the same terms quickly.

The first look came Sunday in Honolulu, where Golden State lost 104-101 to the Clippers in the preseason opener.

The Warriors made just 6 of 33 three-point attempts, but the Clippers committed 22 turnovers, which is an encouraging sign for a defense that is still learning a new system.

Rookie forward Yaxel Lendeborg started and grabbed nine rebounds, and he has already caught Kerr's eye in camp.

Vogel will also have to do it without some important players early on, since forward Jimmy Butler is working back from a torn right ACL, guard Moses Moody is recovering from a torn left patellar tendon, and center Kristaps Porzingis is out indefinitely with a health issue while Kerr stays patient with his status.

The Warriors face the Lakers on Tuesday in the preseason, and the regular season opens Wednesday, Oct. 21, at the Lakers, which gives Vogel a little over two weeks to get this group organized.