About 3 hours before the Warriors tipped off against the Lakers in Game 4 of their second-round playoff series, NBA insider Shams Charania announced that Golden State intended to start Gary Payton II and go small.
The leaked report came about two-and-a-half hours before teams officially have to submit starting lineups, so the Lakers and their coaching staff got a bit of a headstart on their preparations.
Steve Kerr looked a bit peeved while joking with reporters about Shams breaking the starting lineup before Monday’s game. During his weekly appearance on 95.7 The Game’s “Willard & Dibs” Tuesday, Kerr explained how it’s like to have a mole in the building.
“You never like your business out there in public, stuff that you’re trying to keep in-house,” Kerr told hosts Mark Willard and Dan Dibley. “When it makes it out when you’re two hours away from when the starting lineup goes out, and it’s announced on Twitter by someone who’s not affiliated with the team, it’s not the greatest feeling as a coach. Welcome to 2023. It’s really, really hard to keep anything under wraps.”
Shams loves to break news, as he even went out of his lane and spoiled the No. 1 overall pick of the NFL Draft last week. If he has something solid, he’s probably going to report it. Kerr’s issue is centered on the source of Shams’ info.
For reference, here’s the original clip from Monday, when Kerr said Shams was getting his intel from a “special correspondent” with the Warriors. Kerr’s response elicited laughter, but you can tell he’s upset.
On its face, the leak only goes to hurt the Warriors competitively, so Kerr has to be uneasy that someone within the building or affiliated with the team is willing to share inside info. Maybe Payton’s agents wanted the story out there to make their client look good, but that only hurts his team in the end, so the motivations from any would-be source are unclear.
Does the source simply love the clout of telling Shams news before the world knows?
“I don’t know,” Kerr said. “If I had an answer for you, I would tell you. I have no idea.”
This leak pales in comparison to October, when video surfaced from the team facility of Draymond Green’s devastating punch on Jordan Poole. Major organizational trust issues form when an incident like that blows up, as the Warriors said they’d handle the incident internally. Other lineup leaks have occurred throughout the season, so you have to assume the Warriors will be trying to find the rat.
