Cole: The focus of this season is on ball holders defense. Looking forward to Moody Pogekumingga Melton s performance

Today, Warriors head coach Cole was interviewed and talked about the team's outside defense in the new season.

Q:  Regarding the backcourt partner, what new knowledge did you have about Brandon (Podjemsky) and Buddy (Hilder) when they were in the second position with Stephen last year? Especially after Jimmy joined the team.

Cole:   Both of them performed very well. You know, Jimmy can make everyone better when he plays side by side with Jimmy in the second half of the season. Buddy was outstanding in the playoffs, especially in Game 7 in Houston, playing several key games for us. His shooting, competitiveness, defense – he performed very well in that series.

As for VP (Brendon), he is the one who can connect the game. I've been saying that when the VP is on the field, the game has logic. Even in the series against Minnesota, when he felt bad, the lineup combination was still reasonable and the ball flow was smooth. We could find Stephen on the weak side. These are the value that VPs can bring when they are on the scene. The result is also obvious, he has been one of our top plus or negative players in the past two seasons. These data will not deceive people, which is why he can get so much playing time.

Q:  What kind of defense do you expect the team to play this season? Also, how do you feel about the team's overall state at the moment?

Cole: I think this season, the top priority of defense may be "defense with the ball". Because behind the defense, we have excellent helping defenders like Dream Chasing, Al (Horford) and Jimmy. I think Moody will take on this role again. He did a very good job after the trade - to mark the ball holder, to the opponent's best player, and to really put pressure on the ball holder. This has become a role he is very adaptable to.

At the same time, this is also where we look forward to Brandon's continued progress, where JK (Kuminga) can really play a role, and where Melton can help us. Overall, I think this team has a stronger defense switching ability than last year's lineup. We will make adjustments to some things, but I'm looking forward to it.

I also mentioned yesterday that just Jimmy's joining makes us immediately better in defense, because his offense can force the opponent to make mistakes and fouls, thus directly improving our defense. So, having Jimmy alone has brought us a step further in the defensive end.