Stackhouse holding newly motivated Warriors defense accountable originally appeared on NBC Sports Bay Area

Someone clearly lit a fire under the Warriors’ defense this season, and you should look no further than new assistant coach Jerry Stackhouse.

Golden State forward Draymond Green spoke to reporters after the team’s impressive 104-89 win over the New Orleans Pelicans on Wednesday at Chase Center, where he was asked about the impact Stackhouse has made early on in his first season with the team.

“He’s adding a fire and a level of accountability to us on the defensive end. He came in kind of implementing some sort of defensive rules,” Green said of Stackhouse. “If you know anything about the NBA, [it’s that] we all run the same stuff. And he’s coming back from college, obviously. Stack’s a legend, [he has] 17-18,000 points in this league.”

Stackhouse, a former 18-year NBA veteran, most recently served as the head coach at Vanderbilt for five seasons before joining Steve Kerr’s staff as an assistant this summer.

Primarily focused on the Warriors’ defense, Stackhouse, upon his arrival, implemented a few new rules that the team, despite its initial hesitation, has grown to appreciate early on this season.

“But he came in with a couple different rules where everyone was like ‘eh,’ but he was so confident and he was so vocal about it and every time you got it wrong he’d teach you ‘That’s not it, I know you’ve done it that way. That’s not it,'” Green added “And when someone comes in with that type of force, that type of confidence and presence, as a player you have no choice but to believe it.

“And he’s given guys a level of confidence on the defensive end that we haven’t had. But like I said, more importantly, a level of accountability that we haven’t had over the last couple years. That’s all he talks about, he don’t say a word about the offensive end. Only defense. And he’s on guys every single play.”

One of the off-the-court changes Stackhouse has made is leading directly to better defense on the court.

The new Warriors coach has implemented a system where each player now receives a grade, based on certain criteria, for their defensive performance in a game.

“He has these defensive grades that he sends out every game, and you see guys going up to him like it’s competitive now,” Green explained. “You get dinged for everything, one small thing and your grade is dropping. And it’s like a list of everything you do. And you don’t want to see that list and you got a lot of dings on it.

“So there’s just a level of accountability that he’s brought to that side of the ball for us and he’s created this challenge where everybody’s trying to be at the top of this list. In turn, it’s creating good defense for us.”

Unlike your average uninspired high school teen, the Warriors strive for good grades across the board.

Through four games this season, Golden State has the second-best defensive rating (98.4), is allowing the second-fewest points per game (99.4) has the third-most steals (11.6) and the sixth-most blocks (6.8).

It’s safe to say Stackhouse’s methods have been well-received.

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