Steve Kerr explains Warriors' plan for Jacob Evans next season

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The Warriors selected Jacob Evans with the No. 28 overall pick in the 2018 NBA Draft.

Evans was not part of the rotation as a rookie, and played in 21 G League games with the Santa Cruz Warriors.

"Our focus next year is squarely on player development," Golden State coach Steve Kerr told Tim Kawakami of The Athletic on Wednesday. "These last couple years have been more about generating as much rest as possible because we've had older teams.

"Suddenly we have a young team in need of development. I'm excited about that aspect of it. I think the focus of our coaching style and our emphasis next year whill shift."

So, Evans is going to play next season?

"I think so. We look at him as a point guard now that we know him after a year," Kerr said. "He'll play some point in Vegas [at Summer League]. I know that Andre [Iguodala] and Shaun [Livingston] both really like him. I talked to both players about him.

"They like the fact that he can make plays and sees the game and he's big and strong. Obviously not a great shooter, but you don't always have to be a great shooter to play in this league."

The 22-year-old went 4 of 15 from 3-point territory with Golden State and 18 of 59 (30.5 percent) from beyond the arc with Santa Cruz.

In college at Cincinnati, Evans shot 42 percent from deep as a sophomore and 37 percent as a junior. So, he has proven to be more than capable of knocking down the three-ball.

But the NBA distance is a major adjustment, and it's very possible that Evans never becomes a reliable shooter from 3-point territory.

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Klay Thompson will miss a large portion of the 2019-20 campaign because of his left ACL tear, so we could see Kerr put Steph Curry off the ball even more and allow Evans to distribute.

"I think we're gonna give Jacob every opportunity to handle the ball next year, come in and give us some minutes," Kerr said. "And then it's up to him to produce."

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