No one could have expected this. Not Kerr, not Mike Dunleavy — who maneuvered up and down the late second round to acquire Post on draft night — and maybe not even Post himself.
Post picked up basketball when he was 11 years old in Amsterdam after spending his early years honing his hand-eye coordination by playing goalkeeper on the pitch. Not long after, he discovered his proclivity for long-range precision.
One game in the Dutch Under-14 league, Post recalls, he went 6-for-6 from behind the 3-point arc in a single quarter.
Growing up, Post would study Youtube videos of some of his favorite NBA players, like Dirk Nowitzki. His dad, Arjen Post, would often shoot free throws with his son. He taught Quinten to angle his shooting arm and elbow in a square, a technique he still uses with the Warriors.
Post sprouted up from around 6-foot-6 to 7-feet when he was 18, Arjen said. He was playing for an amateur club in Berlin, where the coaches empowered him to shoot in a five-out system. Coaches there, his trainer back home in Amsterdam — Jard Schuit — and Boston College assistant coach Anthony Goins helped Post hone his jumper through his growth spurt.
It all helped Post make a quick impression as a pro.
Shortly before training camp, most of the Warriors assembled for pickup runs in the Bay. Draymond Green joined after working out for most of the summer in Los Angeles. He’d heard Post could shoot, so he set him up to see what the rookie could do.
Pick-and-pop, cash. Spot-up, splash. Green and Post won seven straight games.
“I started talking crazy to everybody, like, ‘You better stop helping off him,’” Green said. “I remember walking to the side after that and telling them, like yo, this kid can help us. He can shoot, but he’s pretty good defensively. Good verticality, moving his feet well. [Anthony Vereen] in particular, I’m like ‘AV, don’t give me a shooter. You see what we do with Steph Curry, don’t put a shooter on our team.’”
Post was so impressive, Dunleavy texted Kerr about the run.
“That was the first indication that we might actually be able to play him this year,” Kerr said.
His preseason was slowed by a calf injury and he needed seasoning in the G League, but Post’s call-up in January was a mini-boost before the Jimmy Butler explosion. The Warriors needed his 3-point shooting so badly, they inserted him into the starting lineup for seven games. By February, he was hitting “no-dip” threes:
