Steve Kerr and his Golden State Warriors are moving on to the semifinals for the western division. Golden State, the No. 6 seed in the West just knocked off the No. 3 seed, the Sacramento Kings in seven games. The Warriors star Steph Curry scored 50 points to secure the victory. Steve Kerr is 19-0 in playoff series vs Western Conference teams and the Warriors are the defending Champs.
Why is Steve Kerr one of the best coaches in the NBA? There are several reasons.
Why is Steve Kerr one of the best coaches in the NBA? There are several reasons: He never gives up on his team, he understands how to get stars to play together as a team, and he makes adjustments to get the win when he has to. Kerr is greatly respected by his players, which is more than I can say about other teams’ coaches. Just reviewing Kerr’s professional resume’ is mind-blowing:
NBA Player Experience (drafted in 1988 / Round: 2 / Pick: 50th overall):
1988–1989 Phoenix Suns (Coach John Wetzel)
1989–1992 Cleveland Cavaliers (Coach Lenny Wilkens)
1992–1993 Orlando Magic (Coach Chuck Daly)
1993–1998 Chicago Bulls (Coach Phil Jackson)
1999–2001 San Antonio Spurs (Coach Gregg Popovich)
2001–2002 Portland Trail Blazers (Coach Maurice Cheeks)
2002–2003 San Antonio Spurs (Coach Gregg Popovich)
Points: 5,437 (6.0 ppg)
Rebounds: 1,060 (1.2 rpg)
Assists: 1,658 (1.8 apg)
Coaching Experience:
2014–present Golden State Warriors
NBA Career Highlights and Awards:
As player:
- 5× NBA champion (1996–1999, 2003)
- NBA Three-Point Contest champion (1997)
- Second-team All-American – AP (1988
- Third-team All-American – NABC (1988)
- 2× First-team All-Pac-10 (1986, 1988)
- No. 25 retired by Arizona Wildcats
As coach:
- 4× NBA champion (2015, 2017, 2018, 2022)
- NBA Coach of the Year (2016)
- 2× NBA All-Star Game head coach (2015, 2017)
- Top 15 Coaches in NBA History
Other:
FIBA World Championship: Gold Medal – 1986 Spain – USA National team
2020 Tokyo Olympic Games – Gold Medal – Assistant coach for the United States
Steve Kerr never gives up on his team; he believes in his players
In his first season coaching Steph Curry, he felt he was watching Curly Neal of the Harlem Globe Trotters. Lute Olson, Gregg Popovich, and Phil Jackson’s voices were in his head telling him Steph was making bad shots while dribbling through traffic shooting fade-away threes. If you watched him on the sidelines Kerr looked disappointed and unhappy. But “Steph makes that shot over 40 percent of the time,” so his mind changed and he learned to let Steph shoot any shot he wants to.
In this last playoff series against the much improved Sacramento Kings, with his ex-assistant coach Mike Brown who also won coach of the year this season, the Warriors struggled to win the fourth game at home and had to take their talents to Sacramento to win game 7. The Warriors brought back Gary Payton Jr. and relied on former UCLA Bruin Kevin Looney. “I think Loon is one of the best centers in the league. I really do… this guy is a flat-out winner, and he’s a machine. We wouldn’t be here without him.” said Steve Kerr post-game.
Between Steph’s 50 points and Looney’s 21 rebounds and 11 points and Kerr’s change in strategy for game 7, the Warriors were victorious. Kerr also didn’t give up on Draymond Green even though he got suspended a game for stepping on Domantas Sabonis’s rib cage. Draymond played excellently in game 5 scoring 21 points and grabbing 7 rebounds. He didn’t pull Draymond because he had a hot hand and his defense at the end of the game won the game for Kerr and the Warriors.
A lot of media types and fans lost confidence in Klay Thompson after he returned from injury, but Kerr didn’t bench him he played him. Thompson is averaging 20.6 points this postseason and is making 88.0 percent of his free throws.
Steve Kerr gets his team of stars to play together
“These guys are champions, defending champions from a year ago, four in the last eight years, these guys know the deal,” Kerr said after game 7 on Monday night.
Who can stop Steph Curry? Steph was asked this question, here is his answer: “Hopefully we never find out.” Draymond also spoke on his teammate, “When he’s locked in and laser-focused there’s not many defenses in the world that can stop him.”
Since 2014, Kerr has worked on getting his team to respect each other. He has also created a safe space for players to speak their minds. While that way of managing these huge personalities has produced instances like a punch in the face (Draymond to Jordan Poole), it has also proved positive.
Case in point: The team has stayed focused throughout the playoffs so far. It’s not easy but it is essential to winning championships. Kerr. has won four NBA Championships with this same set of stars: Andre Iguodala, Draymond Green, Seth Curry, and Klay Thompson. Granted, they won with Kevin Durrant one year, but that also proves Kerr is great at getting his stars to play team basketball.
Steve Kerr asked his fellow Wildcat Alum Andre Iguodala to come off the bench and be the sixth man. He complied. Then he won the NBA Championship MVP award. In 2023, his role as a veteran, being injured, is cheering and coaching from the bench after fracturing his left wrist on March 13 against the Phoenix Suns.
“Coach [Kerr] is the best of being able to paint a picture of how you’re going to help this team, and being real. Like, you feel that care factor that he brings,” explained Steph Curry to his former teammate Matt Barnes on the January 2022 All The Smoke Podcast, “He’s special, he’s wise just in terms of how to manage people; gotta be honest, know how to get the most out guys — You always know where you’re at, if you get a couple of DNP’s you’ll know why.” Curry feels Kerr engages all 15 players all year long, and that players feel the “Care Factor” from him. According to Stephen Jackson, who played with Kerr on the Spurs, Kerr is a great motivator and he’s so educated about the game.
Steve Kerr makes adjustments to get the win when he has too
In Game 4, Steve Kerr told Mike Brown that the Warriors had “new plays.” It was said in jest, but it begs the question: Did the Warriors really use new plays? According to Joe Viray, “It’s more about tweaking and modifying old notions than creating wholly new ones. Their ‘Gaggle’ split action has been one of their staples over the past couple of years. But Kerr has been experimenting with faking the Gaggle action and turning it into double split screens. He went one further against the Kings and turned it into triple split screens.”
Viray points out that Kerr makes subtle changes to win games. Like capitalizing on the ‘Head Tap’ cross-screen action set reserved for Andrew Wiggins and Jonathan Kuminga and calling it for “Curry with a few tweaks in screening angles.”
Kerr thought his team’s spacing in Game 6 wasn’t good, so he focused on spacing for Game 7. When asked for other adjustments, Kerr reminded the media his team will play the Lakers next.
Kerr makes sure his players get rests, he plans them out for Curry, gives him at least four rests during scheduled time-outs, but also makes sure he takes a time out so Curry can regroup. Sometimes it’s just knowing your team. He’s basically kept the same core squad for 10 years (almost unheard of in the NBA), so he knows his team now thrives on tough situations. They lost game 6 and turned on the burners in an away Game 7.
Good luck against the Lakers Steve, it should be fun. Kind of like a Finals for some in California, this series will be fun to watch, but Kerr has the upper hand on coaching, so the Warriors have the stars, the coach, and the edge. Shaquille O’Neal and Kenny Smith agreed with us last night after the Suns lost to the Nuggets on TNT.
"I still like the Lakers... I think it's gonna be a great series."
— NBA on TNT (@NBAonTNT) May 2, 2023
Chuck makes his prediction for Warriors-Lakers 👀 pic.twitter.com/JzVkHaDLza
Don’t forget to follow us at @ZonaZealots on Twitter and like our fan page on Facebook for continued coverage of Arizona news, opinions, and recruiting updates!