Tag: steve kerr

Steve Kerr pleasantly surprised by NBA coaching list honor

Here’s the Bay Area News Group, via the San Jose Mercury News, on Warriors head coach Steve Kerr being pleasantly surprised by an NBA coaching list honor:

When the NBA’s list of the top 15 coaches of all time was released Tuesday, Warriors coach Steve Kerr said it was “shocking” to see his name on it.

Kerr, who has won three championships and taken his team to the Finals five times in eight seasons with Golden State, was one of four active coaches to earn the honor, which was decided by a voting panel of all 30 current head coaches and 13 more former head men.

“I didn’t anticipate that,” Kerr said Wednesday before tipoff against the Utah Jazz. “It was very humbling and an incredible honor to see my name on that list. But I also know it’s a direct result of having incredible talent on our roster. If you look at that list, pretty much every coach would agree the reason they’re on there is because they were blessed with great talent and then were able to have success.”

With eight seasons under his belt, Kerr is the most junior of all of the coaches on the list, but his .696 winning percentage is second only to Phil Jackson and his three NBA championships are more than all but four others: Jackson (11), Red Auerbach (9), Pat Riley (5), Gregg Popovich (5).

Kerr’s success has continued this season, as the Warriors are only behind the Phoenix Suns in overall league standings.

Steve Kerr has funny reaction to idea of Warriors playing like Rockets

Before you read this, be clear that this appears to be a light-hearted, not-that-serious conversation.

With that disclaimer in place, enjoy this from the San Francisco Chronicle:

Golden State Warriors head coach Steve Kerr respects what Houston Rockets guard James Harden does on the court, but has no interest in modeling his team’s offense after the former MVP’s style of play.

While appearing on The TK Show podcast with The Athletic’s Tim Kawakami, Kerr spoke about not “reinventing the wheel” with a fully healthy Dubs roster next season.

“We’re still going to be the Warriors,” he said. “We’re not going to all of a sudden turn into the Rockets and change our offense and have one guy go high pick-and-roll 70 times a game.”

When Kawakami responded with a joke that Kerr should upend his offensive philosophy and embrace isolation basketball, Kerr responded, “I think I would resign first.”

Of course, the Rockets play like they do in part because they have no forwards or centers that actually create their own offense. So for them, it makes sense to have James Harden, with help from Russell Westbrook, create practically everything. The Warriors are certainly guard-heavy in the talent and scoring department, but Draymond Green’s passing ability is a weapon, and although his scoring ability is limited, he’s still useful and versatile on the offensive side of the floor. He’s also not as good a three-point shooter as someone like Rockets forward PJ Tucker, so stashing Green in the corner for him to only shoot threes would be a waste of Green’s talents.

Steve Kerr discusses the past Warriors season

The Warriors had a rough season in 2019-20. And yes, that’s putting it very mildly. But, had Stephen Curry been active all season? Things still would have been tough, says head coach Steve Kerr. Here’s NBC Sports Bay Area reporting:

When 95.7 The Game’s Damon Bruce asked Kerr what Golden State’s season would’ve looked like with Curry healthy the whole year, Kerr said the Warriors still would’ve faced an uphill climb into contention.

“Well to be honest, I think it still would’ve been a struggle, Damon,” Kerr said on “Damon, Ratto & Kolsky.” “I think there were just too many factors that were going against us. Obviously, we would’ve won a lot more games. Steph is so talented that he would’ve undoubtedly won plenty of games on his own.”

Curry, Draymond Green, Kevon Looney and Jacob Evans were the only Warriors who dressed in Game 6 of the 2019 NBA Finals and in the first game of the 2019-20 regular season. The Warriors had seven new players in their opening-night lineup, aside from Damion Lee, who played 32 games with Golden State during the previous regular season but none in the playoffs.

The Warriors still have a lot of work to do in free agency this coming offseason. Their frontcourt is thin and their bench is limited. On paper, they should be a good team in 2020-21. Certainly a playoff team. But as for contending for a championship, roster moves need to happen.

Steve Kerr hotel check-in alias used to be ‘Austin Powers’

Here’s NBC Sports Chicago reporting a fun item from the Bulls’ past:

In news that really only would have made sense in 1997 or 1998, it appears current Warriors coach Steve Kerr used “Austin Powers” as his alias to check into hotel rooms on road trips while playing with the Chicago Bulls.

NBC Sports Chicago’s Rob Schaefer deduced Kerr’s nom de plume after examining a list of road-trip room assignments that ’97-98 Bulls reserve Rusty LaRue shared on Twitter. Schaefer found that the list, which wasn’t presented in alphabetical order, closely corresponded with an A-Z list of Chicago’s roster from that season.

How Steve Kerr learned to not yell at Klay Thompson

Different players react to coaching and motivational methods in different ways. A huge part of being a basketball coach is learning how to share information and instructions to players in a manner that the player will understand and, just as importantly, accept.

As for the Warriors, here’s NBC Sports Bay Area reporting on head coach Steve Kerr and what he learned about coaching shooting guard Klay Thompson:

“My very first season, I lit into Klay. I took an early timeout, lit into Klay, and he didn’t respond very well,” Kerr said on the Runnin’ Plays Podcast. “And he went out and was kind of rattled, made a couple mistakes.”

Confused, Kerr solicited advice from folks around the eccentric guard, then in his fourth NBA season, and found that Thompson is more receptive to a different style of coaching.

“I kind of checked that box,” Kerr said. “I said, ‘Klay’s not a guy who’s going to respond to yelling.’ ”

The adjustment worked.

After racking up multiple championships, then seeing the departure of Kevin Durant, all while suffering a big stack of injuries, the Warriors were at the bottom of the league in 2019-20. It’ll be interesting to see what they’re able to do in the next offseason in building up a supporting cast for 2020-21.

To Warriors coach Steve Kerr, the NBA season feels over

The NBA season has been put on hold since mid March. But it hasn’t officially been canceled. Though, it certainly won’t surprise anyone if that’s what winds up happening. And soon. Here’s ESPN.com reporting what Warriors head coach Steve Kerr said on Tuesday:

As the NBA continues to try to find ways to salvage the end of its season as the world deals with the coronavirus pandemic, Golden State Warriors coach Steve Kerr acknowledged that his team is operating as if its season is over.

“It feels like the offseason,” Kerr said during a video conference call in conjunction with the University of San Francisco on Tuesday. “And, in fact, we had a Zoom call, Bob Myers and I got on a Zoom with our players, our whole roster last week. And it was just a chance to check in, but it was also a chance for Bob to update the players on his contact with the league and the latest news, but it also kind of felt like our annual team exit meeting. Our coaching staff and I have been undergoing staff evaluations, offseason plans, so we are absolutely in offseason mode right now.”

As other teams in playoff contention try to keep their teams focused on a possible resumption of play, Kerr said that though the Warriors remain in communication with all their players and staffers, the team isn’t concerned about a possible resumption, given that Golden State had a league-worst 15-50 record when the season was suspended on March 11.

Clarity on the matter will likely come sometime in May.

Steve Kerr expects contract extension talks to go smoothly

Head coach Steve Kerr is obviously having great success with his star-filled Warriors team. There’s no reason to even think that the two sides won’t continue together. Here’s the SF Chronicle with the latest on upcoming contract extension talks between the two sides:

Steve Kerr expects contract extension talks to go smoothly

“We’ll get that done pretty quickly,” Kerr said Monday. “I don’t think there will be much to it. It should happen relatively quickly.”

Kerr and Golden State began to discuss an extension last summer, but Kerr opted to wait a year for final discussions to be sure he was healthy enough to make a long-term commitment. Now, after coaching every game in the Warriors’ run to the 2017-18 NBA championship, Kerr is ready to sign an extension.

“Whenever he wants to start, we’ll figure it out,” general manager Bob Myers said. “I think the nice thing is we developed a camaraderie and we feel like he wants to be here. We want him here. We’ll work it out.”

Kerr, 52, rebuffed an offer from the Knicks in May 2014 and signed a five-year, $25 million contract with the Warriors.

Steve Kerr not ready to return to coaching yet

The Warriors are doing just fine — okay, way better than fine — so far in the 2017 NBA Playoffs. They’re 12-0 and will play the Cavaliers on Thursday in Game 1 of the NBA Finals. But they remain without head coach Steve Kerr. Here’s the San Jose Mercury News with the latest update:

Steve Kerr not ready to return to coaching yet

Steve Kerr made a surprise appearance in front of reporters after the Warriors’ practice on Monday, filling in for his fill-in, Mike Brown, who was out with the flu.

Kerr updated his own health status in an 11-minute interview with reporters, saying he’s still unsure whether he will coach Game 1 of the NBA Finals against the Cavaliers on Thursday night, though it sounds unlikely.

“No. As of right now, I would not coach Thursday night,” Kerr said. “But it’s still up in the air. Waiting for that ‘ahhhhhh’ (moment). It’s coming.”

It sounds like Kerr has set a deadline for himself, saying he doesn’t want it to be a night-by-night decision about whether he can return to the sideline throughout the Finals. He wants to make a firm decision, either way, before Game 1 tips off.

Steve Kerr wins 2015-2016 NBA Coach of Year

Steve Kerr wins 2015-2016 NBA Coach of Year award

Golden State Warriors head coach Steve Kerr, whose team won a league-record 73 games, has won the Red Auerbach Trophy as the 2015-16 NBA Coach of the Year. He is the Warriors’ first winner since coach Don Nelson in the 1991-92 season.

Kerr, in his second season as Warriors head coach, got 64 first-place votes and 381 total points from a panel of 130 sportswriters and broadcasters throughout the United States and Canada. The Portland Trail Blazers’ Terry Stotts, who guided his team to the playoffs with four new starters, finished second with 37 first-place votes and 335 total points. Three-time winner Gregg Popovich of the San Antonio Spurs was third with 10 first-place votes and 166 total points. Coaches were awarded five points for each first-place vote, three points for each second-place vote and one point for each third-place vote.

Under Kerr and assistant coach Luke Walton, who served as interim head coach until Kerr returned from back-surgery complications in January, the Warriors (73-9) posted the best regular-season record in league history, eclipsing the 1995-96 Chicago Bulls (72-10). The defending NBA champions opened the season 24-0, the best start in league history, which pushed their overall regular-season winning streak to 28 games, the second longest of all time.

The Warriors set NBA records for single-season road victories (34) and consecutive home regular-season wins (54, including 18 victories to finish last season), and went 39-2 at Oracle Arena for the second season in a row. Golden State also became the first team to go through a season without losing two games in a row or losing to the same team twice.