No Kerr, No Problem
Steve Kerr has had the greatest start to a head coaching career in the history of the NBA. However, his legacy is at least questionable, considering how much time he has missed, and the team’s success without him.
It’s the day before game 1 of the NBA Finals between the Cavs and Warriors, capping off what many consider to be one of the most boring postseasons in a long time. I think those same people will bite their tongue 15–20 years from now when they grasp the true greatness of these championship runs, and understand what this era of players have meant to the evolution of the game. This is the third matchup between two teams that have remained the same at the core, the biggest difference being the addition of Kevin Durant by Golden State. However, I want to discuss another piece that differs from the first two years, and that is the absence of Steve Kerr as the head coach of the Warriors. As much as can be made about the interim coach Mike Brown, and his history with Cleveland and Lebron, the bigger story to me is what the absence of Kerr over the last two years does to his legacy as one of the winningest coaches to start his career.
When I was a freshmen in high school my baseball team went undefeated, none of the games even being close. During practice every day, we would drill for small amounts of time, take BP, and then what I remember being a lot of purely fucking around playing whiffle ball. This was a small town, so we had the chemistry of playing together since we were kids, and it translated to success in game situations, even though we didn’t necessarily dedicate ourselves to preparation. There was this understanding by the coaches that what we were doing was kind of independent from them, and they were there primarily babysitters. We could have had virtually any responsible adult coach that team. Clearly this is a faulty comparison to the Golden State Warriors. However, they are that level of elite to this point, that you at least get the feeling that a large number of people could coach this team to success. We saw it last year, when Steve Kerr missed the first 43 games and Luke Walton took over without missing a beat. He lead that team to such an incredible start it landed him his own gig with the Lakers. Now here we are about to start the Finals, and the Warriors are 12–0 without Kerr. It’s not to take anything away from his accomplishments, however it has been interesting to see what this team looks like without him on the court. I understand he’s still heavily involved with game planning and personnel, but so much of great coaching has to do with a presence and leadership in the moment. You watch Pat Riley, especially in his time with the Knicks. Although he never led them to the promise land, he exemplified a grittiness that would’ve been a gaping hole had he not been on the court.
I would’ve been interested to see what some of those Phil Jackson Bulls and Lakers teams would’ve looked like had he needed extended time with interim coaches. You wonder what other guys would’ve been able to do with Shaq and Kobe or MJ and Pippen. We’ll never know, however we do have empirical evidence to show that this Warriors team plays at least as good without Kerr on the bench. I intend to take nothing away from Steve Kerr, as I think he is not only a brilliant basketball mind, but an outstanding human being. It’s just an unprecedented situation as I cannot remember any other time where the head coach of a dynasty has missed this much time. However, maybe this is just another reason why this Golden State Warriors team is one of the greatest we’ve ever seen.
