Steve Kerr could become a Jeopardy! clue later this spring:
“This man won 140 games in back-to-back NBA seasons and didn’t win a Coach of the Year Award.”
Absurd, right? It could happen.
This is the time of the year when NBA people discuss end-of-season awards. The playoff teams are almost all identified, but the matchups aren’t yet set, and the Golden State Warriors have two days off before playing for 73, so it makes sense. People need something to talk (and write) about.
It’s incredible to me that when people discuss the 2016 Coach of the Year, Steve Kerr is often left completely out of the conversation. Yes, that’s correct. The head coach of the team that has tied, and has a chance to break, the 1996 Chicago Bulls’ 72-win record, is somehow not considered to have done the best coaching job in the Association.
Before I talk about how ridiculous this is, let’s revisit the ridiculousness that took place one year ago.
Steve Kerr took over a 51-win Warrior team. That win total is a little deceiving, however. If the Warriors were really that good and on a trajectory to improve, it’s unlikely that they would have jettisoned their previous coach, Mark Jackson. Management believed the team was under-performing relative to the talent level, and felt that a change was needed.
This will go down in history as one of the bravest, smartest coaching changes of all time. Not only did the brass fire a coach who had been to the playoffs twice and just won 51 games; they replaced him with a man who had never coached basketball at any level. Steve Kerr, though, had played 15 years in the league. He counted among his coaches Phil Jackson, Gregg Popovich and Lute Olson, and he paid attention. In addition, Kerr spent seven seasons as the top color commentator on TNT, where he prepared immaculately for every game.
He knew the league as well as anyone.
Kerr had also served as the general manager of the Phoenix Suns for three successful years. He resigned when the Suns’ owner wanted to cut salaries in the basketball operations department after the team went to the Western Conference Finals in 2010. This is an example of the kind of principled stand he takes, and for an example of what that inspires, you need look no further than his assistant David Griffin, who refused to be considered for the job.
Griffin has done quite well for himself in subsequent years, to say the very least.
People tend to look at Kerr and think he glided in, took over a 51-win team that had Steph Curry, and is just reaping the benefits. It’s easy to think that, if you don’t live in the Bay Area and all you see are highlights. The road to last year’s championship was filled with landmines, all of which Kerr artfully disarmed. Steph Curry didn’t like the move, for one thing. Kerr had to win him over, and it’s a tribute to his personal magnetism that he was able to do it.
Photo courtesy Ray Chavez/Bay Area News Group
Then there was the “What do we do with Harrison Barnes?” issue. Barnes had regressed dramatically in his second season under Mark Jackson, and had lost his spot in the starting lineup. Kerr and Luke Walton, both alumni of the University of Arizona, convinced fellow Wildcat Andre Iguodala to give up his starting spot to Barnes and become the leader of the second unit. Now it seems natural, but Iguodala was a former All-Star and a career starter, and it was not easy for him to accept this move. Kerr pulled it off.
David Lee, another former All-Star and career starter, got hurt before the start of the 2014-2015 season. Draymond Green was inserted into that spot. The Warriors won their first three games by an average of 15 points. Lee played 6 minutes in the fourth game of the season, aggravating the injury. By the time he was ready to play again, the team was 23-2. Kerr made the decision to bring Lee off the bench, and while it’s true that Lee didn’t have a say in the matter, he did have a say in how he handled it.
Again, Kerr’s ability to personally connect with Lee helped the veteran accept the demotion, and he became the biggest cheerleader for Green. When Green struggled in the Finals, Lee came off the bench and played very well, perfectly running the pick-and-roll with Curry. Green picked it back up from there, and everyone forgot the contribution Lee made.
Well, everyone except the Warriors. I have never seen a team that loves a former player more than the Warriors love David Lee. Steve Kerr is a big reason why.
The jump from 51 to 67 wins wasn’t just the product of Kerr’s personality; the offense was completely overhauled. The assistant coaches he brought in were all super-smart, experienced guys, a 200-percent improvement over the staff Jackson surrounded himself with. Because of these assistants, the “player development” piece was breathtaking then. It remains breathtaking now.
Green, Festus Ezeli, Barnes, Klay Thompson, and even Curry have all improved so much in the past two years that they’re almost unrecognizable compared to when Jackson was the coach. As a group, they went from the team making the fewest passes per game to the team making the most passes per game overnight.
However, when it came time to hand out the hardware at the end of the 2015 season, Atlanta’s Mike Budenholzer won the award. The Hawks improved their record by 22 games, going 60-22. No doubt he did a fine job, but he was in year two of his program, whereas Kerr changed the Warriors culture immediately. Kerr finished a fairly close second. The Warriors had the fifth-best (tied with three other teams) record in the history of the NBA.
One year later, here we are again.
The name most mentioned in the Coach of the Year race is Terry Stotts, who has guided the Portland Trail Blazers to a surprising 43-38 record with one game left. The Blazers lost most of their starting lineup this season, and were expected to struggle, maybe even flounder. I get that, but Kerr had his own challenges this year and led his team to a record-tying 72 wins with one game to go.
Consider this:
In the last 25 years, only three teams have won the NBA championship and then improved their win totals the following year.
Here they are:
- 2005 Spurs — 59 wins; 2006 Spurs — 63 wins (lost in West semifinals)
- 2001 Lakers — 56 wins; 2002 Lakers — 58 wins (won NBA title)
- 1991 Bulls — 61 wins; 1992 Bulls — 67 wins (won NBA title)
As you can see, only one team had a six-game improvement, as the Warriors have a chance to do this year. The 1993 Bulls did not improve on their 67-win 1992 season. Nobody has even come close to improving on a 67-win season, as the Warriors have already done this year.
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Before I close, let me address Kerr’s absence from the team for the first 43 wins of this season.
Luke Walton undeniably did a great job, but the detail which gets underemphasized — to the point of being lost — is that Walton did an excellent job of running Steve Kerr’s program.
Walton said it over and over again — he was in constant contact with Kerr, discussed all major issues with him, and because they had already worked together for a year, everyone knew what Steve wanted in year two.
Did you notice that when Kerr came back, the team, which had gotten very wobbly over the previous three weeks or so, instantly returned to its early-season form? That’s when the Warriors beat Cleveland and San Antonio by 30 points, one week apart. You could actually make an argument that had Kerr not missed those games, the Warriors could be sitting on 74 or 75 right now rather than 72.
The only silver lining in all of this is that I want Steve Kerr to win this award much more than he does. He is truly all about the team and the championship, and if Terry Stotts is named Coach of the Year, Kerr will be among the first to call and congratulate him.
I, however, am not nearly as magnanimous and will spend some time in a bitter funk.
Just like last year.
