Kerr details a unique collaboration process for a new breed of Warriors originally appeared on NBC Sports Bay Area
LAIE, Hawaii – Chaos is how Steve Kerr best describes the start of his first training camp as Warriors head coach in 2014. The ball was flying all over the gym and there were too many turnovers to count as the first-time head coach tried to. getting his team to buy in to play faster and faster than ever before. Kerr implemented his system and created a culture he knew he believed in, despite not having any coaching experience.
Admittedly, moments of doubt crept in.
“We weren’t very disciplined those first few days,” Kerr tells NBC Sports Bay Area in an exclusive interview. “I remember thinking, ‘Is this going to work? Do I know what the hell I’m doing?’
“Obviously, it evened out. It’s a good reminder for me that the first few days of training camp are always a little rough.”
The crazy chaos that Kerr had to shake his head early on quickly turned into controlled chaos, leading to 67 wins and the Warriors’ first championship in 40 years.
Golden State became the trendsetters of the modern NBA. Everyone was looking for ways to both be the Warriors, and beat the Warriors. As they launched 3-pointers left and right and from unthinkable distances, their competition began to catch up, or at least they tried to. The small ball revolution is thanks in large part to Kerr, as well as having the luxury of generational talent in Steph Curry, Klay Thompson, Draymond Green, Kevin Durant, Andre Iguodala and others to pull it off.
Now, the game has gotten bigger with frontcourt players getting more skilled and 7-footers stepping up behind the 3-point line. Development never stops, especially for a franchise that has gone to five straight NBA Finals and won four titles in an eight-year span.
“Trying to figure out the puzzle for a particular roster every year, it changes,” Kerr said. “You have to adapt and as a coach you just learn that every season is very different and just try to put kids in the best position to be successful.”
That’s the place Kerr finds himself in now three seasons removed from the Warriors’ most recent championship. Since knocking off the Boston Celtics over six games in 2022, the Warriors fell to a No. 6 seed that lost in the second round of the playoffs and then all the way down to a No. 10 seed in a season where they failed to make it. the finals.
This past summer was one of triumph for Kerr, winning a gold medal at the 2024 Paris Summer Olympics as the head coach of Team USA with Curry at his side. It was also a time for reflection and reassessment.
A bowel control will do that. Getting punched in the mouth by your Northern California rivals made the competitor in Kerr know that changes had to come.
The biggest change the Warriors face is life without Klay Thompson. With or without him, though, staying stagnant might not be an option for Kerr and the Warriors. The Warriors will still be a byproduct of Kerr’s four core values of joy, mindfulness, compassion and competitiveness. Much will remain the same, but it will be impossible to ignore the changes Kerr has added, especially to his offense.
Long before he won gold and bounced ideas off coaches Ty Lue, Erik Spoelstra and Mark Few, and even before that adding their own new trainers in Terry Stotts to bolster the offense and Jerry Stackhouse to get the Warriors back to being a top defensive team, Kerr took advantage of his unusually long offseason by picking the brains of others. Pride must be put aside to be a great leader, and Kerr was never one to refuse cooperation and absorb the teachings of others.
Specifically, he wants everything to be clear without any fog for a team that has only seven remaining from its 2022 championship group.
“I really used this past offseason before the Olympics to visit with other coaches, to ask a lot of questions, to find out what we can do better,” Kerr said, “and things became clearer with terminology.”
Driving to Santa Clara to sit in on one of 49ers head coach Kyle Shanahan’s meetings was an eye opener.
“He went through all of their actions on this play and he had such specific terminology and that was really helpful. We didn’t label a lot of things, we ran a lot of organic offenses in the past where we kind of gave them the freedom to roam and play outside of concepts .
“We label things, we try to make things a lot clearer, especially for our young players, so they know exactly what the cut is called, what the screen is called. So that’s a change for us and something we’re trying to do better, and I think it’s going to have a big impact.”
Chaos turned to championships faster than anyone could have imagined, including Kerr. A unique collaboration for a clearer understanding of everyone’s terminology is what Kerr believes will help the Warriors climb back up the NBA’s chaotic mountaintop to fight for championships again.
