Steve Kerr is going to be on the Warriors’ team plane ride down to San Antonio on Thursday afternoon, perhaps the most encouraging news surrounding his health we’ve heard in the last month. Bob Myers broke that news on 95.7 The Game Wednesday afternoon.
Kerr and his doctors are still deliberating whether he’ll return to the sidelines this season. The success Mike Brown and the team are having — and the major role Kerr is still playing — has to be a part of the discussion.
In the last week, Kerr’s had an increased role at practice, he’s giving halftime speeches to the Warriors — and most importantly — he’s been making seamless coaching adjustments away from the sidelines that are working on the basketball court. He’s still steering this ship.
In Game 2, Mike Brown relayed to the media it was Kerr’s idea to give Patrick McCaw the role of Andre Iguodala. The rookie barely played against Utah but quite possibly had the best game of his young career at the most opportune time (18 points and 5 assists in 27 minutes). Kerr also stressed to the Warriors that playing with a sense of urgency from the very start would be vital against Gregg Popovich in Game 2. Golden State led by 17 at the end of the first quarter and scored 72 points by halftime. In Game 1, it was more isolations and pick-and-rolls instead of rapid ball movement.
It’s obvious: Kerr is still pulling the strings here.
“He’s our leader,” Brown said at a recent practice. “We’re in this position predominately because of him.”
Just as it was ludicrous to say the Warriors were better without Kevin Durant, it’s ludicrous to say Golden State is better without Kerr.
With that being said, the Warriors might not necessarily need Kerr on the bench to win the NBA Finals. The players have been receptive to his big picture adjustments, and this two-coach system with Brown has Golden State playing its best basketball in any of the last three postseasons. The acting head coach has now guided the Warriors to eight consecutive postseason victories.
Is this one of those rare times in sports you don’t mess with the positive energy? You ride the hot-hand to keep everything feeling the same? You let Kerr keep coming up with strategies from afar? If he’s still feeling closer to lousy than healthy, it really does make sense.
“It’s actually a fresh perspective from somebody who is watching the game,” Steph Curry said after Game 1. “He sees a lot of different angles and he sees how things are developing from a broader perspective. So that’s obviously huge for us.”
Where this decision becomes tougher is the LeBron James factor. In-game coaching adjustments will matter much more against Cleveland than they do against trivial postseason opponents like Portland and Utah. The Warriors have enough talent to squeeze lesser teams like a juice box. When the talent is closely aligned, like it will be against the Cavaliers, small tweaks Kerr can make on offense, defense and in the substitution patterns can be the difference between winning and losing a championship.
Brown is proving he’s not some substitute teacher copying Kerr’s every move. He’s made his own adjustments that have paid off. Zaza Pachulia’s big minutes in the third quarter of Game 1 help shutdown LaMarcus Aldridge and swing the game defensively. Brown hasn’t been scared to use the Hampton 5 lineup earlier in games to jump start the Warriors or to close out an opponent. Brown’s been his own person and I’m sure Kerr will be overly appreciative of that in his first interview back.
We can speculate that Kerr is traveling with the Warriors this weekend to San Antonio to test his health. He seems to be feeling better and probably wants to see how his symptoms respond to traveling. Myers and all of the Warriors players have clearly communicated this: At the end of the day, Kerr’s health is way more important than basketball.
“He’s gone through hell,” Gregg Popovich said prior to Game 1. “I’m sure most people don’t really know, and I’ll leave that to him to describe as much as he wants to describe. But it’s been very difficult for him. He’s shown a lot of courage getting through what he’s gotten through.”
Here’s what the Warriors can do. Keep letting Kerr hammer home the main points in meeting rooms and in the locker room. Keep hoping the Warriors stay winning and that Kerr isn’t needed.
But should the Warriors fall down early in the series to the Cavs, Golden State could keep Kerr in its back pocket for the right time. His presence alone on the bench could be enough to shift a series.