San Francisco Chronicle beat reporter Connor Letourneau and KNBR.com managing editor Josh Lander joined The Kevin Jones podcast Wednesday to discuss five separate Warriors topics.
-Time off has typically impacted the Warriors negatively in Game 1’s. See San Antonio this year in the Western Conference Finals and Oklahoma City in last year’s Western Conference Finals.
-Prediction from the group: Steve Kerr won’t want to become the story line and will sit out the Finals.
-We learned this year Kevin Durant is a very complex individual and remember he hasn’t been to a title since 2012. LeBron has been to seven straight. How much does this help the Cavs?
-Klay Thompson’s production vs. Kevin Love’s could tip the championship.
-Does Mike Brown stay or go depending on the outcome of the NBA Finals?
It’s point No. 2 about Kerr where we’ll elaborate in this post. Brown has been steering the ship so smoothly, and Kerr has still be so involved, it really is setting up for the Warriors’ head coach to miss the NBA Finals.
“I talked to him a little bit in San Antonio,” Letourneau said. “I saw him every day. He does not look good. I don’t think he’s doing well. There was some optimism about he had that procedure at Duke, that was going to be some kind of turning point. But it doesn’t really look like that was the case.
“I would be absolutely shocked if he came back at any point in the NBA Finals. There’s almost no chance. Not only because I don’t think he’s doing well physically — but even if he was doing okay physically I don’t see him coming back because anyone who knows Steve knows he would be very weary of becoming the storyline. He already is a storyline, but becoming the storyline entering the Finals, it would take away from everything they already accomplished.”