Steve Kerr Triangle Offense Philosophies As Golden State Warriors Head Coach (Photo: @letsgowarriors Instagram account)
WARRIORS PRACTICE FACILITY, OAKLAND, CA — After the splashy press conference introducing Steve Kerr as the new head coach of the Golden State Warriors, Kerr addressed the media separately and described his philosophies with the Triangle, which he of course learned as a member of the Chicago Bulls under the tutelage of Phil Jackson and Tex Winter.
As for the Warriors, Kerr stopped short of emulating Michael Jordan‘s second run at a Three-peat, saying, “I think you’ll see a lot of ball movement. I think you’ll see bigs being utilized as a passer on the elbows and in the block. I think you’ll see some Triangle concepts. We’re not going to look like the Chicago Bulls of the 90s, but I think in today’s NBA, you have to run. The rules dictate that.”
“I’m not gonna take away our running. In fact, I’m going to encourage more running,” Kerr added, “but I want to flow into more offense that involves the skill-level passing of the bigs, which we saw the last couple years.”
This was largely a rehash of references to the Triangle, as well as the systems of Gregg Popovich of the San Antonio Spurs, that Kerr has made since he was named coach.
In an interview with Tim Kawakami of the Bay Area News Group, Kerr said that the Warriors’ offense, “will be influenced by the Triangle but it will not look like the Bulls of the ’90s, I can tell you that. The game has changed and I think my philosophy would reflect that. For instance, I would be crazy to do away with screen and roll with Steph–he’s devastating in it. We’ll do plenty of that, but we have the opportunity to make some strides offensively and I think that will be reflected in my influences–which have been Popovich and Phil and Lenny Wilkens (who was Kerr’s coach at the Cleveland Cavaliers)…They’ve all been coaches who emphasized ball movement, spacing and flow and having a system to rely on and that’s what i’m looking to give.”
David Aldridge of NBA.com, who broke the story of Kerr coming ot the Warriors:
Kerr would not commit to running the triangle offense next season. “I learned from guys like Gregg Popovich, Phil and Lenny Wilkens,” Kerr said. “I have strong beliefs on spacing and ball movement and that will be reflected in our play.”
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It will be the first coaching job for Kerr, who had mixed results running the Suns for three years before returning to TNT as the network’s lead NBA analyst in 2010. Kerr also called NCAA games for Turner and worked the Final Four this season for TBS.
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Kerr was named president of basketball operations in Phoenix in 2007, after the Suns had become the league’s most exciting team under two-time league MVP Steve Nash. But Kerr believed the team needed to improve its half-court offense and defense to break through in the west. In three seasons at the helm in Phoenix, Kerr remade the franchise, gambling on Shaquille O’Neal in a 2008 trade that brought the big man to the desert for Shawn Marion and Marcus Banks. But the Suns lost to the Spurs in the first round that season, and Mike D’Antoni was released from his contract at his request in the summer of ’08.
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The following season, Phoenix didn’t make the postseason, going 46-36. In Kerr’s final season, he brought Jason Richardson and Jared Dudley in from Charlotte for Raja Bell and Boris Diaw. And the Suns went on an unexpected run to the Western Conference finals under Alvin Gentry, who Kerr named head coach in 2009 after his initial choice to replace D’Antoni, Terry Porter, lasted only half a season before Kerr fired him.
From an interview last Thursday with Rusty Simmons of the San Francisco Chronicle:
Was the Triangle Offense part of that? “There will definitely be triangle elements. With the rule changes and this roster, I think it’s important to run and get shots early. I think it would be crazy to take screen-and-roll away from Steph Curry, and there’s not a lot of screen-and-roll in the triangle. We’re not going to be looking at the90s Chicago Bulls. I really want to take advantage of the passing abilities of (Andrew) Bogut and (David) Lee. I really want to utilize everybody skills in playing with tempo, flow and rhythm.”
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