Steve Kerr was on the sideline for Monday’s game against the Suns, but he elected to delegate some in-game coaching duties to his players.
Kerr, who is known as a players’ coach, let the Warriors do exactly that during the game. He decided to allow some of his players to handle the coaching of the plays during timeouts in the Western Conference matchup, according to the Warriors broadcast team.
Andre Iguodala was seen holding a clipboard during a timeout in the first quarter of the game, and he crouched down to discuss a particular play with Kevin Durant, who was seated on the bench.
Steve Kerr is letting the players coach each other tonight and Sam Mitchell is having NONE of it pic.twitter.com/xBgk20j7K5
— CJ Fogler account may or may not be notable (@cjzero) February 13, 2018
Iguodala wasn’t the only player that was given the responsibility to coach, either.
Notable: Steve Kerr is having the players run the timeout huddles tonight. Stood outside during every first quarter break. This was decided pregame. pic.twitter.com/Mnqjd8hl7x
— Anthony Slater (@anthonyVslater) February 13, 2018
The move was scrutinized by some of NBA TV’s analysts — former Raptors head coach Sam Mitchell among them, but the Warriors have made it clear that they do things differently than the rest of the teams in the league. Kerr was likely trying to get the team to come together as a group, and while what he did may sound a bit crazy, there’s a method to his madness. He did recently become the fastest head coach in NBA history to win 250 games, so he knows what he’s doing. Not only that, it’s hard to question results — as the Warriors took a 62-45 lead into the halftime break.
It’s possible that the Suns players felt slighted upon finding out about Kerr’s decision, as it’s extremely rare that a head coach steps aside and lets his guys handle some of his in-game duties. And sure, the fact that the Warriors are exponentially better than the Suns likely factored into Kerr’s decision, as Golden State was listed as a 16-point favorite in the game. Still, it was an unorthodox decision — one that we would not see happen on any other NBA team.
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