Steve Kerr Head Coach Post-Presser, Transcript Part Two After Tim Kawakami’s (Photo: @warriors Twitter account)
WARRIORS PRACTICE FACILITY, OAKLAND, CA — Tim Kawakami wrote a transcript of his and other reporters’ post-press conference interviews with new Golden State Warriors head coach Steve Kerr. We covered a sliver of it previously, discussing some of the elements of the Triangle that Kerr announced the Warriors would employ.
After Kawakami left to do other interviews with Warriors notables, such as Joe Lacob (his transcript here), I hung around and got the rest of the Kerr post-interview. Here’s the transcript of what we’ll call “Part Two” of Kerr’s post-presser today:
Your lack of head coaching experience, what do you think it is about the landscape of the NBA that’s presenting opportunities for coaches to come in now?
Kerr: Well, a lot of guys have had success doing it this way. Doc Rivers went right from the broadcast booth to the sidelines and he’s one of the best coaches in the league. You look at Jason Kidd. This year, he went right from playing into coaching and did a nice job with Brooklyn.
Mark (Jackson)‘s been successful here. He turned this thing around here with his approach, so it can be done.
The NBA goes in cycles. For awhile, college coaches were in vogue and then several of them failed and then, all of a sudden, it swung back the other way, which isn’t really fair. There’s a lot of trends that happened in this league and I’m probably fortunate that right now, there’s been a few former broadcasters and first-time coaches who have done well.
In the interview with Tom Tolbert, a “pit in your stomach” was mentioned. Did it come down to the feeling in your gut this was the right move?
Kerr: Yeah, it came to what was in my heart, for sure, and there were a number of factors that went into that and it’s a different process, to sort of absorb all the information and try to figure it all out especially when you have two incredibly enticing opportunities.
But for me, after sitting down with the Warriors and sleeping on it the next morning, I woke up and I knew this is where I wanted to be and I couldn’t be happier.
How much pause did that give you walking into the (Jackson firing) situation?
Kerr: You know, it was an important part of the conversation that I had with the Warriors group, the management group, in Oklahoma City last week. Obviously, that’s a consideration. You have to find out what happened.
One of the advantages I have is the three years I gained experience in Phoenix as a GM. I lived this in terms of the relationships in the front office and, as I mentioned, in the press conference.
I made some mistakes and learned from them, but I’m extremely comfortable with these guys. They’re very comfortable with me and I just feel like we all sort of grow from certain stances and experiences and I think we’re going to be a really, really solid foundation as a unit, going forward, and that’s the most important thing that you can have going.
At the top of the organization, you have to have that and I know it too well.
Will the offense resemble the Phoenix Suns?
There will be plenty of screen-and-roll.
I mean, if I took screen-and-roll out of the equation, I’d be an idiot. Steph (Stephen Curry) is just lethal.
I’d like to see more movement, more flow before we get to the screen-and-roll. I’m not a believer in “walk the ball up the floor, 1-5 high screen-and-roll, get into it.” It’s too much standing around.
I like, if you picture the Spurs, the way they use Tony Parker: get the ball out of his hands, get a lot of movement, two or three passes and then he’s working screen-and-roll.
It’s harder to defend that way. The defense has to make more decisions. The more decisions the defense has to make, the more likely they are to make a mistake — late on a rotation in the NBA, it’s like a split-second on that rotation is the difference between a block and a basket.
So I think we’ll see a kind of a hybrid, a lot of running, a lot of movement. We’ll see some Triangle action. We’ll see (Andrew) Bogut and (David) Lee on the elbows and down on the block as passers, a lot of screening and, ultimately, plenty of Steph coming off screens because it’s pretty hard to guard.
What are going to take away from Lenny Wilkens?
Kerr: What Lenny really taught me was, whatever you do, do it really well and don’t over-think things.
When I was with the Cleveland Cavaliers, I think we had about fifteen plays and that was it. We ran those things to death in practice, in games.
Teams knew what was coming, but we had multiple options on each and we were so good with our execution that it didn’t matter. We were one of the best offensive teams in the league.
That’s important as a coach, to make sure you don’t overdo it with information and, you know, a playbook the size of the yellow pages.
Know what you’re good at and practice it over and over.
Popovich is probably the best that I’ve ever seen in terms of scripting offense 5-on-0, up and down the court, getting the timing right and doing that all season long. That’s one of the reasons they’re so hard to guard.
Opening night, what’s the biggest concern?
Kerr: (laughs) Well, you know, just this is the first time, right?
This will be the first time I’ve ever done it and the first day I sat in the GM chair, I was nervous.
First day I sat in the TNT chair to do a game, I was nervous.
I didn’t know exactly what I was getting into. I prepared, but it took some time and it’s going to take me some time.
I’m not going to shy away from that. I’ve got to grow comfortable in my own skin as a coach and I’m very confident that it will happen, but I’m not naive enough to think that I’m going to step in there on Day One and it’ll all click.
That day that you and Michael Jordan got into it, it seemed like a seminal moment for your career?
Kerr: One thing I really remember is, I kicked his ass (laughs). Just kidding.
No, you know what, that was an important moment. Michael had a way of testing players, teammates, in practice everyday. He was testing me and I had to stand up for myself. I did.
I’m glad our teammates pulled us apart or I wouldn’t be sitting here right now, but from that day forward, Michael and I have had an unbelievable relationship.
I gained his respect by standing up to him and to this day, you know, I can honestly say, I’d do anything for him and he’d do anything for me and when we do see each other, it’s special.
We share a lot in our history, that included, but maybe that’s what we needed to get to that point.
It’s almost like kids fighting; you’re going to have to do that to a lesser degree with your owner or GM and there’s mutual respect. How are you going to handle that?
Kerr: There won’t be any punches thrown, I can tell you that. Again, I’m going to go back to my GM experience.
There’s different conversations that are made between coach, GM, owner. Whether it’s personnel decisions, whether it’s a mistake someone has made, whatever it is — a PR issue — and that’s why those relationships are so critical.
I’ve seen it first-hand in the organizations where there was a lot of success. Those relationships were really sound and solid and that’s something that I know we’re going to have here and we’re going to work towards.
Bob (Myers) was in the middle, between Jackson and Lacob.
Kerr: That’s really Bob’s role and that was my role in Phoenix.
The coach is going to be traveling a lot. He’s going to be with his team and Joe is going to be talking to Bob probably every day and I’m going to be talking to Bob every day, but Joe and I won’t have a ton of interaction.
So it’s going to be important for Bob to be that middleman and he’s really good at it. I can tell you already, just getting to know him and seeing him in action, I’m really looking forward to my partnership with Bob and with Joe.
San Antonio Spurs starters haven’t played as many minutes. Do you see yourself embracing that?
Kerr: You better be really good before you employ that tactic.
The Spurs are really good. They’re deep. They’ve figured out their system. Pop always talks about “corporate knowledge”.
You don’t have that the first day of training camp as the new coach, so that’s what I would like to get to my vision, is to play a lot of people and to be a deep team, but there’s a lot of work that goes into that on the personnel side and also as a team.
What’s your assistant coach profile and attributes you would like to see?
Kerr: I want coaches who are not afraid to state their opinion.
I don’t want anybody who’s just going to nod their head when I say something.
I want people to challenge me. I want people who are going to initiate conversation and I want to be able to work with the entire group to come to one decision.
That’s not easy. That’s easier said than done. That’s why you have to have the right combination of personalities on the staff.
Do you hav a timeline for hiring assistant coaches?
Kerr: Uhhh, not really. We’re already working on it.
I’m making phone calls on off-days (from TNT) and Bob is too.
We’re working on it but there’s not timetable because we want to get it right.
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