Monday, June 1, 2015

NBA: HOW KERR TRANSFORMED THE WARRIORS



N
ot a single player on the Golden State Warriors has ever played in NBA Finals, but first-year head coach Steve Kerr could be their main asset when they face the Cleveland Cavaliers for the Larry O'Brian trophy.

The Finals begin on Friday morning 5 June - Live on SuperSport.

Kerr has won five NBA titles with two different teams (Chicago and San Antonio) as a player, and before he took his first coaching job less than a year ago, the 49-year-old play caller offered some insightful basketball analysis, while working for broadcaster TNT.

Few predicted Kerr's success, specially after taking over from much-loved Mark Jackson, who accepted an offer as NBA analyst with TNT.



Although Kerr's tenure at the helm of the Warriors was destined to be successful, specially after inheriting a competitive team who had won 51 games the previous season, he added some pedigree.
The team's prolific shooters made the rest.
Kerr was aware of the talent at his disposal, and maximised the Warriors potential.
Unsurprisingly, the Warriors went on to finish with a season best record (67-15), and sparked the team to its first NBA Finals since 1975 when they the Championship.

Yet, MVP Stephen Curry is playing at his best, but Kerr dismisses any influence on Curry.
“He's incredibly grounded and coachable. I can yell at him and he doesn't take it personally. He nods his head and takes the advice,” Kerr said. “I want to make it clear that I didn't have a whole lot to do with that.
“That was going to happen anyway. I mean Steph was a brilliant player the last couple of years. I thought Mark [Jackson] did a great job of helping him become a star by really pushing him forward into the limelight and having him embrace that stardom that he was heading for. "Steph may not have known that he was going to be a star, but I thought Mark really convinced him that he was,” he explained.

The Warriors not only dominated the regular season, they also earned home court advantage throughout the playoffs.
They swept the first-round against the New Orleans Pelicans, and needed six games to overcome the Memphis Grizzlies in the second-round before edging out the Rockets in Game 5 of the Western Conference Finals.
They will host the Cavaliers in the first two games in front of one of the loudest crowds in the league.
Some may ask whether Kerr's five NBA rings have anything to with his coaching career.

Although there is not scientific evidence backing the theory that winning five championships makes one a successful coach, it certainly may have helped Kerr approaching the game differently.
After all, he has worked under 11-time NBA Champion coach Phil Jackson and five-time Champion Gregg Popovich - two of the brightest minds in the game.
Kerr seems so intuitive that when he got the Warriors job, he offered [now Cleveland Cavaliers coach] David Blatt a spot on his new staff.
“No way we could’ve guessed back then that we’d be facing each other in the NBA Finals less than a year later. It’s crazy to think about,” Kerr said.
“The way that I look at it is, especially when I look back to our conversation, is that we both got exactly what we wanted. We wanted to be part of a successful team that competes for the championship of the NBA. And it’s happened — only we’re on different sides.”
Blatt added: "Had Steve [Kerr] not been willing to allow me to interview for the job, I'd be in Golden State right now.

"It was by his good graces and the good graces of the Warriors to allow me to interview for the job because basically I had agreed already to go there."

None knows what would have happened had Kerr agreed terms with the New York Knicks last summer.
He was the first head coaching candidate that Phil Jackson, the Knicks President, had in mind.
Whoever wins the Finals, this will be marked as the season that a first-year coach won the trophy

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