Steve Kerr is a great coach

[prefontaine]

He's now taken a team rated to be an underdog/4th or 5th seed to genuine title contenders twice. Yes, he's got Curry, but he's been able to extract amazing value out of players like Poole, GP2, JTA, Wiggins and Looney.

[Tor_Raps]

Id rather just give Curry all the credit here because we all saw how great Kerr was the past 2 years. The system works because of Steph lol

[FNQ]

I'd give the credit to the guy who built our roster, not as much Kerr. The system has remained the same, but adding guys like JTA, OPJ, Nemo, GP2.. these guys are great fits for our roster (in addition to Looney)

Kerr's done well though too. We're using a lot more zone this year and its working well

[SpreeS]

I would give credit to Curry/Owner/FO/Coach staff/Team.

[chyau.00]

u dont get to be as dominant over as long of a period as warriors have with just luck. the entire organization from top to bottom needs to be great for them to achieve the sort of prolonged success they have seen.

[righterwriter]

He's a great coach. Giving all the credit to the FO or Curry is no different from giving all the credit to the FO/star player of any great team rather than the coach (Phil Jackson, Pat Riley, etc).

[jehosafats]

Its amazing because they've had this title drought and have looked really, really bad at times. I'm thinking between when Klay went down and before Wiseman, they were probably the smallest team in the league. Now they're back to lights out offense and top tier defense. Just like that, and still without the other Splash brother. I don't know if it's Kerr, but he doesn't hurt.

[Gramercy Riffs]

I'm giving as much credit to Kerr as I can. He changed the game. We went from last in the league in assists under MJax to 1st under Kerr in one year and it's been that way ever since. HC in the NBA is like a film director. His job isn't to do everything, it's to gather the best people possible and give them the freedom to contribute to the best of their abilities within the system he plans. The caretaker of the vision. Kerr is the caretaker of the Warriors dynasty.

[PicPock]

Even if you take his coaching championships out of the equation, we could say that he is a better coach than a player and he was a very good player.

[bullsnewdynasty]

Without Curry they were 15-50.

Make Mike Brown the head coach and the record is probably about the same.

[Doctor MJ]

He's now taken a team rated to be an underdog/4th or 5th seed to genuine title contenders twice. Yes, he's got Curry, but he's been able to extract amazing value out of players like Poole, GP2, JTA, Wiggins and Looney.

Agree, and seeing others responses I'll add:

I think we make a mistake when we try to split up credit between players and coaches.

To me Kerr is the clear cut COY right now. There's absolutely no denying that his motion offense scheme - that is HIS, he's the one who brought it in and he's the one who stuck with it when many were saying it needed to go away - is a central part of why all these role players are playing with such proactive confidence.

Credit the role players themselves for learning to play so effectively, credit Curry, Green & Iggy for being the player leaders, and credit the front office for the good moves they made...but we should all be tipping our caps to Kerr as well.

[Doctor MJ]

Without Curry they were 15-50.

Make Mike Brown the head coach and the record is probably about the same.

Keep Mark Jackson as coach and the Warriors never have any of this.

[bullsnewdynasty]

He's a great coach. Giving all the credit to the FO or Curry is no different from giving all the credit to the FO/star player of any great team rather than the coach (Phil Jackson, Pat Riley, etc).

Phil Jackson dealt with massive egos and distractions in multiple situations yet still steered the ship seamlessly.

Kerr had nothing but unselfish teammates, and when KD came in, Curry was willing to defer.

By the way, remind me what was the Warriors record with Luke Walton as head coach instead of Kerr?

[floppymoose]

The most underrated aspect of Kerr is the culture he builds. Having a great motion offense is nice and all, but what really helps is having great players eager to stay on your team, and smart players eager to come to your team. When Kerr was hired, the biggest vote getter on the GS forum for the coaching position was SVG. I'm so glad the front office saw it differently.

[Doctor MJ]

He's a great coach. Giving all the credit to the FO or Curry is no different from giving all the credit to the FO/star player of any great team rather than the coach (Phil Jackson, Pat Riley, etc).

Phil Jackson dealt with massive egos and distractions in multiple situations yet still steered the ship seamlessly.

Kerr had nothing but unselfish teammates, and when KD came in, Curry was willing to defer.

By the way, remind me what was the Warriors record with Luke Walton as head coach instead of Kerr?

Man, I wasn't thinking about you in terms of the dynasty coached by Jackson.

I think it's sad that you're s**ting on the guy who is by far the most successful coach to come out of Jackson's coaching tree, and who has done so with an approach that's very similar to Jackson's.

I'm used to the rest of the basketball world not really understanding Kerr's emphasis on culture, but I'd have hoped a Jackson fan would get it.

To your last, let me elaborate on what I left implicit before:

Coaching impact cannot be judged effectively based on who is literally the official coach on the floor the way you can do with players. Once you build something that works as a coach, others literally should be able to step in and have much the same success as you so long as they continue to build on the team's established strengths.

A guy like Mike Brown could probably continue running things so long as the structure of the Warriors remains solid enough, but would he have come in with Kerr's vision in the first place? Given that literally no one else in the league is playing basketball in the style the Warriors are, and Brown isn't exactly known for out-of-the-box thinking, that's pretty far fetched.

[Doctor MJ]

The most underrated aspect of Kerr is the culture he builds. Having a great motion offense is nice and all, but what really helps is having great players eager to stay on your team, and smart players eager to come to your team. When Kerr was hired, the biggest vote getter on the GS forum for the coaching position was SVG. I'm so glad the front office saw it differently.

Agree in general, but I do think that the motion offense is key to the culture. He's trying to make guys feel confident to proactively make plays. You don't get that by having all your role players just standing around waiting for the star to do star things.

The most valuable thing now is the culture...but to get that culture, you've gotta have some good basketball scaffolding to climb up.

[Pennebaker]

He's now taken a team rated to be an underdog/4th or 5th seed to genuine title contenders twice. Yes, he's got Curry, but he's been able to extract amazing value out of players like Poole, GP2, JTA, Wiggins and Looney.

"genuine title contender" in November, eh?

knock on wood.

[Gramercy Riffs]

He's a great coach. Giving all the credit to the FO or Curry is no different from giving all the credit to the FO/star player of any great team rather than the coach (Phil Jackson, Pat Riley, etc).

Phil Jackson dealt with massive egos and distractions in multiple situations yet still steered the ship seamlessly.

Kerr had nothing but unselfish teammates, and when KD came in, Curry was willing to defer.

By the way, remind me what was the Warriors record with Luke Walton as head coach instead of Kerr?

Kerr has been able to install the most innovative systems since taking over because the culture Curry creates being such a good dude that respects the game, puts in the work and loves his teammates. The culture Curry brings means everyone bends over backwards to play unselfishly and pick one another up.

Because of that team-wide unselfishness Kerr developed the most radical switch heavy defense and the most advanced ball movement/player movement offense. If the team wasn't so unselfish to a man, those systems wouldn't work because it's all predicated on player integration, trust and chemistry.

So Curry creates the culture but only Kerr is smart enough to take advantage of it to the extent he has. 90% of coaching happens outside of games which is why Walton was able to look so good running Kerr's system. You realize Kerr spoke with Walton during every halftime and after every game to keep him moving in the right direction right? Kerr has always been the brains behind this operation even when he was manipulating it from the shadows.

[Raonak]

Warriors are so good because Kerr is a fantastic coach, Steph is a GOAT level talent, their FO knows what they're doing and their owner wants to spend money

It's a perfect storm.

[God Squad]

He's the CoY so far IMO.