SAN FRANCISCO — Not that Steve Kerr's future with the Warriors was ever in serious doubt after this season, but perhaps there was a problem that gave a glimmer of a hint of growing unrest.
The thought process worked in two directions: One could imagine the dynastic Stephen Curry Warriors with no other coach than Kerr now and perhaps in a decade, but one also wondered how long Kerr could comfortably do that job while simultaneously pushing back on the outside and inside Pressure to fully dedicate oneself to being part of a youth movement.
Kerr is the ideal coach for this era of the Warriors. Would he be the right man as the team moves into the next phases?
Well, it turns out. At least for two more seasons after this one. And my guess is: probably for a few years after that, perhaps when a few of these talented young players become the next great core of Kerr and the Warriors.
“I have nothing against young players,” Kerr told me late Friday night. “I just want to play against players who understand what makes winning.”
There was never any real doubt that Kerr and Warriors owner Joe Lacob would ultimately agree to the deal, which was first reported by ESPN on Friday (but has not yet been made official) – Kerr will receive a two-year extension for the highest coaching salary in the NBA. History, $17.5, million per year, albeit in the 2025-26 season, which is clearly and logically related to Curry's remaining contract years with the team. But there was a calm process. In this rocky and sometimes tragic season, and as Kerr navigates the final months of his current contract, practical and rhetorical moves had to be made on both sides.
Most central: In order for everything to run smoothly through 2024-25 and beyond, Kerr and Warriors management had to address the occasionally delayed development of Jonathan Kuminga, Moses Moody, Brandin Podziemski, Trayce Jackson-Davis and other young players assembled on this roster were, working through , a year after the Warriors finally gave up on the James Wiseman experiment. Kerr had to show Lacob and others that his approach worked; Lacob and the front office had to show they trusted him.
For a while this season it seemed like this would require a major effort. That the two sides may be too focused on the unknown to wholeheartedly maintain this relationship any longer. That some of the tensions of recent seasons could complicate contract negotiations with Kerr.
Jonathan Kuminga, a lottery pick in 2021, came off the bench for much of his first two seasons. As a rookie he averaged 16.9 minutes, last year it was 20.8. (Peter Thomas/USA Today)
But as Kerr pointed out Friday night, probably the event that created the most tension – Kuminga making it widely known in January that he had lost confidence in Kerr after entering the rotation in and out of the rotation this season – was probably the one Key to solving everything. That's the Kerr method: identify basic principles, stick to them, perhaps longer than seems practical, and then adapt when everything and everyone is ready. And, typical of Kerr's sports and coaching history, it all happened at just the right moment to save this season and the good feelings of this era.
Kuminga, in the midst of his third NBA season, and key members of the Warriors' front office wanted him to play more. But Kerr needed to feel like he could rely on Kuminga to move the ball, fight for rebounds, focus on his defensive duties, run up the court and attack the basket in the lanes opened up by Curry's presence. Standstill forever? No, when the issue became public, Kerr and Kuminga sat down and discussed it.
“I knew he was frustrated,” Kerr said of Kuminga. “The next day we had a great conversation. He came into my office. He is a very respectful young man. In the first two years our conversations were very one-sided. I couldn't get him to respond. So I would tell him what we needed. And he didn't say much.
“I think it was actually a good thing for him to express his frustration because it kind of forced him to take responsibility for it and we had a good conversation.” He let me know how he felt about that was frustrated and we went through a list of things I thought he needed to do and they coincided with the time Draymond (Green) was out (suspended for 11 games and then working). (on the way back to playing shape) … so he got more minutes because he played better, but also because he got the opportunity.
“I'm never offended when boys get frustrated about a lack of playing time because it's completely normal. He was always a great young man to coach and we always had a good relationship. I think it grew this year because of a little conflict, and we needed that.”
The Warriors lost six of the next eight games after the Kerr-Kuminga talk and went 19-24, a season-worst five games under .500, but actually started playing better within that mini-slump. Then the wins started coming, and if you count Friday's win over Charlotte, the Warriors have won 10 of their last 12 and are now 29-26, in 10th place and much closer to the middle of the Western playoff standings Conference.
Kerr has kept Kuminga in the main rotation, settled on a starting lineup of Kuminga, Green (at center) and Andrew Wiggins, and watched Kuminga develop into one of the Warriors' most reliable and outright dynamic players.
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There's a method to Kerr's half-hearted stubbornness: When a young player breaks through for the Warriors, he's earned the time, as Podziemski did immediately as an extremely focused rookie this season. When Podziemski recently moved into the starting lineup over Klay Thompson, Kerr didn't demote a dynasty veteran on a whim. The same applies to the move of Kuminga to the starting lineup and the exit of Kevon Looney. If the young player isn't ready, he doesn't play. And note: It's not as if any of the young players who have wrestled for the Warriors under Kerr over the last decade have become celebrities elsewhere.
That's not an inconsequential concept after all the Warriors' veterans have accomplished.
“I think he gets a lot of criticism because he says, 'Oh, he doesn't play against young guys,'” Draymond said of Kerr. “But would JK have been as ready a year ago as he is now? I personally don't believe that. I think we all believed in what JK could become. But you're almost doing JK a disservice if you don't give him credit for the work he's put in to become the player he's become this year.
“I think Steve has taken a lot of unfair criticism when it comes to playing No. 1 young guys. You had to or you didn't have to, but as soon as you needed to, you did it. And you made that adjustment and look at what it did for us this season.”
Kerr immediately shook his head when I asked if this was all part of a long-term plan for Kuminga. No, Kerr didn't exactly plan this.
“There were times early in the season where I didn't bring him back (after one or two appearances early in the game) and maybe I should have,” Kerr said. “That’s the thing about it, there’s no formula. And I definitely made some mistakes with these guys and our team. That's part of it. This isn't science and you're trying to push these people.
“I think what's happened with JK is that he's had a breakthrough in the last two months and started doing the things that we've been really harping on. And then it kind of fed on itself. He started to feel more confident, we gave him more rope. I think the change in the starting lineup helped him a lot. With Draymond at the five, he has more space, can get to the rim more often and so on.
“And that's what people usually say in this league: It's Year 3 when guys start to really feel it and take off. But when you rank a guy that high (at No. 7 overall in 2021), no one wants to hear, “It'll take three years.” They want it to happen right away. But it just doesn’t.”
Many Warriors fans didn't want to hear that in recent years. Maybe some Warriors executives too. While Lacob and his lieutenants don't talk much about the famous “two-timeline plan” anymore, and haven't expressed it exactly that way at all, there was definitely a growing desperation as the top veterans got older and the assembly line turned into highly touted young ones Players sat on the Warriors bench.
Then the Kuminga moment happened.
Through December 12th of this season, Jonathan Kuminga was averaging 20.5 minutes and 11.9 points per game. Since then, those numbers have stood at 29.2 minutes and 17.5 points. (D. Ross Cameron / USA Today)
“It was certainly a point of tension from the beginning,” Kerr said. “If you think about it, the first two years of JK's time with us I played against Juan (Toscano-Anderson) as a freshman, against (Anthony) Lamb last year and I played against them just because they were better players . Well, they were no longer talented players, but they understood the game better, they shot the ball better, they knew how to move the ball in the half court. They knew how to communicate defensively. All the little things needed to win were better.
“And that’s the reason I played against them. I know, much to the chagrin of some of our fans and I'm sure the people in our front office and our ownership are very upset. I know they weren't happy. But here too it is the path we have chosen. A kind of swing for the fences (in draft). And remember, when we got James and the next year JK, we hadn't played in the playoffs for two years. We didn't know whether we were still a championship team.
“I was completely okay with hosting people with high ceilings. But I was the one who had to put in the effort every day to help them reach that ceiling. With a championship team in 1922, there wasn’t a lot of room to play with guys who needed a lot of growth.”
So maybe now all of the Warriors, from the coaching staff to the locker room to the front office, can see and embrace a two-schedule because there are actually multiple generations of players contributing to this push toward the playoffs?
“I don’t really think it’s a dual timeline thing anymore,” Draymond said. “I think it's the natural progression of a dynasty where you win with certain people and that's how you build a dynasty. Then those people get older and you start building up young talent to keep the train running. And I think that's kind of where we're at.
“The young guys who play have learned to fit in, find their place, play the right way and play our style of basketball. It's not quite the same as what we've always done, but there are a lot of similarities in what we've always done, there are some basic tenets of what we've always done. I don’t necessarily think it’s a dual timeline thing, I think more that these young people have grown and as they continue to grow they will be given more and more responsibility.”
The young players who deserve it are playing, but some minor tensions remain. Moody has been in and out of the squad for much of this season and, like Kuminga, is due to have his rookie contract extended this summer. Jackson-Davis has also been a consistent presence, although it looks like Kerr is ready to give TJD regular minutes in the second unit once Chris Paul is healthy again. No one has guaranteed minutes, including Paul, who may or may not return to the closer role.
But of course Paul's return will lead to other tensions, as it will likely shorten Podziemski's time, or Kuminga's time, or wipe out Moody's time entirely.
“It's funny, the question is: How do you develop young players?” “Well, you hold them accountable and make sure they do everything they need to do to win,” Kerr said. “That’s what it’s about every day. I really treat them with a lot of respect and they deserve the respect that I give them, but they earn the playing time.”
That's how the Warriors do it because that's how Kerr does it. Perhaps they were a little lucky with the timing of Kuminga's breakthrough this season. But that was probably when it was due, when Kerr and Kuminga were both ready, when the team was ready, and that came right when the Warriors needed it most.
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(Top photo of Steve Kerr and Jonathan Kuminga during a January game against the Sacramento Kings: Noah Graham / NBAE via Getty Images)