© Kyle Terada-USA TODAY Sports
It’s challenging enough to appear in three consecutive NBA Finals and come out with two championships, but Golden State Warriors’ general manager Bob Myers understands it’s just as difficult to lead a roster full of established talent. Myers praised Steve Kerr’s ability to coach his superstars through the ebbs and flows of success and to overcome the challenge of keeping his players motivated without getting tuned out, when he joined Tolbert & Lund on Friday.
“”He doesn’t like seeing slippage,” Myers said of Kerr. “You know as well, it will come back to get you if you create bad habits and if you think it’s going to be easy, whether it’s in the first round, second round, third round or the Finals. If you have these habits somebody will expose them. I think that’s what he’s trying to cut off, but also trying to be a coach that doesn’t harp so much that he gets tuned out with a team that can look back at Steve and say, ‘we got this. Why are you coming down on us hard? We’re 48-14.’
“So that’s the challenge that we face each night. We have a supremely talented team that’s done it before of mostly veterans, mostly veterans who have a ring, and you have Steve, who’s job it is to make them play their best and how does that all come together and the proper way to do that.”
It’s hard to bet against a team led by Stephen Curry, Klay Thompson, Kevin Durant, and Draymond Green. Even without Durant, the Warriors won their first NBA championship since 1975 in 2015 and after reaching the Finals the following year, they looked unstoppable in last year’s playoffs in their victorious attempt to erase the woes of blowing a 3-1 lead to the Cleveland Cavaliers.
Now, the Warriors are 49-14, only a half game behind the Houston Rockets for the best record in the Western Conference, and have won their first five games since the All-Star break, including a 112-80 victory over the Oklahoma City Thunder on February 24.
Yet, whether it’s their turnovers or inconsistent defense this regular season, Kerr is trying to get his players out of their bad habits before those mistakes come back to haunt them in the playoffs. Nonetheless, since his first year as head coach in 2015, Kerr has given Myers hardly any reason to doubt that he can lead the Warriors to great things in the playoffs.
“That’s what’s in front of us,” Myers said. “I wouldn’t have anyone else do that besides Kerr. He’s so good at it and he’s been there. I have no doubt he’ll get us to where we need to be in time for the playoffs.”
To listen to the full interview check out the podcast below, and skip to 7:10 for Myers on Kerr.