Steve Kerr has mysteriously turned into a standout NBA coach with relatively little experience. While some expected the longtime NBA journeyman to borrow a few tricks from former coach Phil Jackson, he's learned most of his bearings from San Antonio Spurs' Gregg Popovich, who inculcated a lesson he learned when first coaching Kawhi Leonard that Kerr has now put to use on Golden State Warriors rookie Eric Paschall.
Leonard had a talent for scoring, something the Spurs saw when they arranged a trade with the Indiana Pacers in 2011, but he had tunnel vision and little idea of how the flow of the game would find him open, and even less of how to find his teammates.
Pop would draw plays where Leonard was purposely nothing more than a cog in the system, tasked with swinging the ball to the opposite wing and seeing the ball rotate to each of his teammates, according to Anthony Slater of The Athletic.
Kerr is using that same strategy with Paschall, a physically-gifted player with an innate ability to score. It isn't simple to teach vision without taking away some aggression, but Kerr is tactfully teaching these concepts to Paschall in hopes that he's more than simply a one-trick pony.
Leonard didn't flourish into a passer until last season with the Toronto Raptors, and he's now averaging a career-high 5.1 assists — a massive difference from the mere 1.1 dimes he dished out as a rookie.
Paschall's development as a playmaker might take time, but Kerr trusts that the baby steps will pay off for the Villanova standout, just like they eventually did for Leonard.
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