A vocal, passionate set of fans weren't the only ones who questioned the Golden State Warriors replacing Mark Jackson with Steve Kerr in 2014 following the team's first back-to-back playoff appearances since the Run TMC era. A young Draymond Green and his teammates, it turns out, were initially skeptical of the significant changes Kerr implemented in his first training camp as a head coach.
During his appearance last week on the Checc'n In podcast with Big U, Green revealed he thought Kerr was “out of his mind” when the rookie coach was teaching his new team the unique, movement-based offense that's helped Golden State win four of the last eight NBA titles.
“When Steve Kerr took over the job, I remember the first training camp, he's like, ball movement, cut, stop standing and waiting for the ball,” Green said. “I'll catch the ball at the top of the key, Steph on the wing. And he's like, Steph, cut and it's like, ‘No, dude, I'm supposed to pass the ball to Steph right here.' And he said, ‘Pass the ball and move. Without the ball, the ball will find the hands of the people that are supposed to get the shots.'
“We all thought he was out of his mind. And then as we started to do it, then you figure it out and you like, ‘Yo, this is actually pretty incredible.' Like, it's ball moving, ball moving. Ball moving. Screen roll, it's ball moving, ball moving. ball moving. There goes the mismatch, but nobody's really standing. And that's kind of where all this flow offense and all this stuff came.”
The Warriors' singular offensive attack has always hinged most on the looming shooting threats posed by Stephen Curry and Klay Thompson, one also provided by Kevin Durant in the past and Jordan Poole in the present. Golden State's maze of split cuts, back screens and dribble hand-offs would be much easier for defenses to navigate if Kerr didn't have the luxury of playing multiple all-world shooters at once.
Green, obviously, doesn't fit that description. His 38.8% long-range accuracy during the Warriors' historic 73-9 regular season in 2015-16 has proven a complete anomaly, ceding the way for persistent shooting woes that have turned his “backpack” jumper form into a meme.
Devolving into a complete non-shooter hasn't marred Green's career how it would the vast majority of undersized big men, though. His status as an all-time defender certainly plays into that reality, but so does the overall basketball genius that makes Green Golden State's de facto floor general on both sides of the ball. His court vision, passing ability and high-level understanding of pace and angles makes Green a perfect fit for the offensive scheme he once thought was crazy.
Kerr's value to the Warriors' sustained success sometimes goes underrated. Green knows not just how important his coach's presence has been to Golden State's dynasty overall, though, but also how Kerr's offensive ethos has played a direct role in maximizing his strengths and minimizing his weaknesses—a dynamic that surenly wouldn't have come under Jackson.
[h/t Eduardo Razo, NBC Sports Bay Area]
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