“The plan is to take a little time, I don’t know, take a week or two, and eventually sit down and talk with Joe [Lacob, the co-owner] and Mike [Dunleavy, head of basketball operations]. We’ve always had a great partnership and collaboration, and just see where they are, and I’ll tell them where I am, and we’ll talk about what’s next for the Warriors, what the plan is this offseason, and we will come to a collaborative decision on what’s next. I don’t know what’s going to happen.”
That was how Steve Kerr described what is next for him and the Warriors. The franchise’s coach for 12 seasons and four championships is a free agent, and after the team missed the playoffs for the second time in three seasons, everyone wants to reassess.
The Warriors are going to seek a multiyear commitment from Kerr, and if he leaves, it could signal major changes in the organization, reports Ramona Shelburne and Anthony Slater of ESPN.
More than anything, team sources said, Lacob will want to hear Kerr express a hunger to continue executing the nitty-gritty details of the daily job, not a reluctant acceptance that he should continue coaching purely out of loyalty to [Draymond] Green and [Stephen] Curry and the sentimentality of riding out this era.
That’s why, if Kerr decides he wants to return, there’s a desire from management for him to sign a multiyear deal, team sources said, instead of setting up a last dance farewell tour that would feel more about emotion and nostalgia than wins…
But a Kerr exit could also signal the start of a much deeper, sweeping shift. That path has been described by several team sources as an “organizational reset” and could lead to further notable changes to the roster and coaching staff.
If Kerr exits, there would be a wide-ranging search for a new coach, the report states, and while that could include talking to a college coach, it’s difficult to imagine a college coach stepping in to coach Curry, Green and Jimmy Butler.
League sources told NBC Sports to expect the Warriors to make another run at Giannis Antetokounmpo if/when he hits the trade market, with the idea of pairing the Greek Freak with Curry to make another deep run, and give them a player who helps them transition to the future. To make the math work on an Antetokounmpo trade, it would likely mean sending Draymond Green out the door.
Which gets to the point that the Warriors don’t want just to run it back and be a play-in team again, the organization wants to start its path forward to whatever is next. The Warriors will keep and max out Curry for as long as he wants to be there, but Green has a $27.7 million player option and what his next contract looks like is a good question. Along with waiting on Kerr, the Warriors are waiting on Green’s decision on his player option before making a plan, according to the ESPN report.
Also, do the Warriors bring back free agent Kristaps Porzingis, and at what price?
With Curry and Butler (who is expected to return at some point in the middle of next season), the Warriors have the key pieces of a dangerous team, but they need a lot more to go around them. Whether Kerr is coaching them, or someone else.
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