For the first time in his coaching career, Steve Kerr’s Warriors did not end their playoff run with a trip to the NBA Finals.
The Warriors coach joined forward Draymond Green on a recent episode of his podcast, “The Draymond Green Show,” where he was asked how difficult it would be to watch the final from afar.
„On the one hand, it burns me, [but] On the other hand, I count my blessings,” Kerr said. „I’ve coached the team for nine years and we’ve missed the playoffs twice out of the seven years we’ve been to the finals and the six years we’ve made the playoffs. So this is the first year we haven’t made the finals, but who’s to say? Lots of good luck. I’m not trying to be modest, we have a great staff, we work hard and do all that stuff, but the people you coach — the players, the talent you have, the competitiveness and we’ve had such an incredible group.
„So this year we came up short. It’s not fun to watch the finals, but at the same time, we didn’t deserve to be there. I can live with that, we should be good.”
Despite Golden State’s loss to the Los Angeles Lakers in the Western Conference semifinals, Green and the Warriors are maintaining a long-term approach and hope the short postseason will be a learning experience for the team moving forward.
„Sometimes you have to lose to win,” Green said. „I think, for us, it allows us to reset, it allows us to go back and say, 'OK, here are some things that we didn’t do well.’ I am excited.
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The Warriors head into an important season with plenty of question marks. However, as long as Green, Kerr, Steph Curry and Klay Thompson remain on the team, Golden State will likely compete for another championship next season.
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