As Golden State Warriors head coach Steve Kerr enters the final year of his contract, his recent comments have raised some questions about his future.
Steve Kerr has established himself as one of the greatest coaches in NBA history. Mr. Kerr achieved many successes in just 11 years in office.
During his time with the Golden State Warriors, Kerr led the team to six NBA Finals and four NBA Championships, an impressive resume for a coach.
In fact, of the 29 playoff series that Kerr coached the Warriors in, the Warriors lost just five. This is an incredible success rate for an NBA coach.
However, as he is in the final year of his contract with the Warriors, Kerr’s future as head coach is up in the air, and Kerr had some interesting comments on the subject.
Golden State Warriors ESPN reporter Anthony Slater spoke with Brian Windhorst on the “Hoop Collective” podcast about Steve Kerr’s future.
Slater was surprised to see Steve Kerr say he didn’t want to extend his contract with the Warriors, especially considering Stephen Curry, Jimmy Butler, and Draymond Green still have two years left on their contracts.
“I was surprised he didn’t want an extension because he’s been so transparent publicly. This happened a few years ago when he was in a ‘lame duck’ season.”
“He’s more comfortable than a normal coach going into a lame-duck season for a variety of reasons. But they had ongoing negotiations that season, and those were finalized in February when he signed an extension.”
“I wasn’t surprised that he said, ‘I’m not worried, it’s not going to be the story.'” But the fact that he said, “I’m not looking for that. I’m going to wait and see until next summer,” raised a few eyebrows.
“Obviously, Steph has two more years on his contract, Jimmy Butler has two more years on his contract, Draymond Green has a player option…
“The assumption was that he would have wanted to line up with that, and I think there are a number of reasons for the fact that he didn’t…
However, Steve Kerr has no intention of leaving the Warriors for another team. Instead, he will likely retire or re-sign with the team for a short period of time.
“He’s not going to leave the Warriors for another NBA job. He’s not going to leave it indefinitely… It’s going to be either: They’re going to get to the end of the season, and he’s probably going to be out of the game.”
“Or, what I think is more likely, he still thinks he’ll be the Warriors coach after this season, as he’s hinted.
“Once the season is over, we need to go well and get the right feel. Right now, I definitely predict this is not his last season.”
If Steve Kerr re-signs with the Warriors, it will likely be a one-year extension. He would then be able to align his future with his star players and make decisions based on that.