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What Natalie Nakase pulled off is even more impressive. Lacob made the same five-year declaration when the Bay Area was awarded an expansion WNBA team, but no team in any North American major sport had ever won a title by its second season. “We’re so excited for the Valkyries for Natalie, for everybody involved,” Steve Kerr said. “It’s an incredible turnaround from just having an expansion team without a name two years ago to within two years building this brand and winning a title, just remarkable.”
Danny Emerman: Steve Kerr on Yaxel Lendeborg: “He’s changed us dramatically.” The rookie has been a revelation, providing the Warriors with a jumbo offensive hub who can get to the foul line and make plays. 22.6/9.2/4 splits through 5 games. Big rematch with Luka Doncic tonight.
Joseph Dycus: “Some guys have feel, some guys don't. And Yaxel has a really innate feel for basketball.” Steve Kerr on Warriors rookie Yaxel Lendeborg and his progression.
Kristaps Porziņģis missed all of training camp after it was revealed that he is dealing with postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome (POTS), a condition that affects his heart. Golden State is getting by without him and moving forward. But when his absence was first announced, it caught the team off guard. "We were definitely caught off guard by it in that we were in communication with him over the summer, and it seemed like everything was in a good place right up until training camp,” Warriors coach Steve Kerr said on 95.7 The Game's "Willard & Dibs." “And then obviously things went south. Since the start of camp, when he was not here and we had to move forward, I haven’t given it a whole lot of thought to be honest, because we’re just busy. We have to take every single day and get our team ready for the next game.”
Steve Kerr: “The days are full, the schedule is full, and so I check in with Kristaps occasionally to see how he’s doing. But we’re moving forward, and that’s all we can do. I like our young bigs, Graham [Ike] and Charles [Bassey]. We’re excited about playing those guys, and the opportunity that they’re going to receive, but everything else is not my jurisdiction. That’s Mike’s [Dunleavy] and the front office’s, and I just come to practice and I look forward to coaching the guys every day. We’re competing and seeing what we can put together.”
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The Warriors were interested in working out Simmons in San Francisco in August, but no contract was offered, a source told Andscape. That roster spot likely went to veteran forward Georges Niang instead. Before playing the Kings in the preseason game, Kerr said he was unaware of any interest in Simmons. “I said something to Steve,” Simmons said. “I said, ‘Y’all didn’t want me?’ That was in the first quarter. And [Kerr] said, ‘I didn’t know if you were healthy.’ And I was like, ‘OK. That’s why you have people that do their job and go fly out and see.’ But it is what it is. That’s just me being competitive. It wasn’t personal.”
Golden State Warriors coach Steve Kerr has never been afraid to share his opinions on topics he believes matter to the NBA. That continued Wednesday night when Kerr was asked what he thought the league should emphasize as it tries to crack down on flopping. “You know my take on the NBA. We should be the No Bulls— Association,” Kerr said before a game against the Minnesota Timberwolves. “Like, every bit of bulls— that the players try to pull, we should just say, ‘No, no. We’re not doing that.’ And it’s a better game when guys aren’t flopping, guys aren’t grabbing each other, hooking each other, running into screens and looking like they got hit by a car. It’s just a better game when the officials have the ability to just say, ‘No. We’re not buying into that.’ And I feel like we are constantly, as a league, sort of behind the players. The players are grifting and we’re chasing them and we’re never getting ahead of it. And that’s my biggest issue.”
Steve Kerr chuckled at the memory. The Golden State Warriors had just wrapped up a training camp practice in Hawaii, and Kerr was standing near the corner of the gym on the BYU-Hawaii campus, retelling a story about the bond between his two longest-tenured players. Before the Warriors headed back to their five-star beach club for another night in paradise, the man who has coached Stephen Curry and Draymond Green for more than 12 years recalled a memorable moment from last season.
“Last year, in a timeout, Draymond turns to Steph, and he goes, ‘Let’s run Milwaukee,'” Kerr told The Athletic. “And I’m like, ‘What the hell is Milwaukee?’ I’m like, ‘We didn’t have a play called Milwaukee.’ And Dray was like, ‘Oh, no, no, sorry coach. That’s just our code word for an action that we do.’ And I’m like, ‘Ah, OK.’ “They ran it, and of course I recognized it. I knew exactly what it was. But that’s the level of communication between the two of them. And I guarantee you none of the other players on the team would have known what Milwaukee was, except for those two. It’s just one of their wrinkles out of their high ball screens. So that only comes with playing together for years and years.”
Yaxel Lendeborg still has lots of room to grow, especially considering the fact that he only started playing the sport seriously after high school. Now, think about that and take a look at his stat line from the Warriors’ 134-114 win — his fourth career game: 31 points, 12 rebounds, six assists. Plus-27 in 31 minutes. “Basically, at all the critical moments of the game, we just put the ball in his hands,” coach Steve Kerr said. “For a rookie to be that advanced already, it’s extremely rare. But it’s exciting because I think he’s gonna get a lot better, too.”
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Cook initially ignored the call but eventually answered after his agent tried again. He was informed that Atlanta had made a trade and needed to waive him. “Called again. I answered. They was like, make the trade, they had to waive you. Just sleep on it. Sleep on it. That’s the first day where I wanted to quit…” The news was particularly difficult for Cook because he had just committed to a new home after receiving assurances about his future with the team. However, his situation changed dramatically the following morning when Golden State Warriors head coach Steve Kerr attempted to contact him. “And I wake up, I had like 10 missed calls from Steve Kerr. So I got cut by the worst team, and then I got signed by the best team the next day. And then we won the chip the next year. So that was the best year ever.”
Oh No He Didn't: Steve Kerr on Yaxel Lendeborg's defense: "His weak-side awareness right now is very poor. And with his size, he should be one of our best defenders at the rim. And right now, he's unaware on the weak-side"
Because, despite a copious amount of agent-leverage media-jockeying, Kerr never actually thought the Warriors were going to sign LeBron James. “I know LeBron well enough, now, having coached him at the Olympics, to know that he researches everything,” Kerr said. “When he’s serious about something, he’s going to do his homework. And there was no homework being done, on his part. “Like, I know he was talking to Steph and Draymond,” Kerr continued. “They were recruiting him. But that’s different. That’s player-to-player. Once free agency started, and all those rumors were out there — trust me, there would’ve been very serious conversations. And there never were. And so I never felt like we were even in the mix.”
Dalton Johnson: Steve Kerr to reporters in Phoenix when asked about coming back to where it ended last season when he had his arms around Steph and Draymond saying he didn't know what was next for him: "I was just kidding last year when I did that."