NBA WESTERN CONFERENCE FINALS: MAVERICKS VS. WARRIORS

May 18, 2022

Steve Kerr

Golden State Warriors

Game 1: Pregame

Q. People anticipated you playing Phoenix in this round for quite a long time. When you look at the fact they're not here, are you more concerned with how they defended Luka or how their offense kind of collapsed as that series went along?

STEVE KERR: I'm not concerned about Phoenix at all. I'm concerned about us. I know that we have some things we can improve upon. I'm really thrilled with the progress we've made during the Playoffs.

Really it took us all year to sort of -- not that we're healthy now, but to get this current group minus Andre Iguodala and now Gary, but meaning Jordan, Steph, Klay, Draymond, Otto, it took us all year to get to a point where we could play some of these lineups. So I'm pleased with the progress we've made over the last few weeks, but we can still get better.

I think Dallas is playing so well, they're going to bring the best out of us because that's what's going to be required.

Q. You guys obviously had massive turnover issues in the last series, but Memphis does turn people over more than anybody in the league. Dallas doesn't do that. How much of the last round did you feel like just was what was Grizzlies were defensively and how much is errors that you're concerned could bleed over into this series?

STEVE KERR: You know, it was a combination of Memphis's defense and some poor decision making on our part. I'm confident we'll get that straightened out.

Q. Any enduring memories of playing against Jason Kidd in your playing days, and given the kind of player he was, did you figure he'd be a successful coach in this league at some point?

STEVE KERR: Well, he's one of the best players of that era. Probably the main memory I have is we played against each other in the Finals. I was watching for the most part. He was playing. But it would have been the '03 Finals, my last year in New Jersey and the Spurs. The series went six games, and Jason was amazing because that's who he was.

But that's probably the main memory I have of competing against him.

As far as him coaching, he obviously saw the game as a point guard so clearly, and the way he conducted his teams from that point guard spot, coaching seemed like a perfect fit. But you never know; a lot of superstars don't go into coaching. I'm glad he went down this path. He's a really good coach. He's done an amazing job with Dallas, and they're playing at a really high level.

He should be very proud. The organization should be very proud. What they've accomplished not just this year but over the last four or five years, even when they were struggling, they were developing Finney-Smith, they were developing Kleber. They drafted Brunson. They've done a lot of things right, and it's paying off for them now.

Q. You recently noted that a lot of former players who become coaches weren't the superstars, they were the grunt guys or the amazing role players. Why do you think that is?

STEVE KERR: We didn't make as much money as those guys. (Laughter).

No, one theory I've always heard that I think makes some sense is that it's harder for superstar players to really understand how hard the game is for the lesser players, whereas if you were a lesser player, coaching makes more sense because you can really identify 1 through 15 what all the guys are going through, and you sort of had to figure out how to make an impact in the game. Maybe it forced you to examine things a little bit deeper.

But the frustration factor of superstar players coaching, I think that's maybe a real thing. But it just seems to be the way it's worked, at least over the last couple of decades.

Q. During the regular season Kuminga got some time guarding Luka. How did you think he did? Without trying to get too far into your strategy, but could you see Kuminga on Luka at some point?

STEVE KERR: Yeah, Gary's absence in this series is a big deal. He spent a lot of time guarding Doncic in the regular season, so that's one fewer option that we have. JK has got the athleticism and the speed to at least stay in front to try to make things difficult. I'm not sure Doncic has much difficulty with anybody out there, to be honest with you. He just sort of plays at his own pace and gets to his spots and does what he does.

But you still have to make him work for everything. You want to make him work throughout the game, and that requires putting some athleticism on him.

Definitely a possibility that JK will be on him.

Q. Your team has always played with such joy, and you get to The Finals five consecutive years and you win three, I don't know if it becomes passe but you always seem to have a good time playing. Is there a greater appreciation now especially for those core players now that they're back kind of at this stage to play with that kind of joy again, to know what it's like to play with that kind of joy again?

STEVE KERR: I think yes. I think the last couple of years have been tough. Two years ago especially. Last year was better, but two years ago everybody was either injured or it was just a struggle. We had the worst record in the league.

I think there's been a chance to kind of refill the cup and reenergize, and also some perspective gained as far as being away from this spot. This is the most fun part of the NBA, if you can advance deep in the Playoffs, get to the Conference Finals, have a shot to get to The Finals. It's an amazing feeling, and our guys are thrilled to be back for sure.

Q. I was curious with all this talk about Luka Doncic hunting mismatches and targeting players, do you feel with your core players and some of the coaching staff that all those Finals against LeBron has helped prepare you guys for handling someone who does that on offense and controls possessions like that?

STEVE KERR: That's a good point. LeBron and Luka are similar in that they control games. They go about it differently, skill level is different, athleticism is different, but I would say there's a similar dynamic that each guy is in total control.

We played Cleveland all those years, and there's no question they put us in a lot of pick-and-roll, tried to keep Steph in pick-and-roll, tried to wear him down. So we have seen that.

Not all of our guys have seen that, but the guys who were here then have seen that.

I think the experience does help, but with that said, you've got to go out and do it again. It's not going to be easy.

Q. You mentioned the way he controls the game, pace will probably be a big factor in the series. They're the slowest paced team. How much is that a talking point with your team, to get the game sped up as much as you can?

STEVE KERR: Yeah, we'd like to push the ball in transition, even after makes. The faster the game generally, the more shots our guards get up and our best shooters get up. We like to play fast. We're not the very top of the league in pace anymore like we used to be, but we still want to play pretty fast.

Like I said, it's hard to speed Doncic up. He's got control of the game. He's got control of the ball. The best way to try to speed things up is to force misses. If you can get stops, then you can get out and run and have an advantage in transition.

But again, easier said than done.