OAKLAND — It’s been noted a lot in the past few days: Golden State decided to go small and start Andre Iguodala over Andrew Bogut at the suggestion of Nick U’Ren, a 28-year-old with the title “special assistant to the head coach” who is sort of a jack of all trades for the Warriors.
The last time the Warriors were down 2-1 in a series against Memphis, it was assistant coach Ron Adams who first suggested putting Andrew Bogut on Tony Allen defensively, the creative and brilliant adjustment that changed that series around.
In both cases, head coach Steve Kerr listened to the ideas, liked them, implemented them and they have the Warriors on the brink of an NBA title. Golden State is up 3-2 over the Cleveland Cavaliers can close out the series Tuesday night with a win in Cleveland.
These two instances are high profile, but it follows the pattern of being open to input the Warriors have had all year, said assistant coach Luke Walton.
“Another thing Steve’s been great at is he wants an open line of communication with everybody…" Walton said before Game 5. “Sometimes we’ll have a plan we come down with and Draymond (Green) or Andre (Iguodala) or both of them, or whoever, will say ‘we want to guard it like this.’ And we’ll scrap what we did upstairs and say we’ll do it the way you guys want to do it, and if it’s not working this is how we’ll make the in-game adjustment.”
Not all coaches work that way. Not even close. Often it is more of a top-down dictatorship. Kerr wants to hear what everyone says. Even the special assistant to the coach in texts at 3 am.
“Coach Kerr always tells us, ‘I listen to anybody — video guy, video intern.’” Draymond Green said. “Those guys watch a ton of film. You know, sometimes they may even watch more film than coach does, they’re the ones breaking it all down. So it just says a lot about Coach Kerr’s character that he would listen and get it worked out.”
Kerr, despite his rings as a player and a pedigree that includes playing next to Michael Jordan and Tim Duncan, is fairly egoless as a coach. He’s modern in that way, more like other successful new coaches (Brad Stevens in Boston, Jeff Hornacek in Phoenix). It’s a collaborative effort.
And it’s working.
It may even get Kerr another ring. And the first title for the Warriors in 40 years.