When Steve Kerr took over for Mark Jackson, who had just helped the Golden State Warriors to a 51-31 record , there were high expectations. The former point guard met the challenge head on, winning a championship in his first season as head coach. With schemes that revolutionized the game, he’s one of the primary reasons that they’ve been able to build a dynasty.<\/p>\n
Yet, even he knows that every empire must fall. Every king has his reign.<\/p>\n
As Kerr looks ahead to “these last couple of years,” all he knows is how he wants the team to comport themselves<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u201cI think it\u2019s really important these last couple of years that we handle ourselves with dignity and competitiveness and fight for everything,\u201d he says, per The Athletic’s Anthony Slater. \u201cWe want to maintain what has made us the Warriors, what\u2019s made us into this organization.\u201d<\/p>\n What that means is that the Warriors, a star that’s dwindling, has accepted its fate. However, they’re hoping for a reincarnation. Only time will tell whether they achieve the success that Kerr has had with Stephen Curry<\/a>, Klay Thompson<\/a>, Draymond Green<\/a>, Andre Iguodala<\/a>, and Kevin Durant<\/a>. Nevertheless, they can’t forget the way that they built their imperial dynasty.<\/p>\n It was primarily organic; through the NBA Draft.<\/p>\n \u201cThat\u2019s the hard part in addressing all this stuff,\u201d Kerr adds. \u201cWe\u2019re not giving in. But you have to be realistic organizationally about where you are. And you have to mind what\u2019s coming ahead in the future. I probably won\u2019t be around, but I would tell you, if this organization gave away the next six or seven drafts for a wild swing, that would be the most irresponsible thing that they could do.\u201d<\/p>\n Kerr’s comments have been echoed by his players<\/a>. The sentiment has been felt among segments of their raucous fan base. There’s impatience though. A sense of entitlement. An expectation that the Warriors should be a juggernaut every season. This has led to the type of frustration that could lead to an act of desperation.<\/p>\n After all, they want to do right by players like Curry, who has helped give the franchise a prestige they might not have ever imagined. Who’s been left exasperated<\/a> by their see-saw season.<\/p>\n \u201cThis is a tricky spot,\u201d Kerr admits. \u201cMike (Dunleavy Jr.) is incredibly sharp. We have a great organization. I have no doubt Mike will navigate it, and I\u2019ll help any way I can. We\u2019ve got to try to give Steph every chance he has to perform. That\u2019s really important these last few years, whatever that means. But you don\u2019t give away the future.\u201d<\/p>\n So far, the Warriors have identified three players that they believe can be part of their long-term plans: Jonathan Kuminga<\/a>, Brandin Podziemski<\/a>, and Moses Moody<\/a>.<\/p>\n As with most young players, they’ve all been inconsistent. As with most players in general, they need to refine their game. Nonetheless, they all have a skillset that could be useful in the future.<\/p>\n Kuminga is a star-caliber scoring-minded forward who plays with brute force offensively. His physical tools also give him a high defensive upside. Podzkiemski is a jack of all trades who can be a part of the team’s connective tissue. Moody is a 3-and-D wing whose best attribute may be that he’s a true team player.<\/p>\n They need more to compete with the elite teams in the future though. Much more. A trade for a younger star might help them but there aren’t any that appear to be available. Unless one does, they’re likely to go through a couple of rough seasons after Curry retires. If they can retain their first round picks though, they’ll have the chance to draft a franchise-altering player.<\/p>\n Perhaps even their next Curry.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" When Steve Kerr took over for Mark Jackson, who had just helped the Golden State Warriors to a 51-31 record , there were high expectations. The former point guard met the challenge head on, winning a championship in his first season as head coach. With schemes that revolutionized the game, he’s one of the primary […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5008,"featured_media":117938,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[25,1608,62,556,3,4721],"tags":[48978,4297,4176,98,4774,48,528],"class_list":["post-117924","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-warriors","category-basketball","category-nba","category-nba-draft","category-news","category-trade-rumors","tag-brandin-podziemski","tag-jonathan-kuminga","tag-moses-moody","tag-nba-draft","tag-rumors","tag-stephen-curry","tag-steve-kerr"],"modified_by":"Quenton S Albertie","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/117924","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5008"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=117924"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/117924\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":117940,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/117924\/revisions\/117940"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/117938"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=117924"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=117924"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=117924"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Doing Right By Stephen Curry<\/h3>\n
Life After Stephen Curry<\/h3>\n