Steve Kerr Reveals Reason for Controversial Decisions This Season

The Golden State Warriors are beginning to trust their young players

Having won four titles over the last decade, primarily with the same core, the Golden State Warriors have a lot of trust in their veterans. While Steph Curry remains one of the best players in the NBA, his veteran teammates have been inconsistent this season, which has slowly led to Steve Kerr decreasing their roles in favor of younger players.

This was a very slow transition for Kerr, who received a lot of criticism for not making some of these moves earlier. Addressing this recently, Kerr revealed the reason for this, saying he needed to give his veterans every opportunity before turning to the youth.

"There’s a reason we didn’t hand them jobs to start the season," Kerr said of Golden State's rookies. "It doesn’t work that way. If you did that, you’d have a revolt on your hands. You have to honor the work that the veterans have done in the past. You give them every opportunity, which we did. But while that was all happening, [Trayce Jackson-Davis and Brandin Podziemski] were really shining."

“There’s a reason we didn’t hand them jobs to start the season. It doesn’t work that way. If you did that, you’d have a revolt. You have to honor the work that the veterans have done.”

Kerr said he could tell in camp Podz & TJD could contribute but explains why they didn’t play pic.twitter.com/EPD7FOcrrv

— KNBR (@KNBR) December 24, 2023

While many have pushed back against this thinking, saying Kerr should have been playing his better players regardless of pedigree, he is explaining a very real dynamic. A huge part of coaching an NBA team is managing personalities. Quickly reducing the roles of proven veterans in favor of unproven rookies would not have gone over well in Golden State's locker room. Understanding this, Kerr gave his veterans opportunities - amid criticism, and has now made the pivot to more minutes for his rookies.

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