Steve Kerr made an appearance on Draymond Green’s podcast, talking about what ailed the Warriors this season and shading Jordan Poole and Jonathan Kuminga.
Draymond Green’s podcast has become an unfiltered look behind the scenes of all sorts of NBA conflicts and messy situations. That may not have been the intended focus when Green hosted his head coach, Steve Kerr, on a recent episode but that’s where they landed.
In talking about the Miami Heat and their NBA Finals run, Kerr contrasted their culture with that of the Warriors and seemed to have someone specific in mind as he talked about players complaining about playing time.
“None of those guys on Miami are sitting there saying, ‘Well, I didn’t play,’ or ‘Man, they put in so-and-so.’ They’re just all about winning. And you know this from our groups that we’ve had, when you have that championship mentality, every guy is bought in, every guy is just trying to win, nobody — nobody cares about any of that stuff. You don’t go in the locker room saying, ‘Well, I should have played more.’ You just wanna win.”
How sure are we that Steve Kerr was talking about Jonathan Kuminga and Jordan Poole?
Kuminga’s playing time, or lack thereof, was a constant sore point across his second season. Kuminga played in three fewer games than his rookie season and racked up several DNP-CDs in the postseason and both he and Poole were accused of ‘pouting’ over their lack of minutes by Chris Broussard.
Poole struggled mightily with his shooting in the playoffs and also saw his minutes cut from 30.0 per game in the regular season to 21.8 in the postseason.
But if you’re still not sure, allow Warriors insider Marcus Thompson to translate.
“It seemed pretty obvious to me. That wasn’t in braille,” Thompson said about Kerr’s comments in a recent appearance on KNBR radio. “I mean, Steph had to give a speech for this reason, in Game 7. You can watch it on the bench, you could see it at times. So, yeah, I don’t think we needed to read into it.”
The Warriors may explore trades for Jordan Poole this offseason but could find the market lacking with his poor postseason performance and weighty contract. Kuminga is a much more appealing trade target but the Warriors may be more interested in keeping him, especially with his inexpensive rookie contract and several more years of team control.
Check out The Step Back for more news, analysis, opinion and unique basketball coverage. Don’t forget to follow us on Twitter and Instagram and subscribe to our daily email newsletter, The Whiteboard.