Steve Kerr on Coaching Philosophy, Harrison Barnes, Aaron Craft

Golden State Warriors head coach Steve Kerr has a lot to prove this upcoming season.

Despite having no previous coaching experience, Kerr was hired after Warriors’ management decided to make the controversial move of firing Mark Jackson. Kerr has to prove that he can coach at the NBA level, that he can gain the trust and respect of the players, and that he can lead the Warriors on a deep postseason run.

Given the fact that Kerr doesn’t have any prior coaching experience, it’s been somewhat unclear what his coaching philosophy would be and what specific changes he would make to the Warriors’ offensive and defensive systems.

Kerr recently went on KNBR and spoke with Gary Radnich and Larry Krueger about his coaching mentors and philosophies:

"Krueger: You have worked with a who’s who of coaches … (Phil) Jackson, (Gregg) Popovich and (Lenny) Wilkens, and of course there’s Lute Olson from college at Arizona. What kind of offensive system do you think you’ll be running?Kerr: I think it’s fair to say that there will be influence from all the coaches I played for. The one thing I can tell you is that I believe unequivocally as a basketball coach — and I believed it as a player — that the ball has to move. It’s gotta move side to side, and you can’t get stagnant. But when the ball stops, the game stops, and I don’t think you can win at the highest level by isolating and playing too much one on one."

One of the biggest criticisms surrounding Jackson’s coaching was his lack of creativity in his offensive system. He simply didn’t take advantage of the superior passing that the Warriors had in their starting lineup, and he didn’t play the up-tempo offense that would’ve taken advantage of the Warriors’ skills.

Warriors fans must be relieved to hear that Kerr plans on adding more ball movement to the offense.

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Kerr also mentions how the Warriors often ran too many isolation or one-on-one plays on offense last season, which is true and was also a staple of Jackson’s offense.

One player that the Warriors often ran isolations for last season was Harrison Barnes. This didn’t take advantage of his speed, and it forced him to become more of a ball handler, which wasn’t one of his strengths.

Kerr is clearly a fan of Barnes and his game. During the offseason, Kerr said that even though Andre Iguodala will most likely start this upcoming season, the Warriors have options for who can start at the small forward spot, including Barnes.

Kerr spoke about Barnes’ potential and how he plans to unlock that potential this upcoming season in a different interview on KNBR that Monte Poole of CSN Bay Area wrote about:

"“I think he’s on track,” Kerr said. “He works his butt off. He’s extremely talented. We’ve got a staff here that’s in the gym every day for all of our players, not just Harrison.“We’re really working hard with him. That’s our job, to help our players become the best they can be, and achieve their dreams and their goals.Harrison is incredibly driven. So we’ve got big plans for him this year. We think he can be a great player in this league … he’s going to continue to get better.”"

Kerr will certainly have a deeper, more well-rounded roster this upcoming season. Kerr will also have more weapons off the bench at his disposal. The Warriors added some much-needed backcourt depth in the offseason, as they signed Shaun Livingston, Leandro Barbosa, Brandon Rush, and Aaron Craft.

Feb 27, 2014; University Park, PA, USA; Ohio State Buckeyes guard Aaron Craft (4) dribbles the ball up court during the second half against the Penn State Nittany Lions at Bryce Jordan Center. Penn State defeated Ohio State 65-63. Mandatory Credit: Matthew O

It’s quite possible that Kerr might be the most excited about coaching Craft, who went undrafted after four years at Ohio State.

Craft showed off his impressive work ethic, his positive attitude, and his winning mentality when he played for the Warriors in the Las Vegas Summer League, in which he averaged 7.4 points, 2.8 rebounds, 2.6 steals and 2.4 assists in five games.

The Warriors signed him to a partially guaranteed, one-year deal, and Kerr is certainly excited to coach him, as he shared in the same KNBR interview when he discussed Barnes. Poole again with the report:

"“Aaron is really intriguing to me,” Warriors head coach Steve Kerr told KNBR 680-AM on Wednesday morning. “The guy is an absolute winner, a great defensive player, electric with his energy and his competitive desire.”He did a lot of things very well as a Buckeye, but the one area of his game that needs improvement is his jump shot.He shot 30% from 3-point territory as a junior and 30.2% as a senior.“He had a broken jump shot at Ohio State,” Kerr said. “He still managed to hit game-winning shots because he’s a winner and he would kind of will the ball in.“But Bruce Fraser, one of the guys on our staff, is working hard with Aaron every day. And the shot has improved dramatically.“I think Aaron has a chance to be an NBA player for a long time. I really do. We know he’s going to put the work in and he’ll get his chance, so we’ll see how he does.”"

Warriors fans have a lot to look forward to this season. Fans should be excited about seeing Kerr coach, and it’ll be interesting to see how far he can take this Warriors team.

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