Steve Kerr has always been open to discussions about the development of the NBA. The Warriors coach discussed his coaching growth over the years in his December interview with NBC Sports Bay Area.
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Steve Kerr has always been open to discussions about the development of the NBA. The Warriors coach discussed his coaching growth over the years in his December interview with NBC Sports Bay Area. Kerr appeared on KNBR 680’s “Tolbert & Copes” Wednesday, and the conversation led to an analysis of the NBA’s defensive deficit this season. But Steve Kerr doesn’t think teams aren’t trying to defend their opponents, but rather that the league has changed that way. “I think it’s evolved over the last five or six years. Part of that is the pace of the game. Everyone decided to play faster,” Kerr said. “Part of that is the effect of Steph [Curry] taking a shot from where he is now. Now you can see a lot of people coming up to the middle of the square and pulling up from the logo. Now it’s common in every game in the NBA.”
His scores have been on the rise this 2022-23 NBA season, with the team averaging 114.2 points per game for him, the highest in the past decade. While Kerr acknowledged that his team is playing faster, he also acknowledged that the NBA’s rules have changed. “I think a lot of it is the rules,” Kerr said. “The NBA has rules that focus on offensive players. In so many different situations we see aggressive players gaining a real advantage. I think it has become almost impossible to play defense.
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A lot of the time, the referee will say, “He wasn’t in a courtroom guard position,” and you’d say, “Yeah, but he flew over my man.” What is the legal guard position if someone passes you? “But that’s the way the league has been for the last decade. It’s been really more open and free and it’s been mostly good, but we’ve overdone it a bit and taken power out of some of the things the defense can do. I think I took it. Only the Los Angeles Lakers (118.1), Charlotte Hornets (118.9), Detroit Pistons (119.6), and San Antonio Spurs (121.4) give their opponents more points. Kerr understands his defensive challenges in the NBA today, so he’ll be doing his part to improve the Warriors’ defense in the second half of the season.
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