Will Steve Kerr coach the Warriors next season? GM Mike Dunleavy doesn't 'see why not'
Kerr, in the final year of his contract, has said he and the organization will figure out where things stand at the end of the season
Golden State Warriors coach Steve Kerr is on an expiring contract, but the team is operating as if he'll return next season, according to general manager Mike Dunleavy.
During Dunleavy's an appearance on "The TK Show," Tim Kawakami of the San Francisco Standard asked him directly if he expects Kerr to come back. "I don't see why not," Dunleavy said. "I think Steve's mentioned wanting to get to the end of the season and figure it out. I think things, for him, are going well."
He added: "We'll figure all that out when it comes. I think it's been interesting, like the focus for us internally between myself, Joe [Lacob], the players, Steve, has really been on, like, getting this thing right the rest of the season. So we haven't put a whole bunch of thought into it. But you know, obviously, on a personal level, love having Steve here. Yeah, I would project that he's our coach next year. But again, we're going down to absolute certainties, and a lot of it's in his court, so we'll have to see."
Kerr is in his 12th year with the Warriors. At the beginning of the season, he told reporters that he was "very comfortable" with his contractual situation and hoped to stay with the team "for another few years, but I think it makes sense for the organization and for me just to see where this thing is at the end of the year, where they are, where I am." In December, he told Zena Keita of The Athletic, "I will never leave Steph Curry."
In January, however, The Ringer's Logan Murdock reported that assistant coaches were "surveying the league" about potential jobs next season, under the impression that Kerr would not return. Chris DeMarco left the team midseason to become the head coach of the New York Liberty.
Dunleavy's comments echo what Lacob, the owner of the team, told The San Francisco Standard a couple of weeks ago.
"Really, it's up to him," Lacob said. "What does he want to do? And he doesn't know, I don't think. So we'll have that discussion later."
Lacob said that Kerr's future would depend on "what he wants to do and how he feels at the end of the season, and where we're at. We'll take all of it, put it into a bowl and figure it out. And I'm not really very worried about it, and I don't think he's very worried about it, either."
Golden State is 31-30 and eighth in the Western Conference. Curry is out with runner's knee, Jimmy Butler is rehabilitating a torn ACL, Kristaps Porziņģis is dealing with a mysterious illness and the team has lost five of its last seven games. "It's tough to win in the NBA when you don't have your three best offensive players," Dunleavy said.
In theory, the three of them could work extremely well together in Kerr's system, but it's not totally clear if we'll ever see that.
