Steve Kerr took a barely-veiled shot at a couple of his young players when he joined “The Draymond Green Show” earlier this week.
Speaking about the Miami Heat’s success, Kerr noted that none of their young players are disgruntled about playing time, something that both Jonathan Kuminga and Jordan Poole reportedly were during the last season.
“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,” Kerr said. “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. And that’s the beauty of finding that magic when you have a championship team, is that everybody is bought in, and it makes the decision for the coach really simple. You just go with your gut, and go with whoever’s playing well.”
Marcus Thompson of The Athletic says there’s no question that Kerr was making a pointed comment about Poole and Kuminga.
“It seemed pretty obvious to me. That wasn’t in brale,” Thompson told Murph & Mac.
“I mean, Steph had to give a speech for this reason, in Game 7,” Thompson continued. “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.”
Thompson said the issues with young players was not unique to this season. He says it’s been a consistent problem throughout the dynasty.
“The interesting part is, like he’s basically saying, that’s not the Warriors culture,” Thompson said. “And it isn’t, right? From Patrick McCaw to watching these guys this year, they’ve always had issues with youngsters and that’s what happens when you’re so front-loaded, and playing for a championship every year. You’re just not a good place for young talent.
“If there is a Warriors culture, and there is, it’s kind of anti-young a little bit. Whereas Miami’s is ‘listen, we’ll take anybody as long as you play this way, we got you.’ But they aren’t getting lottery picks and they aren’t competing for a title every year over the last decade like the Warriors.”