The Golden State Warriors beat the Phoenix Suns in a blowout win on Monday night where the players basically ran the show for the Dubs at home. Head coach Steve Kerr took a backseat to the players and let them run practice before the game, as well as handle in-game timeouts to draw up plays and decide how they’ll run the offense and defense.
Kerr said afterward that it was an attempt to get the players more engaged and to give them a break from his coaching; an effort to switch things up during the final dragging portion of February before the All-Star break he said his team desperately needs. But it was not without controversy, as some thought it was disrespectful to the Suns that he would experiment like that in a real game.
Suns forward Jared Dudley admitted it was disrespectful but the Suns need to be better to be worthy of respect, while Boston Celtics coach Brad Stevens totally understands why Kerr would try that move out. He spoke to the media on Tuesday and said he understood where Kerr is coming from and admitted he’s had players lead practices for him in the past.
Stevens specifically said that Gordon Hayward and Al Horford have run practices for him before.
“I totally get where Steve would be coming from with that,” Stevens said on Tuesday. “We’ve done it in practice. We did it a couple weeks ago with Al and Gordon. ”
That means that Hayward is indeed staying busy as he comes back from a horrific leg injury on opening night. Stevens, he joked, gets a bit of a break when he lets the two run the team. It’s certainly an unorthodox coaching move, but it’s clearly not unheard of in the NBA.
