Steve Kerr makes no secret of taking coaching cues from Gregg Popovich.
The Golden State Warriors head man played under the five-time Coach of the Year for four seasons in the late 1990s and early 2000s. During his tenure with the San Antonio Spurs, Kerr learned from Popovich many of the strategic intricacies and general sense of culture that currently hallmark Golden State.
Phil Jackson, Kerr’s coach with the Chicago Bulls and a 13-time NBA champion, is more well known in casual basketball circles, but it’s fair to surmise that no coach has had a greater influence on Kerr than Popovich. For sake of the league at large, though, we just hope the former doesn’t follow the latter’s lead with regard to resting players for Saturday night’s marquee matchup.
After the Warriors beat the Dallas Mavericks on Friday night, Kerr said that big man Andrew Bogut would miss today’s game against the Spurs – and joked about resting other key players.
Steve Kerr said Andrew Bogut probably won't play tomorrow in San Antonio. "If I had any guts, I'd sit everybody."
— Rusty Simmons (@JRustySimmons) March 19, 2016
Kerr, remember, is perhaps the most jocular coach in basketball. This isn’t a real threat, right? We highly doubt it, but it’s also understandable why Golden State’s coach would be tempted to sit Steph Curry, Draymond Green, and more in San Antonio.
The Warriors will play on the second end of a difficult back to back Saturday night. Bogut strained his toe against Dallas, Andre Iguodala is sidelined with an ankle sprain, and Golden State is still without the services of backup center Festus Ezeli. The defending champs aren’t just severely depleted, but also fatigued – and beating the Spurs at AT&T Center, where the home team is undefeated this season, would undoubtedly require a monumental effort with a fully stocked roster.
Golden State is up four games on San Antonio with 14 left to play in the regular season. Could Popovich’s team really catch Kerr’s? Considering these historic greats meet twice more following tonight’s game, that’s a more plausible scenario than it seems on the surface. The outcome of this game still means much more than bragging rights and general momentum despite the Warriors’ sizable lead in the standings.
Plus, Kerr understands just how much Saturday’s tilt means to the league – the surprise would be if it didn’t shatter ratings records. He’s not quite the curmudgeon Popovich is, basically, and might not “have the guts” to sit his best players for one of the most highly-anticipated matchups in NBA history.
We hope, at least.
