Steve Kerr and David Blatt Succeeding Without Each Other

At the start of June, Steve Kerr and David Blatt met to discuss the possibility of the latter becoming his lead assistant coach at the Golden State Warriors.

Essentially, Kerr wanted to lean on one of the most successful and creative minds in Europe to help him in transforming the Warriors into a championship contender.

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While that partnership failed to materialize, Kerr has gone on to succeed in his plan thus far anyway, as Golden State leads the Western Conference with a 44-10 record.

Their offense averages the most points per game in the league with 110.4, while the defense has also improved and evolved which has ensured that they are widely considered a legitimate contender.

Whether or not Blatt would have made an already dangerous offense even better will never be known, but both men have come a long way since the summer as they prepare to face off on Thursday night.

The Warriors have enjoyed more consistency across the regular season so far and have made the top spot in the West their home for the majority of the year.

Kerr opted to bring in Alvin Gentry and Ron Adams after Blatt turned his focus to Cleveland, and the partnership has certainly produced results as the aim will now be to ensure that there is no let up in their pursuit of glory.

As rookie seasons go both Kerr and Blatt have enjoyed a reasonable amount of season to this point, and having now laid the foundations they will be desperate to see their respective teams step up to the next level.

Meanwhile, over in the East, Blatt has overcome some early teething problems to silence the critics as the Cavs continue to climb the standings and threaten to put all their pieces together ahead of the postseason.

While they are still nine games adrift of the Atlanta Hawks, the second spot is firmly in their more immediate sight and their recent form suggests that it won’t be too long before they get there.

Having to coach big egos and to find a way of putting all that talent together to produce as a team was a difficult task for Blatt, and it would have been the same for many coaches across the NBA.

However, he is now getting his ideas across and the team is benefiting as the likes of LeBron James, Kevin Love and Kyrie Irving are leading a star cast that was strengthened again with trade moves ahead of the deadline last Thursday.

As rookie seasons go both Kerr and Blatt have enjoyed a reasonable amount of season to this point, and having now laid the foundations they will be desperate to see their respective teams step up to the next level.

Blatt certainly had to face more adversity on his journey this year, but he has proven why Kerr and many other individuals in the sport held him in such high regard. The ultimate objective is the same for both coaches, and it may well result in Blatt ensuring that Kerr rues the day that he couldn’t get Blatt’s signature to join him in Oakland.

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