Steve Kerr has a lot of work to do

Warriors head coach Steve Kerr has a lot of work to do after his team was embarrassed on Opening Night by the San Antonio Spurs.

The 2016 Coach of the Year did not finish the season the way he would have liked. He made a few calls that came back to haunt him. Instead of celebrating a second consecutive championship, Steve Kerr was sent into the offseason with questions.

All year long, he still dealt with the side effects of his post-championship offseason back surgery. But that doesn’t excuse some of his questionable decisions down the stretch. There’s no reason why Festus Ezeli should have been playing in the fourth quarter of Game 7 of the NBA Finals.

Kerr now has four All-NBA players on his team. The only thing that can really stop the Warriors from winning a title this year is themselves. They are their own biggest enemy. It’s up to him to find rotations that work.

First of all, he has to find a way to stagger his stars effectively. There’s no reason why there should be full bench units that struggle to score the ball. He needs to have at least one of Steph Curry, Kevin Durant, or Klay Thompson on the court at all times

But the Warriors’ most glaring problem came at the center position. Zaza Pachulia did not even look serviceable in his minutes against the San Antonio Spurs. He showed no interest in trying to fight for rebounds or defend the rim. His lack of athleticism and explosiveness was apparent.

So, when Pachulia needed to get pulled, he turned to David West, who did not play well. When he didn’t want to go to those guys anymore, he went to Anderson Varejao, who also isn’t very good anymore. He swapped out bad for worse.

Kerr chose to carry a lot of guys who can play the center position on his roster. It’s time for him to use them. Varejao is clearly not the answer and he continues to go to him. Same with James Michael-McAdoo.

Kevon Looney showed flashes of being solid during the preseason. JaVale McGee is also on the roster and he possesses a lot of athleticism. Those guys might have been better options on Tuesday night than what Kerr actually ran with.

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It’s only been one game. But Kerr is continuing to make rotation mistakes that he’s made for two years now. If the Warriors are going to live up to their potential, he needs to be better. He needs to put his ego aside and let guys who can play play.

The Warriors are going to get every team’s best shot. More importantly, they’re all going to try to exploit the weaknesses that the Spurs did. It’s up to Kerr, as the reigning Coach of the Year, to make the proper adjustments to his rotations in order to minimize the team’s flaws.