Golden State Warriors: Steve Kerr is WRONG about today’s game

Following the Golden State Warriors‘ loss to Minnesota, Steve Kerr criticized today’s NBA for overlooking the details and forgetting the fundamentals of basketball.

It is easy to blame all of your frustrations on someone else. That is why I understand where Kerr is coming from with his recent takes on the modern NBA. However, the Warriors’ problems stem deeper than simply a lack of fundamentals.

Steve Kerr had harsh criticism for the modern NBA after the Golden State Warriors’ loss on Thursday, but his anger is misplaced.

We’ve heard the talking points before. “Today’s players don’t understand the game,” is something that has been said every decade. It is a consistent truth that previous generations always think the newer generations are doing something wrong.

That is why it’s not surprising to see Kerr make these comments after the game:

"“It signals to me a modern team,” Kerr said. “This is the modern NBA; guys don’t box out. It’s just the way it is. Every night on League Pass, I see the same thing. Players let guys come in from the weak side, and they think, ‘I’ll just get the rebound.’ It’s a disease that’s rampant in the NBA. The problem is, if you’re a real small team like us, then it’s going to hurt you more than it will hurt other teams……Most of these guys didn’t have a high school and college coach yelling at them for a combined eight straight years,” Kerr said. “It’s a different world today. And players grow up in a different way in terms of their basketball background. The detail is often the thing that is lacking.”Via ESPN"

To say that the modern NBA has overlooked the details of basketball is just untrue. While sure, there are players who have limited their potential by not being students of the game — it is difficult to look at the top teams in our league and pretend that fundamentals are missing. For example, just look at squads such as the Utah Jazz, Phoenix Suns or Milwaukee Bucks and try to make the argument that they aren’t hyperfocused on the details of each game.

Now, from Kerr’s perspective, this take makes sense. The Warriors have multiple young players who simply don’t have the experience or knowledge to master the little things. It was a privilege for Kerr to coach some of the most fundamentally sound players of all time through the first five years of his career — now he’s dealing with guys who weren’t even in the league a year ago.

Kerr has been blessed to coach or play on some of the greatest teams in history. Going from that to coaching the last two seasons of Dubs’ basketball has to be strange.

Kerr’s criticism of his own team is valid, these players have a lot to learn before being members of a championship-caliber unit. But, I believe Kerr is simply misjudging the ‘disease’ that has spread across the league because, for the first time in his basketball life, he’s dealing with players who are on the border of being in the NBA.

To his credit, Kerr also praised the immense talent level across the NBA:

"“Players have never had more skill than they have today in my mind,” Kerr said. “I’m amazed by the skill level.”"

There is nothing wrong with the modern style of basketball. For generations, players have built off the foundation laid down before them — what we are seeing now is no different from what has happened in the past. While yes, the Warriors have issues of their own to deal with, it is not representative of the rest of the NBA as a whole.