Warriors Notes: Kerr, Green, Offseason, Giannis

At the end of an extensive, in-depth interview with Charles Bethea of The New Yorker (subscription required), Steve Kerr spoke as if he isn’t ready to step down as the Warriors‘ head coach. Kerr said he doesn’t want to “abandon” Stephen Curry, Draymond Green, and the rest of the team, and said he still enjoys the work that coaching entails.

“I wake up excited to come to the gym and coach basketball and collaborate with the staff and see the players and try to help them achieve something,” Kerr told Bethea. “That’s an amazing life. And that’s all that really matters is: Do you enjoy what you do every day and are you fulfilled? I still am.”

Appearing on Yahoo Sports Daily on Tuesday (YouTube link), ESPN’s Brian Windhorst suggested even if Kerr is interested in remaining in his current position, it’s not necessarily as simple as Golden State’s longtime head coach simply deciding whether or not to return.

“What I think people have misunderstood about this (is that) this is not a straight emotional decision, like, ‘Do I have it within me to coach the Warriors or not?'” Windhorst said (hat tip to RealGM).“There is not a contract sitting on the table. It’s not like the Warriors said, ‘Hey man, sign this anytime, whenever you feel like it.’ They did not have contract extension discussions. They called those off. Steve called those off. He is making the highest salary amongst all NBA coaches at $17 million, that’s a championship-competition-level salary. This team is not a championship contender right now.

“The other thing… (is) there is some desire within the organization for Steve Kerr to potentially change his coaching staff. There’s some desire for Steve Kerr to change some strategy, particularly offensively. That is not a controversial statement. When a team that is this expensive and this veteran underachieves and misses the playoffs, to say that you want potential changes is not a shocking thing. But the question is, is Kerr willing to make those changes? Is Kerr willing to coach for a different salary next year? These are the real questions. This is where the rubber meets the road.

“… This might come down to a negotiating thing. It might not be sentimental at all. This might be good old-fashioned negotiating. Steve Kerr can leave the sideline and walk right into a broadcasting job, in a selection of places, for big money and an easier life. So his leverage is there that he has that out there.”

As Kerr weighs his future, we have more on the Warriors:

• Within that same New Yorker interview, Kerr also explained why he’s skeptical that Green will want to become a basketball coach after he retires as a player. “I don’t know that he’ll coach,” Kerr said. “He definitely has the brain for it. I don’t know if he has the patience. He’s an incredibly passionate, emotional guy, and that passion and energy has frequently gotten him in trouble. And I love him. I think he’s a really good-hearted person with an incredible brain, but if he wants to coach he’s going to have to learn how to control some of that emotion, that desire, and that fire that burns within him, and it’s not an easy thing to do.”
• Dalton Johnson of NBC Sports Bay Area evaluates the 2025/26 Warriors based on several areas, including offense, defense, new additions, and health, among others. Golden State’s stars – Curry and Jimmy Butler – earned the highest mark (a B-plus) from Johnson, since they remained highly productive when they were healthy.
• Yossi Gozlan of The Third Apron (Substack link) explores several of the decisions facing the Warriors this summer and wonders whether the team might try to maintain salary cap flexibility for 2027 if it doesn’t trade for a star in the coming months.
• What would it take for the Warriors to acquire Giannis Antetokounmpo in a summer trade? Eric Pincus of Bleacher Report considers that question and lays out a hypothetical scenario in which Golden State gives up four first-round picks along with Butler and Brandin Podziemski for the two-time MVP.