For the first time in his coaching career, Steve Kerr's Warriors did not end their playoff run with a trip to the NBA Finals.
The Warriors coach joined forward Draymond Green on the latest episode of his podcast, "The Draymond Green Show," where he was asked how difficult it is to watch the Finals from afar.
"On the one hand, it's burning me up, [but] on the other hand, I just sort of count my blessings," Kerr said. "I've been coaching the team nine years, we've missed the playoffs twice and six of the seven years we made the Finals. So this is the first year we haven't made the Finals, but who gets to say that? There's so much good fortune. I'm not trying to be modest, we have a great staff, we work hard and all that stuff, but so much of coaching is who you get to coach -- the players, the talent that you have, the competitiveness, and we've had such an incredible group.
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"So this year we came up short. It's no fun watching the Finals, but at the same time, we don't deserve to be there. I can live with that, we've got to get better."
Although Golden State's loss to the Los Angeles Lakers in the Western Conference semifinal round stings, Green and the Warriors are maintaining a long-term approach and believe the short-lived postseason can be a learning experience for the team moving forward.
"Sometimes you have to lose to win," Green said. "I think, for us, this allows us to reset, this allows us to go back and say 'alright here are some things we didn't do as great.' It's tough to do that coming off a championship sometimes, so I think this will be great for us, and I'm excited about it."
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Golden State Warriors
The Warriors head into a critical offseason with plenty of question marks. However, as long as Green, Kerr, Steph Curry and Klay Thompson remain with the team, Golden State should have a chance to compete for another championship next season.