
I’m sure there’s a conspiracy theory we could honk up here for Steve Kerr’s leave of absence and Luke Walton’s promotion as the interim head coach of the Golden State Warriors – “AHA! THE TUCSON MAFIA AT WORK!” – but alas, we got nothin’.
At least not so far.
Kerr’s back, which he wrenched doing something strenuous on the sidelines during the NBA Finals, has responded like a railyard hobo to a “No Trespassing” sign, and his discomfort is such that he cannot even muster up the vertebral fortitude to yell at Bennie Adams for old time’s sake.
Stay in the game with the latest updates on your beloved Bay Area and California sports teams! Sign up here for our All Access Daily newsletter.
So, Walton, rather than Ron Adams, to which we confess we have no particular feeling one way or another. Maybe Adams was asked and passed. Maybe he wanted it but his expertise on the defensive side was too important. Maybe his cerebral nature prevented him from becoming a media thing.
Besides, Walton is still 0-0, and I would put it to you that, Jim Tomsula’s first press conference aside, it is hard to judge a coach on no games coached.
[POOLE: With Gentry gone, big shoes to fill for 'brilliant basketball mind' Walton]
But this is a reminder, and a stark one, that all teams change, and not always by design. The Warriors have been particularly aggressive in maintaining the status quo that got them a parade and Chris Cohan a case of agita upon which you could hang meat, but this rolls a grenade into the middle of the room.
Golden State Warriors
Find the latest Golden State Warriors news, highlights, analysis and more with NBC Sports Bay Area and California.
The Warriors adjusted after the turmoil of the Mark Jackson expulsion, and to the better, as Kerr, who had never coached before, hired a top-flight crew of assistants and gave the players’ opinions some wings.
But Alvin Gentry did so well that he was hired in New Orleans, leaving Adams, the other assistant, and Walton, who had just been promoted to Gentry’s job, as the only candidates. Adams had been the coach at Fresno Pacific and Fresno State, so he won on experience (in fact, he is the only coach on the entire staff who has ever been a head coach anywhere), but Walton was more simpatico with Kerr on the macro side, and given that Kerr may only be out a month or two, the Warriors would presumably be OK with making a November adjustment.
But if November becomes January, or in a dreadful case, March, this team will undergo some massive alterations, even if they are only subtle ones. Luke Walton is different than Steve Kerr, obviously, and he will be a different coach. The players, who now have rings to go with their promise, may not necessarily take to a stylistic of tone-of-voice change at the top.
Or maybe they will. Who the hell knows? Maybe Stephen Curry becomes more assertive. Maybe Draymond Green does, too. Maybe Andrew Bogut becomes more of an elder statesman/older brother-confessor as the team tries to find the equilibrium it lost when Kerr’s cervical structure decided to take a powder.
But for now, we know this: The Warriors are the first team in NBA history, and perhaps in the history of sport, to hire three consecutive men who have never been coaches before on any level – and no, summer league doesn’t count.
More amazing, they have hired three coaches who have never coached before and have gotten better with the first two. If the worst case scenario on Kerr’s back comes to reality, Luke Walton would have to figure out a way to do better than the NBA title to outdo his predecessor. Maybe the Stanley Cup, or the Jules Rimet Trophy, or the Nobel Prize in chemistry.
But hey, no pressure here, Luke Theodore old sock. Just make damned sure you stretch for at least 20 minutes every day. The idea of Joe Lacob on the sidelines calling out offensive sets is one nobody on earth is prepared to contemplate.