It’s still fun and games for Kerr in 7th year

“Fun” is a concept you don’t often hear kicked around by coaches and managers, especially not at the beginning of a season fraught with challenges and high expectations.

If you want to talk about pressure, grinding, hard work, commitment, boring stuff like that, coaches are in. Fun? Try asking Bill Belichick, “Bill, you lost today, but you had some fun, didn’t you?”

With Steve Kerr, though, fun is always in the discussion.

And so it is that Kerr changed the direction of this column before I started writing it. The plan was to declare that this, Kerr’s seventh season with the Warriors, looms as his biggest coaching challenge.

Challenge, as in: The pressure is on. Your job, your rep and your coaching cred are on the line.

But Kerr puts challenges under the category of fun, so let’s go with: This is shaping up as Steve Kerr’s most fun season.

Last season was not fun. It was the most fun free season of Kerr’s first six with the Warriors.

“It felt like we were sort of done before we even started,” Kerr said. “This year I’m really excited about, because even though it’s a big challenge, it’s a challenge that’s exciting. I’m excited to see how this team comes together over the course of a year. That’s one of the most fun things to do as a coach, and even as a fan, to watch a team develop and grow.”

Kerr’s first season ( 201415) turned out to be fun, but it started with fear. He came to the job crazily ambitious, with a highrisk approach and the realization that he would be quickly fired if the plans didn’t work, a quick end to the coaching career he envisioned. Things worked out OK, an NBA championship, but early on, fear trumped fun.

In Kerr’s second season, the fun was mostly wiped out by health problems, including debilitating headaches.

In seasons three through five, the concept of fun was challenged by Kevin Durant, who plays the game with great inner joy but works hard to not let you know he’s having fun.

Then came last season, an endless stream of bad news, big injuries and a 1550 record.

Which brings us to this season.

Kerr has a chance to do his greatest work as a coach, and he also has a chance to get fired. OK, it would take a lot for him to get fired, but the heat is on. There were excuses for last season, but this time around, there will be no acceptance of middling, muddling mediocrity.

The Warriors and boss Joe Lacob see this as a dynasty organization, and dynasties don’t suffer backtoback disaster seasons. Kerr won’t be expected to deliver another NBA championship, but he’d better have his squad in the hunt.

To enhance the fun/ challenge, the NBA has given the Warriors a couple extra hurdles.

The Warriors have more new pieces to fit together than any of the league’s top teams, and less time to do it, with the abbreviated preseason.

“It’s almost like we’re starting the race a little bit behind,” Kerr said. “Especially the teams that were in the bubble, they had a lot of extra time. I don’t use that as an excuse, I use it only to answer what’s the biggest challenge. We’re trying to put together a team on the fly pretty quickly, and it’s not easy.”

And because the NBA insists on shoehorning 72 games into a 133day regular season, there will be a shortage of days off, so less time to practice and make adjustments.

It’s an intriguing hand that fate has dealt Kerr. His biggest job will be getting draft gem James Wiseman up to speed. Only three college games separate Wiseman from his high school career.

Add to that the mysteries of whether key players Jordan Poole, Andrew Wiggins and Kevon Looney will ever live up to their NBA potential. That’s a lot of mystery. It’s possible that no other coach in the league has as much hard work to do as Kerr has, although Steve Nash might want to challenge that assertion as he approaches his first season in Brooklyn.

Kerr knows that to make it work, he’s going to have to do one of his best selling jobs on the concept of joy. Fun.

These Warriors won’t be physically dominant, and without Klay Thompson they’re thin at superstar, so they’re going to have to outrun and out fun their opponents.

That’s at least part of the reason the Warriors brought in Kelly Oubre Jr. and Kent Bazemore. Both approach the game with that joy that Kerr cultivates. Nobody plays the game with more joy than Stephen Curry, but you have to surround him with some fellows who also play with gusto, zest, whatever you want to call it.

But it’s going to take more than happy music blaring over the gym loudspeakers at practice and silly halfcourt shooting contests to make this a winning team.

There’s a lot of hard coaching to be done. Kerr’s challenge is to make it fun.

Santiago Mejia / The Chronicle Steve Kerr ( right) enters his seventh season as the Warriors’ coach with high hopes for his retooled team after going 1550.