Warriors’ Kerr still a big Celts fan
LAS VEGAS — Two days before the Celtics took on the Warriors in Oakland last January, Steve Kerr was standing in a hallway at Oracle Arena extolling the Bostonians’ virtues.
He was talking about the possibility that there could be more meetings between the clubs in the spring. I was a bit skeptical of the Celtics’ ability to fulfill their part of that bargain, perhaps the result of seeing them day to day and imperfections becoming more evident — much in the same way some college players lose NBA draft value by staying in school an extra year.
But Kerr insisted they were legit, and shortly thereafter the Celts played the Warriors to the wire and lost, this after beating them in Boston in November. His words suddenly sounded more plausible.
Here at the Vegas Summer League, the Golden State coach shrugged when the conversation was recalled.
“It didn’t seem like that was that big of a leap to say that,” Kerr said in the backstage area at UNLV’s Thomas & Mack Center, a month removed from winning his third NBA title in four years. “They were the best defensive team in the league all year, and, as you know, I got to see them come back from 17 down to beat us early in the season.
“You could just see how connected they were and how talented they were. So, yeah, they’ve got a good thing going.”
How good a thing is something that must be proved on the court in the season to come, but Kerr was duly impressed by the Celtics making it to Game 7 of the conference finals without Kyrie Irving and Gordon Hayward.
He believes they are very much in the mix of true contenders.
“No doubt,” Kerr said. “But, again, I don’t think that’s big news. I mean, obviously Cleveland is no longer a threat to win it all. So you look at the East landscape, and Boston, they’re the favorite now.”
The Celtics are also a concern of the Warriors, and for fair reason. The teams have split their meetings in each of the last three seasons, with the C’s bucking the odds and getting two of their three wins in Oracle. Golden State, of course, has been the better team in the larger NBA sense, but the Celts have presented a tricky matchup.
“The last few years they’ve played us well, even before they had Jaylen (Brown) and Jayson Tatum, because they’ve always been really good defensively in the backcourt between Marcus Smart and Avery Bradley and (Terry) Rozier,” said Kerr. “So they’ve given us good games over the years, but this year is different. Now they’re starting to build a modern NBA defense with a whole bunch of guys who can all switch. So their roster looks a lot like ours does, you know, with the length and the versatility, and that’s the toughest kind of team to score on these days. They’ve done a good job.”
And Kerr knows there is more to come. He’s seen Playoff Kyrie up close: “Yeah, he’s pretty unique. He’s an unbelievably gifted scorer, and it was such a shame this year that he wasn’t healthy enough to play. So hopefully he’ll be healthy all next year and Boston will continue to make their move.”
The coach has also seen more of Hayward than most Celtic fans: “Another 6-7, 6-8 guy who can switch and has strength and speed. So they’re going to be really interesting this year.” Interesting — and a little familiar. “They’ve done it like we did, through the draft to start,” said Kerr. “You’ve got to put yourself in position to succeed, and both teams have done that through the draft, and then once you build your core through the draft — and our core is Steph (Curry), Klay (Thompson) and Draymond (Green); that’s our core — then you do what you can in free agency.
“We got Andre Iguodala, and obviously KD (Kevin Durant) was a grand slam. But he wanted to come here for a reason. He liked what he saw. And then DeMarcus (Cousins) … anybody in the league could have had him. So he slipped through the cracks, but he wanted to come here, and I think it’s going to be a great fit. We’re really excited to have him.”
He went on to note how well the Celts have drafted, which put them in position to attract free agents Al Horford and Hayward and then have the assets to trade for Irving. All of which would seem to put them in position to be a power for a number of seasons.
After hearing from the fringe chorus how the Warriors have created a superteam that is killing the league’s competitiveness, Kerr laughed hard at the jesting suggestion that the Celtics are a monster similarly bad for the game.
“They’re horrible for basketball,” he said. “I think we should break up the Celtics.”