Getty Villanova Wildcats coach Jay Wright reacts during an NCAA tourney bout with the Kansas Jayhawks.
What Steve Kerr has been able to do in his eight years as the Golden State Warriors‘ head coach is almost unprecedented. The 56-year-old has a regular-season winning percentage of 68.2, six NBA Finals appearances and three (soon to be four?) league titles to his credit.
An unfortunate byproduct of coaching success, though, is that teams around the Association become desperate to emulate it, sometimes by luring the people who were involved with the process to their own side.
Kerr has experienced this before on multiple occasions and he’s experiencing it again now as the Warriors vie for the Larry O’Brien Trophy against the Boston Celtics.
Just a few, short weeks ago, Kerr’s associate head coach, Mike Brown, took the top job in Sacramento. Flash forward to now and another assistant, Kenny Atkinson, appears to be the No. 1 choice for the open head-coaching job in Charlotte.
So, regardless of how the Dubs’ season ends, they’re going to have some spots to fill this summer. To that end, an NBA executive just gave Heavy.com’s Sean Deveney a list of potential candidates for Kerr’s staff.
Exec Namechecks Legendary College Coach
According to the Western Conference exec, former Villanova coach Jay Wright — a recent Hall of Fame inductee whose name has come up with NBA jobs before — is someone who could receive a look from Kerr and the Warriors.
“I think Jay Wright, you’d have to start there, he definitely has had his eye on getting into the NBA, even just as an assistant. But he might need some downtime coming off his time with Villanova.”
After leading the Wildcats to the Final Four this past season, Wright shockingly announced his retirement after 21 seasons in April. The 60-year-old indicated that the job had worn him down and that his heart was no longer in it. That said, he did leave the door open for an NBA jump.
“Right now I’m looking forward to this [special assistant] position at Villanova. But honestly, down the road, I’d be lying — I don’t know what I’m going to feel like,” he told ESPN at the time.
Regarding a spot in Golden State, the exec added: “He and Steve are friends, it would be a good fit, it would be a lot of brainpower on that bench for sure. They were together with USA Basketball.”
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Other Candidates
Speaking of brainpower, one of the Association’s ultimate Xs and Os/game prep guys, Quin Snyder, just took his leave of Salt Lake City. So, he’s technically available. As might be the case with Wright, though, the exec sees him taking some time to recharge the batteries.
“Probably the same with Quin Snyder, I think he wants time off now,” the exec said.
However, the exec did namedrop another potential candidate — one who actually coached Stephen Curry way back when Keith Smart was running the show, and one who has both head-coaching experience in the NBA and a preexisting relationship with Kerr.
“Lloyd Pierce is another guy who, they were together with Team USA and Steve likes him a lot. He almost came on board before he went to Indiana, he would have to be on the list, too.”
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