Draymond Green has come to the defense of his longtime coach Steve Kerr, amid criticisms of how Kerr coaches young players.
The four-time NBA champion coach recently came under fire for the way he was coaching young Warriors forward Jonathan Kuminga.
Kerr has limited Kuminga’s minutes at times throughout the season many thought he shouldn’t have.
This led to Kuminga becoming disgruntled and ‘losing faith’ in Kerr, but him and Kerr have since patched things up.
Draymond argues that the negativity surrounding Kerr’s treatment of young players is unfounded.
“I think [Kerr] gets a lot of criticism for, ‘Oh, he’s not playing young guys,’ ” Draymond told The Athletic. “But would JK have been as ready as he is now a year ago? I personally don’t think so. I think we all believed in what JK could become. But you almost do JK a disservice by not giving him credit [for] the work he put in to become the player that he’s become this year.
“I think Steve has caught a lot of unfair criticism about playing young guys when number one, you haven’t had to or needed to, but as soon as you’ve needed to, you’re doing it. And you’ve made that adjustment, and look at what it’s done for us this season.”
Since talking things out with his coach, Kuminga has been completely thriving.
Plus, Kerr believes that Kuminga’s frustrations may have helped spark the team’s recent turnaround.
“I’m never offended by guys being frustrated with a lack of playing time, because that’s natural,” Kerr said. “He’s always been a great young guy to coach and we’ve always had a good relationship. I think it grew this year because of a little conflict, and we needed that.”
Kerr went on to explain, “I think what happened with JK is he had a breakthrough the last two months and he started to do the things that we’ve really been harping on. And then that sort of fed on itself … we started giving him more rope. I think the change in the starting lineup helped him quite a bit, with Draymond at the five.”