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NBA WESTERN CONFERENCE FINALS: WARRIORS vs ROCKETS

May 22, 2018

Steve Kerr

Oakland, California: Game Four

Q. Do you have any update on [Andre] Iguodala's status for tonight?
STEVE KERR: Yeah, Andre will not play.

Q. Is this mostly a cautionary thing?
STEVE KERR: You don't need to tweet first?

Q. I don't tweet. I don't find your press conferences that interesting (laughing).
STEVE KERR: Everybody else is tweeting, which means they're beating you to the punch. I wonder if your boss is going to be upset with you.

Q. I know. I know.
STEVE KERR: You're making sure Anthony's [Slater] tweeting.

Q. Yes, he better be. Is this a cautionary thing or is this something that you are worried about?
STEVE KERR: You know, if he was close, he'd play. So he's injured, so we'll see what happens.

Q. Congratulations on winning the Rudy Tomjanovich Award [given to a coach who is recognized for being cooperative with the media]. I'm seriously wondering if you made a conscious effort to say I'm going to give thoughtful answers to the media or you just realized how well Gregg Popovich was doing and you thought you'd continue on that same path?
STEVE KERR: Has Pop ever won the Rudy? Main thing is I was just trying to be considerate to all of you all year so I could get that trophy (laughing).

Q. How do you see this game? Do you see any pressure on the Warriors, or are you just taking it one game after another?
STEVE KERR: It's so great. I love that. Who is the pressure on? We have pressure to win two more games and they have pressure to win three more games. So there's pressure every game. It's the playoffs. So I hope our guys feel pressure. We tend to play better when we do, but there is pressure on everybody. We know that.

Q. What do you think [Nick] Young's defensive numbers, he's been the primary defender this series, and he's been surprisingly really, really good. What have you seen from him on that end of the floor?
STEVE KERR: I think his strength as a defender is his ability to stay in front of the ball. So this is a team that forces you to do so. They're going to iso and they've got two of the best in the world coming downhill at you. You've got to stay in front. Nick does a good job of that. He's done a good job of that this whole year.

So he played well against Houston in the regular season. He's continued to play well in the series, and we're happy with his play.

Q. Did you talk to the league, as you planned to, about Draymond's technical or did you get any feedback there?
STEVE KERR: Yeah, we talked to the league, and they're not rescinding it. But, you know, those conversations are always private, so we respect their decision and we move on.

Q. You've obviously sung Andre's praises all season long and especially during the playoffs. What are you guys going to be missing without him tonight?
STEVE KERR: Well, obviously, he's a great defender, and he's a guy I think he led the league in assist to turnover ratio. If he didn't lead it, he was right up there. You guys have heard me sing his praises for years. He's an organizer. He's a guy who settles us down. He continuously makes the right play. So we'll miss all that.

Q. Can you go back to when you guys first drafted Kevon [Looney], and his development over the last couple years, just where he is now and how he got there?
STEVE KERR: I think the biggest thing was health. One of the reasons he dropped to us at 29 or 30, wherever we picked him, was because the health. It was known that he had a hip problem. So we drafted him, and he missed most of that first year with a hip surgery, and the second year the other hip. So we knew he could play. We drafted him for a reason.

We could tell just his basketball IQ stood out, his feel. But what he did was he re-made his body this past summer. He lost 30 pounds. I think part of being in the NBA the first couple years is learning how to be a pro, and I think he learned from Andre and some of our other vets like how to be a pro.

Andre literally told him you need to change your diet, and he did. Helped him lose the weight. Now Kevon is one of our key guys.

So I just have so much admiration for the work he's put in. I always love when you see a young player just kind of get it, and Kevon gets it. He's going to have a long career, hopefully with us. But I'm thrilled for him and his individual achievement this year.

Q. The first three games of the series have been decided by a total of 70-plus points. Any personal theories why this series, two very evenly matched teams has made it so uneven? And the playoffs as well, there hasn't been as much as people thought there would be?
STEVE KERR: Yeah, I've been asked that a few times. My only theory would be the prominence of the three-point shot these days. Offensively teams are so explosive. The scores are much higher now than they used to be. The rules favor the offensive players. When you add in the human nature factor during the playoffs, which team has the edge emotionally, which team is feeling threatened and on edge, you know, maybe it's that combination of three-point shooting and explosiveness and the human element. I don't know. It's just a theory.

Q. To take it back to Kevon for a moment; [Warriors player development coach] Chris DeMarco seems like he's working with him every single day, and you see courtside and on film, can you speak to the role he's played in keeping his head in a good place in development?
STEVE KERR: Yeah, Chris has been great. He's a really good coach. He works with a lot of our guys. He works very closely with Klay [Thompson], and I think he's helped Klay quite a bit. But Kevon in particular. Chris is there with him every single morning, before anybody else is on the floor, those two are out there. Kevon's willing to do the work, and Chris is offering his help, and it's been a great partnership for those two. We're lucky to have Loon, and I'm lucky to have Chris.

Q. I have a question outside of basketball, if you don't mind. Over in hockey, one of the other three sports in America, there is a phenomenon happening over there. I don't know if you're watching it or not, but the Vegas Knights are doing something close to the Miracle of 1980. I just wanted to see if you could share your thoughts on that?
STEVE KERR: I'm aware of what's happening.

I'm not a huge hockey fan, but remarkable. An expansion team could be as successful, wildly successful as Vegas has been. I can't offer you any insight, but I'm happy for them, I'm happy for the community and the players. Man, what an amazing job they've all done. I didn't think that was possible with an expansion team, but I guess nobody else did either.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

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