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The last three years have to have been bittersweet for Mark Jackson. On one hand, his fingerprints are all over this Warriors team that is knocking down the door on the conversation for greatest team ever. At the same time, this group of talent (sans Kevin Durant) did not really flourish until after Jackson had been fired as Warriors head coach in 2014.
Steve Kerr has received a ton of much-deserved credit for molding the Warriors into the offensive juggernaut they have become under his watch, but what makes Golden State a historically good team is its play on both ends. The Warriors finished first in offensive efficiency and second in defensive efficiency during the regular season.
When asked Tuesday how he was able to forge a great defensive team while not sacrificing anything on the other end, Kerr made sure to give the credit where it is due: Mark Jackson.
https://youtu.be/WEi-e8jdsUM
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Reporter: How did you make this such a good defensive team while keeping up the pace (offensively)?
Kerr: I didn’t. I didn’t; Mark Jackson did. Honestly. When I was in TV, I was doing Warriors games for years; every year they were one of the worst defensive teams in the league. Mark came in and made a focus of being a tough defensive-minded team.
The trade for Andrew Bogut, to me, changed the identity of the team. The year before I got here, the Warriors were the fourth-ranked defensive team in the league — already top-five. We knew what we had. We didn’t change one thing defensively. We started switching more when Draymond took over that power forward role. But for the most part, our schemes — everything — stayed the same.
We already knew they had established that defensive identity. Our job was to improve the offense — to get more movement and more flow. And that was my focus.
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And improve the offense Kerr did. He found ways to get Curry more open looks off the ball, greatly improved the offensive spacing and the flow of the offense. That’s when the Warriors truly took off. The offense was just way too stagnant under Jackson, which is a big reason they were nothing more than fringe contender in the West before Kerr took over. At the same time, Golden State isn’t the machine it is now without Jackson’s influence on the defensive end.
When Jackson took over the Warriors in 2011, the team ranked 26th in defensive efficiency. Three years later it cracked the top-five. Now, having good, versatile defenders like Green, Bogut, Klay Thompson and Andre Iguodala certainly helped, but if we’re raving about Kerr’s offense when he has Steph Curry, Kevin Durant, Thompson and Green at his disposal, then we should do the same for Jackson and his defense.
As Jackson put it during the first Cavs-Warriors NBA Finals: “Steve Kerr has done an outstanding job. You’re seeing the best team in basketball today. Deserves a lot of credit. While giving him credit, there’s no need to take away credit from the past. You cannot disrespect the caterpillar and rave about the butterfly.”
https://youtu.be/KaQqnjPTzGU
Kerr would clearly agree with that sentiment.
http://ftw.usatoday.com/2017/06/nba-finals-warriors-steve-kerr-mark-jackson-defense ___
it is a capital mistake to theorize before one has data. insensibly one begins to twist facts to suit theories, instead of theories to suit facts. - sherlock holmes
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