{"id":715865,"date":"2026-04-22T13:03:50","date_gmt":"2026-04-22T13:03:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/715865\/"},"modified":"2026-04-22T13:03:50","modified_gmt":"2026-04-22T13:03:50","slug":"steve-kerrs-warriors-contract-pros-and-cons-of-retiring-from-golden-state","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/715865\/","title":{"rendered":"Steve Kerr’s Warriors contract: Pros and cons of retiring from Golden State"},"content":{"rendered":"

SAN FRANCISCO \u2013 Steve Kerr\u2019s lame duck status as a coach<\/a> in the last year of his contract has resulted in perhaps the most fascinating saga of the NBA\u2019s coming offseason.\u00a0<\/p>\n

A few days ago, when Kerr was smiling and banging his fist in triumph<\/a> after the Warriors\u2019 play-in victory over the Clippers, his return felt inevitable. After 12 seasons, 604 victories and four titles, the fire within him looked plenty hot.\u00a0<\/p>\n

After an emotional embrace of Steph Curry and Draymond Green, a non-committal exit interview after Friday\u2019s loss to the Suns and a handful of reports about the Hall of Fame coach leaning toward departing<\/a> in the days preceding, the sentiment now appears to be shifting in the other direction.\u00a0<\/p>\n

This was only compounded by reports<\/a>\u00a0that the front office wants Kerr to evolve as a coach, diversifying the offense that has led to four titles but also stagnated as of late. Kerr will meet with owner Joe Lacob and general manager Mike Dunleavy over the next week or so.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Only Kerr truly knows what he wants to do with his future, though Green offered up on his podcast that he believed that the coach was finished after 12 seasons in the Bay Area.\u00a0<\/p>\n

For every reason Kerr may want to leave, there is another that could entice him to stay.\u00a0<\/p>\n

REASONS TO RETURN<\/p>\n

Players (who fit his system) want him back<\/p>\n

Exit interviews, which began with Curry and Green on Friday and continued on Monday with the majority of the rest of the roster, had one united message: The players want Kerr back.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cSteve is really, really special for me,\u201d Gui Santos said. \u201cI want to be coached by him my whole career if I can.\u201d<\/p>\n

Santos is just one of a whole group of Warriors who are expected to return next season. It is a collective that fits Kerr\u2019s system of split cuts and screens, and that might be getting a boost down the road. (More on that later.)\u00a0<\/p>\n

The Hall of Famers obviously support Kerr, though Curry was careful to say that he just wants Kerr to be happy, rather than demanding Kerr come back during exit interviews. Perhaps Green can talk Kerr into returning, much in the same way Kerr convinced Green not to \u201cquit\u201d<\/a> on the previous season.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Warriors have their draft pick<\/p>\n

During the dog days of the season in the winter and throughout the season afterwards, Kerr cited seeing young players develop as one of his favorite parts of coaching. This year, it involved wringing every bit of talent out of otherwise limited youngsters.\u00a0<\/p>\n

That would not be the case this summer, when the Warriors own a lottery pick. Kerr has a chance to mold one of the top young talents in the draft and develop a player who could take over for Curry, Green and Jimmy Butler once they retire.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Is he really going to leave Steph Curry?<\/p>\n

\"GoldenGolden State Warriors head coach Steve Kerr talks with Golden State Warriors\u2019 Stephen Curry (30) after their 124-119 win over the Memphis Grizzlies for their NBA play-in tournament game at the Chase Center in San Francisco, Calif., on Tuesday, April 15, 2025. (Nhat V. Meyer\/Bay Area News Group)<\/p>\n

Could a coach really step away from one of the 10 best players of all time? Curry, when healthy, is still the game\u2019s most devastating shooter and capable of scoring 27 points per game on great efficiency.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Per a recent ESPN report, the Warriors want Kerr to be committed to several seasons, and not to return just out of an obligation to his two vets. But at the same time, that could be the most compelling draw for Kerr.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t want to walk away from Steph, I\u2019m definitely not going and coaching somewhere else next year in the NBA,\u201d Kerr said. \u201cI would never walk away from Steph, but all this stuff has to be aligned and right.\u201d<\/p>\n

Kuminga headache is resolved<\/p>\n

Jonathan Kuminga had fans in the Warriors organization, with owner Joe Lacob being the most important. Steve Kerr was not one of them. After the Warriors signed the 22-year-old to a two-year extension despite four years of evidence showing Kuminga didn\u2019t fit Kerr\u2019s system, the coach appeared to be at wits\u2019 end before the All-Star break.<\/p>\n

But at the trade deadline, the front office sided with Kerr over Kuminga, trading the player to the Hawks for a very Kerr-style player in Kristaps Porzingis. Should he return, Kerr will not have to deal with the largest source of on-court frustration of the past few years.\u00a0<\/p>\n

REASONS TO LEAVE<\/p>\n

This team is not competing for a title<\/p>\n

Kerr infamously called the Warriors a \u201cfading dynasty\u201d on Christmas Eve, and that was before Butler and Moses Moody suffered devastating knee injuries. A small title window is now slammed shut. Curry is phenomenal, but he has finished the last two seasons either out with injury, or noticeably hobbled.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The team, barring a trade that would cost draft picks and young players, has little financial flexibility even if Green signs an extension and restructures his contract. Kerr is still one of the top coaching minds in the league, but would he want to return to coach a team that, at best, is destined for the play-in tournament again?\u00a0<\/p>\n

Misalignment between coach and front office<\/p>\n

\"GoldenGolden State Warriors majority owner Joe Lacob celebrates a basket against the Toronto Raptors in the third quarter at the Chase Center in San Francisco, Calif., on Tuesday, Jan. 20, 2026. (Nhat V. Meyer\/Bay Area News Group)<\/p>\n

The front office and ownership want an offense that creates more shots at the rim and does not rely on 3-pointers. The Warriors took more triples than any team in the league this season. But one look at the roster reveals a team with almost no off-the-dribble threats, which is not Kerr\u2019s fault.\u00a0<\/p>\n

And despite finally ending the Kuminga saga, the front office spent four seasons trying to make the Kerr-Kuminga partnership work, despite it being obvious to every other party involved that it just was not going to work. Curry and Green may want him back, but it has been proven that Kerr and the executive branch have differing philosophies on other parts of team-building.\u00a0<\/p>\n

If the front office wants to build the team more in its image, it might be time for Kerr to exit.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Better options<\/p>\n

If Kerr decides to conclude his NBA coaching career, he will have no shortage of options at his feet the moment his decision becomes final.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Kerr conspicuously only said that the NBA was off the table when it came to coaching, although trying his hand at the college game seems unlikely. His beloved Arizona Wildcats just inked Tommy Lloyd to a long-term deal.<\/p>\n

More realistically, he could make his way back to the broadcast booth, where Kerr was an acclaimed color commentator for TNT before joining the Warriors. The socially conscious Kerr could also explore the world of politics, as a commentator if not running for office. At 60, he is still considered a young man in that field.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"SAN FRANCISCO \u2013 Steve Kerr\u2019s lame duck status as a coach in the last year of his contract…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":715866,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3786],"tags":[7,160,479,164,4025,4024,6,66,255],"class_list":{"0":"post-715865","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-golden-state-warriors","8":"tag-basketball","9":"tag-california","10":"tag-golden-state","11":"tag-golden-state-warriors","12":"tag-goldenstate","13":"tag-goldenstatewarriors","14":"tag-nba","15":"tag-sports","16":"tag-warriors"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/116448505486086938","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/715865","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=715865"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/715865\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/715866"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=715865"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=715865"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=715865"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}