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"&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;em &gt;This is an extended version of an article that appears in the Feb. 23 edition of SI. To subscribe,&amp;nbsp;click here.&lt;/em&gt;\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;The giant in the yellow T-shirt lumbers across the concrete, advancing on his target.\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;It\u2019s a Wednesday evening in late January, in the cavernous underbelly of Oracle Arena, minutes before the first-place Warriors are to host the Rockets. Golden State\u2019s primary owner, 59-year-old Joe Lacob, has just finished speaking to a bunch of venture capitalists in North Face vests. Straddling a stool in a private room, Lacob spoke of penciling profits and leveraging assets and the general awesomeness of Steph Curry. But now he\u2019s headed toward the tunnel to his courtside seat. Before he can get far, however, the giant intercepts him.\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;\u201CTHANK YOU JOE!\u201D the man bellows.\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Lacob peers up and recognizes the looming figure of Bill Walton, whose son Luke is a Warriors assistant coach and who, for reasons that never become totally clear, crashed the VC event and asked a handful of relatively complex financial questions.\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;\u201CTHANK YOU!\u201D Walton shouts a second time, pumping Lacob\u2019s hand. \u201CThank you for everything you\u2019ve done!\u201D\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Lacob smiles, nervous. \u201CIt feels weird when people say that,\u201D he says. \u201CWe haven\u2019t accomplished anything yet.\u201D\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;\u201CBut you have!\u201D booms Walton, becoming serious. \u201CYou\u2019ve changed &lt;em &gt;EVERYTHING&lt;/em&gt;. You\u2019ve made people &lt;em &gt;BELIEVE&lt;/em&gt; again.\u201D\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Belief. When it comes to pro basketball in the Bay Area, it is a recession-proof currency, forever propped up by an enduring fan support that even team COO Rick Welts calls, \u201Cunexplainable.\u201D This is a franchise that has taken and taken from its fans while providing little in return.\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;No one expected change to come this quickly, though. Five years ago, when Lacob and Peter Guber bought the team for $450 million, the Warriors were 25-56 and coming off a stretch of 14 losing seasons in 16 years. The roster was riddled with D-Leaguers. The previous owner, the reclusive Chris Cohan, was loathed by fans. The coach \u2013 Don Nelson, in his final, melancholy, hangdog iteration \u2013 was already daydreaming about his beachfront home in Maui.\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;And now? Now, the Warriors are riding a 107-game sellout streak. At points this season they\u2019ve had the top-ranked offense &lt;em&gt;and&lt;/em&gt; defense. Their core is young and talented, their coaching staff deep, their owner committed and their executives earned the \u201CSports Team of the Year\u201D award from &lt;em&gt;Sports Business Journal&lt;/em&gt; for 2014.\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Which leads to the question that all the North Facers want answered: How, in just five years, and without a draft pick higher than No. 6, did the Warriors go from a joke of a franchise to one of the best in all of sports?\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;The answer is about basketball and business, of course, but ultimately it\u2019s about people. It involves a prideful preacher and a mad scientist, a spindly point guard and a passionate power forward, an impatient multimillionaire and a UCLA walk-on. And, in perhaps the most crucial role in the months to come, a professor\u2019s son with a knack for diplomacy. &amp;nbsp;\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;\u200B\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;At 49, Steve Kerr still looks more like a YMCA All-Star than an NBA player, all bones and elbows and spiky blonde hair. During his years with the Bulls and Spurs, Kerr was the guy who, sizing him up, you figured you might be able to take on a good day. Skinny, short, bereft of hops. And yet, somehow, magically, he won five titles, earned the trust of Michael Jordan and retired as the game\u2019s all-time leading three-point shooter.\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Now, as a coach, Kerr can give off a similar vibe: The Guy Who Just Got Lucky. He merely inherited a great team, Kerr tells you. It\u2019s all about the players, he stresses. Don\u2019t talk to me, talk to my assistants -- they\u2019re the ones doing the real work. This story? Kerr doesn\u2019t want it to be about him. Really, he says, there are more important things to write about.\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Sorry, Steve. Not going to happen. Because there\u2019s one major difference between last year\u2019s Warriors, which finished 51-31 before losing to the Clippers in the first round of the playoffs, and this year\u2019s team, which returned its top seven rotation players and entered the All-Star break with the best record in the NBA at 42-9. And that difference looks a lot like a spiky-haired YMCA All-Star.\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Kerr always planned on coaching, but it wasn\u2019t until two years ago, while working as a broadcaster for TNT, that he says he began preparing in earnest. That summer he attended a sports leadership conference at the Aspen Institute in Colorado and ran into Jeff Van Gundy, whose work Kerr admired. Van Gundy told Kerr what he tells all aspiring coaches: Write down everything. Everything you\u2019ve learned, everything you want to do. Everything you\u2019d change. It\u2019ll organize your thoughts. Develop your philosophy.\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;So Kerr created a Word file on his laptop. Some days he added a few notes; other days he filled pages. During four years of college and 15 seasons in the NBA, Kerr played for Lute Olson, Lenny Wilkens, Phil Jackson and Gregg Popovich. His teammates included Mark Price, Tim Duncan, Scottie Pippen and Jordan. There was a lot to write, and no detail was too small. He jotted down offensive sets and defensive philosophies, but also included the little stuff - everything from a policy for families traveling on the road to whether players are required to do 20 minutes of cardio after a game if they don't play a certain number of minutes.\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Kerr began collecting plays too, pausing games on the flat-screen at his San Diego home whenever he saw an action he liked \u2013 a backdoor lob off an inbounds or a particularly potent flare screen. Then he\u2019d shoot an email to Kelly Peters, a friend and coach at nearby Torrey Pines High (and now a Warriors advance scout). Peters pulled the footage and compiled it using iMovie. Week by week, Kerr\u2019s file \u2013 named ATOs, for \u2018After Timeouts\u201D \u2013 grew.\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;By the spring of 2014, the video library had swelled to over 50 plays and the Word file had morphed into a detailed Power Point presentation. Kerr loved broadcasting, just as he\u2019d enjoyed playing, but friends believed coaching was, in the words of Bruce Fraser, a Warriors assistant who\u2019s been close to Steve since the two played together at Arizona, \u201Chis calling.\u201D Now, with two of his three children off at college, it was time.\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;The plan was simple, and seemingly foolproof: Follow his mentor, Phil Jackson, to New York. But then the Warriors, coming off a second straight playoff appearance, did something unexpected: They fired their coach, Mark Jackson.\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;San Francisco&lt;em&gt; Chronicle&lt;/em&gt; columnist Bruce Jenkins, the dean of Bay Area sportswriters, called the move a \u201Crisky gamble,\u201D labeling Lacob as \u201Cmeddling\u201D and \u201Cpathetic.\u201D \u201CI don\u2019t buy this notion that, with a new coach, these same Warriors reach the NBA Finals next year,\u201D wrote Jenkins. \u201CDead wrong. Zero chance of that.\u201D\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Privately, Lacob fumed. Publicly, he conducted a high-powered coaching search. In early May, he offered the job to Kerr who, after consulting with Popovich, as well as family and friends, took it, thereby breaking Phil Jackson\u2019s heart. But the Warriors offered a better roster, proximity to his family and a stronger organizational structure. Still, it was a weird situation to enter. Expectations were simultaneously high and low. &lt;em&gt;You better win at least 51 games. But we don\u2019t think you can do much better.&lt;/em&gt;\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;To find success, Kerr knew he needed people to buy-in. He began with the most important man in the franchise.\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;[pagebreak]\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Of the 15 players on the Golden State roster, it is strange to think that the 26-year-old Steph Curry is now the longest-tenured. Especially because he never should have been a Warrior.\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;The year was 2009 and Don Nelson couldn\u2019t believe it. The Minnesota Timberwolves had just taken two point guards in the first six picks and neither was named Curry. Nelson had long been enamored of Curry, seeing in the skinny Davidson star the playmaking and shooting skills of Steve Nash. Nelson and then-GM Larry Riley had Curry ranked second overall in the draft, behind only Blake Griffin. \u201CAnd there wasn\u2019t really anyone else we liked,\u201D says Nelson. When the Timberwolves took Ricky Rubio and Jonny Flynn, shouts of joy echoed in the Warriors draft room in Oakland. Curry was theirs.\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;It would be the last significant contribution Nelson made to the Warriors. He was fired soon after Lacob took over, but Curry remained. Beset by ankle injuries and mismanaged by interim coach Keith Smart, who often pulled the young guard after bad turnovers and in favor of veterans, Curry flourished under Mark Jackson, whom Lacob hired in June of 2011 to replace Smart. &amp;nbsp;\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;As a point guard for 18 years in the league, Jackson had catered to stars, setting up players like Patrick Ewing and Reggie Miller. Now, as a coach, he did the same. He encouraged Curry to run endless pick-and-rolls and go one-on-one. The rest of the team? Much of the time their job was to set screens for Steph. Or feed Steph. Or guard the opposing point guard while Jackson hid Curry on a weaker offensive player. The strategy worked in at least one important respect: Curry got better. He was allowed to make mistakes. His confidence grew. He became an All-Star.\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Meanwhile, the Warriors evolved as a team, due in part to Jackson\u2019s influence. He emphasized individual skill development, mandating that every player put in at least 15 minutes of extra work with an assistant coach. A pastor at a non-denominational church in Reseda, Ca, Jackson had an uncanny knack for fostering an us-against-them mentality. To this day, the Warriors still exit each huddle yelling \u201CJust Us!\u201D, a unifying chant that began in the Jackson era. Upon his hiring, Jackson had immediately \u2013 and foolishly \u2013 promised that the team would make the playoffs in his first season. The Warriors didn\u2019t, and wouldn\u2019t for two more years, but Jackson\u2019s formidable public confidence and oratorical skill&amp;nbsp;\u2013 which, says one team source, is what got him the job over then-Spurs-assistant Mike Budenholzer, because, \u201COf course Mark\u2019s going to win the interview\u201D \u2013 buoyed the players\u2019 confidence.\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Jackson was the right man at the right time.&amp;nbsp;In many respects, though he was the wrong man for the long run. &amp;nbsp;\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Golden State GM Bob Myers looks younger than his 39 years. Tall and lanky, with a thatch of dark hair and big eyes, he has both the physical presence of a former athlete \u2013 he walked on at UCLA and still plays intense full court 1-on-1 games after Warriors practices against advance scout Chris DeMarco \u2013 and the social acumen of an agent, which he was for 14 years.&amp;nbsp;Hired in 2011 to apprentice under Riley as an assistant GM, Myers impressed&amp;nbsp;Lacob&amp;nbsp;so much that he was elevated to general manager in only a year.\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;From the beginning, Myers and Lacob followed a plan. It revolved around a few key tenets. First, that the future of the league lay in position-less players. Size, length and versatility were more important than traditional designations. Second, despite recent trends, they believed that centers still mattered. Third, they believed that organizations flourished when stocked with high-character people. \u201CI\u2019d noticed that sometimes the most talented people don't help the bottom line in regards to winning,\u201D explains Myers. The executive motto became, in Myers\u2019 words, \u201CSize, then character.\u201D They began with a significant advantage, possessing in Curry a tiny Tim Duncan. \u201COur best player is arguably our highest character player,\u201D says Myers. \u201CIt's like having a CEO that exhibits the highest character. Everybody else falls in line.\u201D\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Meanwhile, Lacob set about changing the business side. In an effort to create both literal and figurative transparency, he ordered executive office walls to be replaced with glass. He informed basketball operations that, instead of being the team that sold draft picks, they\u2019d now be buyers. And he took aim at the best in the business, luring Jerry West to become head consultant and then recruiting Welts, who dreamt up the concept of All-Star Weekend and the Dream Team during a 20-year stint with the NBA. This would prove to be Lacob\u2019s MO heading forward: Always go for the gold.\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;In March 2012, the Warriors traded Monta Ellis, the team\u2019s most popular player but a redundant piece next to Curry, to Milwaukee for center Andrew Bogut, an elite defensive big man. They drafted one big, long position-less wing after another \u2013 Klay Thompson (6\u20197\u201D), Harrison Barnes (6\u20198\u201D), Draymond Green (6\u20197\u201D) \u2013 and hit on a surprising number of them. They filled in holes with free agents like Jarrett Jack and Carl Landry, and acquired Andre Iguodala (6\u20196\u201D), yet another long-limbed wing, while unloading the bloated salary of Andris Biedrins. In a business where 50% is a good success rate on personnel decisions, it was a remarkable hot streak.\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;By last spring, Lacob\u2019s five-year plan was ahead of schedule. Golden State had the talent and the mindset. There was just one more move to make.\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;\u200B\u200B\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;During Kerr\u2019s three-hour interview last May, at an airport conference room in Oklahoma City, many things impressed Golden&amp;nbsp;State\u2019s decision makers. First was the Power&amp;nbsp;Point presentation, which by then ran 16 pages. It began with a section titled \u201CWhy I\u2019m Ready To Be A Head Coach\u201D and included segments on leadership, relationships, analytics and everything from dress code to dieticians to yoga instructors to sleep specialists. Kerr also included detailed thoughts on Warriors players, including potential rotation changes. But what sealed it, at least for Lacob, was Kerr\u2019s list of potential assistants. At the top, along with David Blatt (now the Cavaliers\u2019 coach), were Alvin Gentry and Ron Adams, two of the top strategists in the business. Here, Lacob knew, was a man who wouldn\u2019t feel threatened by those around him.\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;This, in the end, had been part of Jackson\u2019s undoing. Upon joining Golden State, he\u2019d instituted a rule forbidding assistant coaches from talking to the press. Even so, assistant Mike Malone received credit for the team\u2019s improved defense, which angered Jackson (who declined to comment for this story). Within the team, he pitted players against each other to gain loyalty. \u201CHe\u2019d say, \u2018You\u2019re my guy, and so-and-so is a clown,\u2019\u201D recalls one person with knowledge of the situation. \u201CThen he\u2019d go say the same thing to the other player, only reversed.\u201D When Jackson became frustrated with Malone\u2019s growing profile, he gave the defense to someone he could trust, Darren Erman. At the time, Erman, a former lawyer, was a recently-promoted assistant with no experience running an NBA defense. Fortunately for Jackson, Erman thrived in the role, molding a top-tier defense.\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Then, last spring, things got downright strange. In March, without explanation, Jackson reassigned Brian Scalabrine, a well-liked assistant, to Golden&amp;nbsp;State\u2019s D\u2011League affiliate; in April, Erman was fired for violating team policy. (Jackson later cited \u201Cdisrespect\u201D in Scalabrine\u2019s firing; Erman was reported to have secretly recorded team meetings.) Players became wary of publicly crediting assistants, lest they incur Jackson\u2019s wrath. Meanwhile, the Warriors were heading into the postseason with a depleted, relatively inexperienced coaching staff and a number of troubling losses. To the Knicks, Hornets and Timberwolves at home. To the Spurs at home even though San Antonio sat its starters.\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;While Jackson excelled as a leader, he was not interested in the minutiae of coaching, according to sources. He so rarely watched film that the video team eventually stopped loading clips onto his laptop. He didn\u2019t draw up plays during huddles, or carry a clipboard. He often looked at his cellphone during practice, even when management was around. His relationship with the front office grew more strained.\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;There were other, cultural concerns. Jackson often emphasized his faith with the players. \u201CIt\u2019s fine to be religious,\u201D says one Warriors insider, \u201Cbut it\u2019s a different thing to bring it to your work.\u201D When Jason Collins publicly announced his homosexuality in April&amp;nbsp;2013, Jackson told reporters, \u201CI know Jason Collins; I know his family and am certainly praying for them.\u201D This seemed particularly tone-deaf considering that Golden&amp;nbsp;State COO Rick Welts, the first high-ranking sports executive to come out, worked in the same building. Welts says he approached Jackson and had \u201Ca nice conversation, like grown\u2011ups,\u201D adding, \u201CHe knew how I felt, I knew how he felt. I\u2019m sure he thought it was an opportunity to educate me, and I thought it was an opportunity to educate him.\u201D\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;By the time the season ended, Lacob felt the situation had become too dysfunctional. Jackson no longer fit with his larger vision for an integrated, inclusive operation. As he later told a venture capital luncheon, by way of explanation: \u201CYou can't have 200 people in the organization not like you.\u201D (Afterward, Lacob felt bad about the comment. \u201CI didn\u2019t know it was being taped,\u201D says Lacob of the event. \u201CBut that\u2019s no excuse.\u201D)\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;With Kerr\u2019s hiring, Lacob hoped to restore stability. One of the new coach\u2019s first moves involved a reclamation project.\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;[pagebreak]\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Harrison Barnes was shocked when Kerr called him last May and said he wanted to meet him wherever he was. \u201CThat\u2019s big, actually making the commitment to fly out and see guys,\u201D says Barnes, who was in Miami at the time. \u201CIt would\u2019ve been easy for him to fly and meet Steph and just call everybody else.\u201D\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;A talented 22-year-old forward, Barnes was coming off a miserable season. As the leader of the second unit, he was expected to score, and often out of isolation sets. It hadn\u2019t worked. \u201CThe best players in the league shoot only 20%, 30% or so on iso plays,\u201D Kerr said when they met, at the Four Seasons in Miami. \u201CAny idea how well you shot?\u201D\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Barnes grimaced. \u201CProbably way lower than that?\u201D he ventured.\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Kerr nodded. \u201CI don\u2019t think you were used last year in a way that was best for you. But if you buy into what we\u2019re saying, you have a chance to be successful.\u201D\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Over the weeks that followed, Kerr met with a number of other players, including flying to Australia to see Bogut. He gave them all the same message. &lt;em&gt;Here is what I\u2019m hoping to do, here\u2019s why and here\u2019s how.&lt;/em&gt; The players, some of whom had been conspicuously silent when Kerr got hired, appreciated the no-BS approach. \u201CI think he was destined to be a coach,\u201D says Klay Thompson. \u201CJust the way he\u2019s composed. He\u2019s got a real good way of dealing with people.\u201D\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;This may have something to do with Kerr\u2019s upbringing, which is well-chronicled. When Steve was 18 and a freshman at Arizona, his father, Malcolm, was working as the president of American University in Beirut. On January 18, 1984 as the elder Kerr headed to work, he was shot twice in the head and killed. Three years later, as a Wildcats senior, Kerr became a central character in John Feinstein\u2019s book, &lt;em&gt;A Season Inside&lt;/em&gt;, which paints a portrait of a scarred yet uncommonly mature young man. In 1987, Arizona coach Lute Olson told the &lt;em&gt;New York Times&lt;/em&gt; that Kerr was, \u201Cthe smartest player that I've ever coached or ever seen.\u201D At an age when most young men were still forming their identity, Kerr already knew exactly who he was.\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Now, as a coach, he wanted to be both firm and fair. And that meant making tough decisions. The first, and potentially riskiest, involved Barnes. After two weeks of training camp, Kerr knew that Barnes needed to start to fulfill his potential, so he could play off of Curry and Thompson. And that meant telling Andre Iguodala, a former All-Star who\u2019d started the first 758 games of his career, that he was going to the bench.\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Iguodala was skeptical at first. \u201CBut it\u2019s important not to dismiss things immediately so I thought on it,\u201D he says. Kerr had made some good points. The second unit, so ineffective the previous season, needed Igoudala\u2019s leadership and playmaking. And Iguodala appreciated Kerr\u2019s directness. \u201CI agreed with his larger vision,\u201D he says. Plus, he adds, \u201CI\u2019ve been in this league 11 years and I want my professionalism to be something that stands out.\u201D In the end, he accepted the demotion gracefully. \u201CWho else is going to complain now?\u201D says Kerr.\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Then, in November, Kerr got lucky. David Lee got hurt, straining his left hamstring. A two-time All-star and a favorite of Lacob and many fans, Lee is a gifted playmaker and finisher. He is also a subpar defender who lacks the range to be a stretch four. Assistant coaches had pleaded with Jackson to move Lee to the bench the previous season in favor of Green, arguing that it would tighten the starting unit\u2019s defense and provide a desperately-needed offensive boost to the bench, but Jackson stood firm.&amp;nbsp;\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Kerr claims he intended to do the same. \u201CIf David Lee doesn't get hurt, he's still starting for sure,\u201D says Kerr.\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;But Lee &lt;em&gt;did&lt;/em&gt; get hurt. And thus Kerr unleashed upon the league a unique, and uniquely voluble, defensive force.\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;It\u2019s a Warriors home game in late January and Draymond Green is hearing it.\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;\u201CHe\u2019s too little! TOO LITTLE!\u201D\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;That\u2019s the Denver bench, shouting at Green, who just got ducked in twice \u2013 hoops jargon for scoring on deep inside position \u2013 by 6\u20198 Nuggets power forward Kenneth Faried, who is springy and muscular. And now Green, who is 6\u20196 without shoes, not much of a leaper and won\u2019t be on the cover of &lt;em&gt;Men\u2019s Health&lt;/em&gt; anytime soon, is being told that he\u2019s too little. And, as Green says, \u201CThat does not sit well with me &lt;em&gt;at all&lt;/em&gt;.\u201D\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;His whole life, Green\u2019s been told that he\u2019s too this or not enough that. An older sister used to sit on him and twist his legs to see if he could break free. One of his brothers, springy and athletic, challenged him to jumping contests in the house, knowing he\u2019d win. The men down at Civitan Rec Center in Saginaw, Michigan mocked the chubby kid. Even after Green won high school state titles and led Michigan State to two Final Fours, the talent people projected him as a \u201Ctweener.\u201D Which is code for - you guessed it - &lt;em&gt;too little&lt;/em&gt;.\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;What they overlooked was Green\u2019s versatility and mindset. He is, in the best sense, the perfect pick-up hoops teammate, willing to do whatever\u2019s necessary to help a team win. That\u2019s how he earned respect at Civitan and MSU and, later, in workouts with the Warriors. \u201CHis team just kept on winning all the drills,\u201D says Myers. Meanwhile, assistant GM Travis Schlenk remembers something else from that workout: \u201CDraymond kept blocking jumpshots,\u201D says Schlenk. \u201CHe must have blocked three on the perimeter. You know how unusual that is?\u201D\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Now, Green is the unlikely anchor of the Warriors\u2019 top-ranked defense, one of the few humans who can guard both Dwight Howard and Chris Paul. As of All-Star break, he leads the league in defensive rating and defensive win shares and is being mentioned as a potential Defensive Player of the Year. \u201CThe thing I love about him is he hates to be scored on,\u201D says Adams, the team\u2019s Yoda-like assistant coach, \u201Cand that\u2019s all you want in a defensive player.\u201D\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Under Adams, the Warriors run a \u201Cshell\u201D protection scheme predicated on length, anticipation and the ability to think and act decisively. They switch most every pick and roll, taking advantage of all their interchangeable parts, and Adams expects everyone to contribute. To him, there\u2019s no such thing as an innately poor defender. In Chicago, he helped Kyle Korver become part of a top defensive scheme and now he wanted to do the same with Curry. \u201CI don\u2019t think you\u2019re a bad defensive player,\u201D he told Curry last summer, \u201Cbut you don\u2019t play enough possessions well.\u201D (He also said, \u201CProve to me you\u2019re better than your dad.\u201D) Steph embraced the challenge. Though he now regularly covers opposing point guards, he\u2019s improved from an average to above-average defender, posting one of the top ten defensive ratings in the league while leading the NBA in steals, which he accrues without gambling in passing lanes.\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;\u200B\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Still, Green is the heart of the defense, banging and bodying and talking trash (Tim Duncan is the only forward Green says he won\u2019t jaw with, partly out of respect and partly because, \u201CYou say something to Timmy, he just look at you with that Timmy face like, \u2018Wow, you\u2019re talking to me!\u2019\u201D). And yet, Green disappoints himself daily. \u201CI feel like each possession is a battle and you never want to lose a battle,\u201D Green explains after a recent practice.&amp;nbsp; \u201CAnd if somebody scores on me, it &lt;em&gt;really&lt;/em&gt; bothers me. It doesn\u2019t make me feel any better if it\u2019s Kevin Durant and he hits those shots on everybody. Well, I\u2019m not everybody.\u201D Green leans forward, getting fired up. \u201CPeople say, \u2018That\u2019s great offense, there\u2019s nothing else you can do.\u2019 No, I could have done &lt;em&gt;something&lt;/em&gt; else, because he scored.\u201D\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Which brings us back to the Nuggets game. On four other occasions already, Faried has tried to post Green and tossed up, in Green\u2019s estimation, \u201Cgarbage shots.\u201D But that doesn\u2019t matter, because Green can\u2019t stop thinking about the two baskets Faried did make. \u201CThe one thing you know about Faried is that he\u2019s going to duck in, &lt;em&gt;every time&lt;/em&gt;,\u201D explains Green. \u201CGoing into the scouting report, I should have known to sit on that duck in every time. Now, when he ducked me in the first time, I thought, man, I went to help and tried to come back a little bit and he ducked me in. The second time, I\u2019m like, man, I had to step off a little bit and he ducked me in. So I went to the bench and there was a timeout. I said to the guys, \u201CIf I\u2019m going to help, y\u2019all gotta help me.\u201D\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;As the half wore on, however, Green continued to replay the sequence in his head and came to a different conclusion. Maybe he had helped too far. Maybe Faried did just get good position. \u201CAnd then I realized, damn, I think I just got ducked in,\u201D says Green. So at the next stoppage he went to Adams. \u201CI said, \u2018I been replaying the play and\u2026I could be wrong.\u2019 I think I just got ducked in twice. So I\u2019m going to go talk to the guys.\u201D Confirms Barnes: \u201CHe came right over and apologized.\u201D\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;By the way, the Warriors won that game by 43 points.\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;As important as Green\u2019s ascension has been, the Warriors defense was already stout before Kerr arrived. It\u2019s on the other side of the ball that the coach has had the larger impact.\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Last season, the Warriors offense was often stagnant, and it frustrated Jerry West in particular. He couldn\u2019t understand how a team blessed with shooters like Curry and Thompson, and passers like Bogut and Lee, could be last in the NBA in passes per possession.\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;That was Jackson\u2019s preferred style of play, though, which resembled classic NBA basketball from the 80s and 90s \u2013 isolation and pick and roll. Kerr\u2019s approach has been a stark contrast.\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Many first-time head coaches begin their career by mimicking a mentor. Think of Erik Spoelstra in Miami or Budenholzer in San Antonio. But Kerr has the advantage not only of multiple Hall of Fame mentors but also a respected offensive sidekick in Gentry, whom he hired last June. Together, they created what Gentry calls a \u201Cmelting pot\u201D system on offense. Watch Warriors games and you\u2019ll see the high-post action of Phil Jackson\u2019s triangle offense, the drag screens and sideline tilts favored by Mike D\u2019Antoni\u2019s Suns&amp;nbsp;(where Kerr served as GM from 2007-08 to '09-10), the low post splits from the old Jerry Sloan Utah handbook, and, most prominently, the motion offense and loop series of Popovich\u2019s late-generation Spurs.\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;The result is a system in which the only sin is standing still. \u201CBall movement and people movement,\u201D is how Gentry describes it. The bigs use dribble hand-offs, the shooters curve and cut in a continual churn and everyone, eventually, gets to touch the ball. To Kerr, who had the advantage of watching the Warriors up close as a broadcaster, this was the best way to utilize a roster stocked with bigs who are better-suited to passing than diving to the rim (in particular, Kerr calls Bogut \u201Ca witch with the ball.\u201D)\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;After debuting the offense in summer league, Kerr and Gentry installed it in training camp, while simultaneously focusing on conditioning. Initial results were mixed. There were moments of gorgeous passing and cutting, but there were also turnovers. Lots of turnovers. Seven games into the regular season, the Warriors were averaging 22 a game. For a coach like Kerr, who believes ball movement, limiting mistakes and defending are the keys to basketball, it was painful to watch. \u201CI had so many ideas in my head,\u201D Kerr admits now. \u201CI put in too much.\u201D\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;So he simplified the offense, from over 20 plays to a core of four or five sequences. It worked. The Warriors, one year after finishing last in the league in passes per game (245.8), are now 11th (313.6). They lead the NBA in both assists (1,389, tied with the Hawks) and hockey assists (8.1 per game), and they\u2019ve cut their early-season turnover rate by a third (from 22.1 to 14.6). In previous years, Curry and Thompson often ended up launching difficult jumpers, and Thompson rarely ran off screens. This year, Thompson\u2019s improvement is due in large part to the evolution of his game, but he and Curry are also getting easier shots. \u201CNo one ever knew how good Klay really was last year,\u201D says one opposing coach. \u201CBecause Mark never ran any plays for him.\u201D Which, in retrospect, may help explain why the Warriors opted not to trade Thompson for Kevin Love. Perhaps they knew something the rest of us didn\u2019t after all.\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;There\u2019s another trickle-down effect to the offense, however: as reserve guard Justin Holiday says, \u201Ceverybody gets a taste.\u201D Two role players in particular have benefited. The first is Barnes. As a cutter and kick-out threat, he\u2019s now shooting over 50% from the field and making 43.2% of his threes.&amp;nbsp;\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Barnes\u2019 improvement might have been predicted. The same can\u2019t be said for another Warrior.\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Many coaches would have given up on Mo Speights. The Warriors originally targeted the 6\u201910 reserve forward in free agency for one reason: he could hit midrange jumpers. But last year Speights showed up 30 pounds overweight and not even his jumper could keep him on the court. Even when in shape, Speights profiles as the opposite of Kerr &amp;amp; Co.\u2019s preferred player: an unwilling passer and passive defender. \u201CI wouldn\u2019t have blamed Steve for ignoring him and counting the days until they could get rid of him,\u201D says one Eastern Conference GM. \u201CTo me, incorporating Mo is the most impressive thing Steve\u2019s done. How many coaches even try?\u201D\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;This season, Speights is averaging 12.0 ppg on 50.3% shooting while displaying surprising flashes of defensive intensity and voluntary passing. All of which, teammates believe, ties back to coaching. \u201CNo one ever ran plays for Mo before,\u201D says Barnes. \u201CNow there\u2019s a play, it\u2019s literally called \u2018Mo\u2019s Play,\u2019 to get him an elbow jumper.\u201D\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Kerr, as is his nature, deflects credit. That\u2019s all Mo, he says. I just told him if he came to camp in good shape that he\u2019d have a chance to really help the team. It was assistant coach Luke Walton, a former teammate of Speights\u2019 in Cleveland, who ran sprints with Mo every day after practice. And all this may be true, but it\u2019s overlooking the advantage of a coach like Kerr: like Phil Jackson and Riley before him, he understands life on the margins. \u201CI know what all those guys are going through, and it sucks,\u201D says Kerr of the reserves. \u201CI have great compassion for all the bench guys.\u201D\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Kerr strives to mimic Phil Jackson, who, \u201Cnever let anybody rot at the end of the bench.\u201D Says Kerr: \u201CIn ways the guys at the end of the bench define your chemistry. And if you ignore them, and they never play, they're going to get bitter. And all of a sudden it becomes insidious.\u201D\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;So Kerr rewards good practice play with playing time, and gets mad at himself when he misses an opportunity to play bench guys (he says his biggest regret of the season was not getting Brandon Rush into an early season game when Thompson didn't play). \u201CSteve is an extremely positive guy, but he's no one's fool,\u201D says Adams. \u201CHe gives people opportunity. So the opportunity may come and it may go. There's no browbeating.\u201D\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;So far, the players appreciate Kerr\u2019s approach. Barnes credits his new coach for, \u201Cempowering the players,\u201D while Green likes that he and Kerr can have a dialogue. \u201CEarlier this season I yelled at him during the game and he yelled back,\u201D says Green, who to be fair spends much of every game yelling at or with somebody. \u201CAfterward I walked over to the sideline and said, \u2018My bad.\u2019 He said, \u2018Nah, you\u2019re fine. I love your passion, why would I try to stop that? That makes you the player who you are.\u201D\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Lacob describes Kerr as, \u201Cexactly who he sold himself as,\u201D which, says Fraser, is one of Kerr\u2019s best attributes. \u201CThere\u2019s no bulls--tting about him,\u2019 says Fraser. \u201CHe may be a bit nerdy, but you can\u2019t say he\u2019s not an honest, real guy. He does a good job of explaining and talking, not just commanding.\u201D\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;As for Curry, he says he likes that Kerr didn\u2019t, \u201Ctry to come in and be the hero and reinvent the wheel when it came to what we were good at.\u201D \u201CHe\u2019s very mature for a first time head coach,\u201D says Curry. \u201CTo be able to have an awareness of the bigger goals, not just having the best record right now.\u201D\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Green agrees: \u201CHe don\u2019t let us settle for mediocrity in anything.\u201D\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;One place that Kerr certaintly Kerr does not abide mediocrity: the stair stepper. After most every practice, Kerr engages in a one-man assault upon the hulking black machine in the corner of the Warriors\u2019 practice facility, after which he does pushups and planks. Unless, as on a recent afternoon, he is challenged.\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;\u201CCoach Kerr,\u201D says Curry. \u201CYou want some today?\u201D\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;As Curry says this, he is in the midst of hitting either 39 or 40 free throws in a row \u2013 it\u2019s hard to keep track when the number gets that high. Hearing this, Fraser, who is Curry\u2019s shooting coach most days, walks over and waves his arms at Kerr from afar, pointing at Kerr and then at Curry, mimicking free throws.\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Kerr dismounts and prepares for battle. Though he was an 86.4% free&amp;nbsp;throw shooter, he knows the odds are against him. He and Curry typically play a game to 10, shooting two free throws at a time, where each make is worth one point but a swish is worth two. And, as you might imagine, Steph does a lot of swishing. At one point, says Kerr, the two had battled 11 times, during which time he had made roughly 84 out of 85 free throws\u2014and won only once. \u201CSteph swishes them all.\u201D\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;On the surface, the competition seems a fun diversion. But, like most things with Kerr, it\u2019s more than that. What is coaching if not a power balancing act? Here is Kerr, one of the best shooters in NBA history and a famously (if quietly) competitive man, willing to publicly lose, repeatedly, to his star player. That takes a certain innate confidence that carries over to other areas. At the end of timeouts, he often asks the team if they\u2019re seeing anything he isn\u2019t. Earlier this year, reserve Leandro Barbosa suggested a late-game play. Kerr not only listened; he used it.\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;The shooting contest also aligns with a core Kerr concept, which he talks about with Fraser often: maintaining the joy of the game. It\u2019s why he once held impromptu 2-on-2 football route-running competitions instead of traditional warm-ups before practice. It\u2019s why he took the team bowling, as he did two weeks ago in Minneapolis, overseeing a 2-on-2 competition in which all players were seeded based on perceived ability (in a complete shocker, Curry\u2019s team won).\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Kerr is also a believer in process and preparation. He asks the video staff to load the previous five games of an upcoming opponent on his laptop leading up to a game. Last July he visited Pete Carroll and was impressed with how Carroll used music to energize the Seahawks in practice. Now the Warriors do the same thing. Following an example set by both Carroll and Bill&amp;nbsp;Belichick, Kerr hired as his personal assistant Nick U\u2019Ren, a 28-year-old who\u2019d spent the previous five years as an assistant video coordinator with the Suns. Explains U\u2019Ren: \u201CThe idea is that rather than have a 45-year-old woman behind a desk answering mail as your assistant, why not instead use that spot to add another young basketball mind to the staff.\u201D So now U\u2019Ren does both; on any given day he might book Kerr\u2019s travel, splice video footage and spend 20 minutes breaking down game strategy with his boss. As far as he knows, he\u2019s the only person in the NBA with his job.\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Other times, Kerr\u2019s moves are diplomatic. From day&amp;nbsp;one, he has made a point of consistently praising Mark Jackson, which built good will with his players. Similarly, he downplays his impact on the team at every turn. \u201CIn the end both Pop and Phil taught me the players are the ones that do all the work,\u201D says Kerr. \u201CYou just want to guide the team in the right direction to play the way that they're best going to utilize their talent and skills.\u201D In pro sports, this mindset is unusual. \u201CUsually winning breeds arrogance but he\u2019s a rare guy,\u201D says Van Gundy, who makes a point to also praise Mark Jackson\u2019s work as Warriors coach. \u201CI think Kerr\u2019s fully aware that he\u2019s done an outstanding job. You don\u2019t play as long as he did without great pride and ego. But the way that Steve has handled himself, forget the coaching. What I have such great respect for is his humility with this success. Very, very few people I\u2019ve known in coaching would have this humility with this success.\u201D\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;That Kerr is also comfortable with the media doesn\u2019t come as a surprise. As a former broadcaster (and one-time sports columnist for his high school paper), he understands the power of narrative. Take the famous story of how he and Michael Jordan got into a fight after practice, oft-cited as proof of Kerr\u2019s fire and toughness. \u201CLet\u2019s be honest,\u201D says Kerr. \u201CIf we were losing right now, the narrative would be, \u2018This is a guy that got beat up by Michael Jordan.\u2019 We just tailor the facts to however the story is going.\u201D\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;If that\u2019s true, the facts aren\u2019t cooperating on this day. After a few warm-ups, Kerr bricks his first two free throws. Then Curry bricks one of his first two. \u201COh no, I tried to go for the swish!\u201D he yells.\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Presently, both begin making their shots and, as usual, Curry goes on to win on yet another moonball swish, after which he runs off in celebration before returning to pantomime a golfer\u2019s handshake. But, for a moment, it was interesting to see the two of them there, disgusted with themselves and trying not to show it.\r\n\r\n&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Two men bent on winning, united by a momentary failure.\r\n&lt;/p&gt;"^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
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