Draymond Green predicted Steve Kerr's tenure with the Golden State Warriors could be at its end three days after the longtime coach acknowledged this might have been his last season with the team.
"I hope he's our coach next season," Green said on his podcast, "The Draymond Green Show." "You want my opinion? I think not. Just because it feels like that. It felt like that was it."
After the Warriors were eliminated late Friday night in Phoenix, Kerr brought Green and star guard Stephen Curry together for a moment on the sideline to conclude their 12th season together. Microphones caught Kerr telling the two: "I don't know what's going to happen next, but I love you guys to death. Thank you."
Kerr said he plans to take the next week or two to mull his future. No substantial conversations took place over the weekend.
Kerr and management were back in the team's San Francisco facility Monday for exit interviews with players. It is anticipated that Kerr, general manager Mike Dunleavy and controlling owner Joe Lacob will have the necessary big-picture conversations in the coming days.
"I still love coaching, but I get it," Kerr said late Friday night in Phoenix. "These jobs all have an expiration date. There is a run that happens, and when the run ends, sometimes it's time for new blood and new ideas."
As ESPN reported Monday, Kerr has been conflicted about his future in recent weeks, stating that the likelihood of his return is around 50-50.
Team sources have indicated that Lacob wants to hear Kerr express a hunger to continue executing the nitty-gritty details of the daily job, not a reluctant acceptance that he should continue coaching purely out of loyalty to Green and Curry and the sentimentality of riding out this era. That's why, if Kerr decides he wants to return, there's a desire from management for him to sign a multiyear deal, team sources said, instead of setting up a "last dance" farewell tour that would feel more about emotion and nostalgia than wins.
Curry is entering the last season of his contract, but there is interest between both sides to come to an extension agreement later in the summer. Green, holding a one-year, $27.6 million player option, isn't as assured of his future with the Warriors.
"I've never been so uncertain since earlier in my career in what happens next," Green said on his podcast. "But I'm truly at a loss now because you don't know what direction will be next. ... I also hope I'm on this team next season. We also don't know that. Man, if it was, what a run."
