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Jerry West explained why the Warriors replaced Mark Jackson with Steve Kerr
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- Jerry West explained why the Warriors replaced Mark Jackson with Steve Kerr
The Golden State Warriors picked up steam under Mark Jackson in the early 2010s after a five-year postseason drought. He gave Stephen Curry and Klay Thompson much-needed confidence, and as a result, the young gunners were able to scratch the surface of what they could do on the floor.
But after two years of relatively successful campaigns, the Warriors let him go in favor of Steve Kerr . The decision was initially a head-scratcher. After all, the team was trending in the right direction, not to mention Jackson's popularity inside the locker room.
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So, what really went into the Warriors' choice to replace Mark?
Jerry West's input
Jerry West became a consultant for Dub Nation in the same year they hired Jackson. As a former Los Angeles Lakers general manager, The Logo's experience in building teams was second to none.
And while the final decision was out of his hands, West had a say in the coaching change. For Jerry, he felt they had to get away from Jackson's stagnant offensive philosophy.
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"Coaches who have been players in the league, they get so attuned to playing how they were successful, and who their coaches were," the Purple and Gold legend said in a 2015 ESPN interview. "Mark was a real pick-and-roll guy and very, very good at it. Steve played for two championship coaches, and I think the coach obviously he has replicated is [Gregg] Popovich."
"He liked his style of play, even if he had great success in Chicago. Moving the ball, moving your body, all the little things you do to get defenses to make mistakes and to try to be able to counter," West added.
Jerry stopped short of saying he was "disappointed" with the lack of ball movement in Jackson's system, but he stressed the importance of finding a way to keep the defense guessing.
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"I would say that one thing that was going to be difficult for us was teams were really going to gang up on Steph [Curry] and Klay. Steve was a great hire by our owners with his emphasis on getting more people involved," the 1969 NBA Finals MVP stated.
The interview took place during the 2015-16 preseason, so at that point, West still had no idea how good the offense would look. However, it didn't take long to see that they practically hit the jackpot with Kerr.
Right before the All-Star break, Golden State went 43-9. They won 21 of their first 23 games, with 15 of those victories by double digits. According to Basketball Reference, the Warriors' offensive rating rose from 12th to 2nd, while the defensive rating went from 4th to 1st!
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They won 67 games for the season, the first team since the 2006-07 Dallas Mavericks to reach that mark.
Kerr and the Warriors were just getting started
The Warriors under Steve were simply an offensive juggernaut. West saw how Kerr trusted multiple players with the ball, and it paid dividends. It opened up the floor for everyone, especially Steph and Klay's shooting.
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They also got the job done on defense with Draymond Green , Andre Iguodala , and Andrew Bogut locking people up. Even Thompson was an underrated defender, someone who was very capable of matching up with the opponents' best two-guards.
As a result, the team and individual accolades fell in line. Golden State broke the all-time regular-season win record in 2016. Curry set the record for 3-pointers in a single season (402) en route to becoming the only unanimous MVP selection in league history. And of course, Kerr bagged the Coach of the Year award during that campaign as well.
After 2016, the Warriors appeared in three more NBA Finals, winning in 2017 and 2018 with Kevin Durant before falling against the Toronto Raptors in 2019. Dub Nation also squeezed one more ring out of their core in 2022, a feat that's not mentioned nearly enough.
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Some say you don't fix things when they're not broken. The Warriors defied that logic and went on with it anyway. The gamble couldn't have paid off any better.
This story was originally published by Basketball Network on Jul 11, 2026, where it first appeared in the Old School section. Add Basketball Network as a Preferred Source by clicking here.
