Kerr didn’t need much convincing. He knew Dunleavy wasn’t buttering up the situation. The direct and honest case was the best one.
“He said, ‘I played with him and I will vouch for him. We’re going to get the best version him. And I’m telling you, you’re going to love coaching him,’ ” Kerr said. “That’s all I need to hear. It’s all played out. Circumstances were right for us and for Jimmy. And Mike recognized that and in the end here we are, we’re on a run and we’re in the mix again. That’s all we wanted.”
This all is an amplification of the GM-coach relationship that began in the years Dunleavy was working under Bob Myers and has strengthened since Dunleavy’s promotion. Dunleavy is a formerly highly-drafted player who counts Mike Krzyzewski and Tom Thibodeau among his many guiding lights. Kerr’s a former player and executive who has a long list of accomplishments and a similarly pragmatic view of things.
“He’s not afraid; Mike is fearless,” Kerr said. “What I like about him is he’s got a great way of challenging me — but doing it as a partner and a collaborator. We were losing some close games early in the year. And we’d have conversations. It never felt like a threat. It was just, ‘Hey, what do you think about this? What do you think about that? We’ve gotta get better in this area. We’ve gotta close these games better.’
“And the conversation is direct and to the point but always in the spirit of collaboration. He’s just got a great EQ and great way of being the boss but lifting everyone up, including me.”
Dunleavy is also pretty good at acquiring the kinds of players Kerr wants to coach. Myers was a Hall of Fame executive who put together four championship teams and figured out how to land Durant, Andre Iguodala, and many others; but he also drafted several young players who just never worked with Kerr’s system or the team’s culture. In contrast, Dunleavy selected two guys who fit right in — Brandin Podziemski and Trayce Jackson-Davis — in his first draft last season. Then he added Quinten Post in the second round this season.
Post, a 24-year-old five-year college player, has rare status as a rookie that Kerr actually was nudging to get into the lineup almost from the beginning.
“You know, Steve was sort of pushing for it over the course of the season, knowing that we need some outside shooting, especially from the big position,” Dunleavy said. ” ‘Hey, get Quentin through Santa Cruz [in the G League] and maybe we can get him some minutes as the season goes on.’ I kind of pumped the brakes on that to Steve, admittedly, a little bit. You know, let’s give him some time. I think they brought him in the fold at the right moment.”