Warriors coach Steve Kerr wouldn’t commit to whether he would have run the fullblown triangle offense if he had taken the Knicks job and not left Phil Jackson at the altar.
Kerr does not run the triangle with the Warriors, but rather a hybrid offense that incorporates Mike D’Antoni’s speedball, Gregg Popovich’s Spurs’ flow offense and a slice of the triangle.
Knicks coach Derek Fisher has committed fully to the triangle. The result is the Knicks fell to 10-41 after Saturday night’s 106-92 loss to the Warriors, while Golden State improved to 40-9.
“My sense was, I was going to coach — we didn’t get into specifics [on a system],’’ Kerr said before the game. “I think as a coach you have to adapt to your personnel. You have to have the available talent to able to run anything that’s effective. Once you do, you have to pick out what’s going to be effective with that particular talent.’’
Kerr said it was not “awkward’’ to coach at the Garden — he heard only a smattering of boos during pregame introductions — but he admitted it was hard to say no to Jackson, crediting him for a lot of the success in his career.
“It was difficult,’’ Kerr said, “because I’m very close to him. I feel I’m indebted to him for much of what transpired in my career. Everything that happened in Chicago led to San Antonio which led to TNT which led to Phoenix and here. It’s all because of the Chicago experience, all because of Phil I even got to Chicago in the first place. From that perspective, it was difficult.
“But on other side of things, personal, family side, it was a lot easier to stay close to home and literally two miles from my daughter who goes to Berkeley, and I got a team with a lot of talent and a lot of great guys. It was a good choice.
“I felt more comfortable going to Golden State. It was a better situation.’’
Kerr said he hasn’t watched one moment of a Knicks game until earlier Saturday, when he watched tapes of the first half of the Knicks-Nets game Friday. He said he emails with Jackson occasionally.
“Obviously this is a work in progress,’’ Kerr said. “It’s going to take some time. [Phil] knew that when he took the job.’’
Fisher was Jackson’s second choice — actually third, but Brian Shaw was under contract in Denver — and became a triangle devotee.
The Knicks coach has long been tired of the scrutiny the offense is under and took a shot at the media.
“Way too much is being made out of what shape the offense we’re running is,’’ Fisher said. “I think it’s easy copy, it’s easy work to be able to throw that up there on the front page and say that’s why we’re not winning games, when that’s patently ridiculous in my opinion. There’s a lot more that goes into winning than what type of offense you run.
“At some point if you’d like, we’ll set up a video conference and I’ll stop the tape 100 times and show you how Kobe Bryant was nowhere near the tip of a triangle, he was Kobe Bryant. So I think what we’re trying to do is provide our players with a format of playing offense that involves all five people. What shape that is, how often we’re in it. That’s not really what it comes down to.’’
Kerr didn’t want to discuss his three-week dalliance with the Knicks, who originally offered him a three-year deal. The Warriors entered the fray after the Knicks lowballed him, with then-agent Mike Tannenbaum encouraging the competition. Jackson said Kerr made a “verbal commitment’’ and Kerr didn’t dispute the claim at the time.
“Didn’t we go through this already at some point? I know we did,’’ Kerr said. “I don’t really care to go into any detail. I spoke of it at the time.’’
David Lee got a rousing ovation when he checked into the game. He’s a free agent in 2016 and still spends part of the summer in New York. All-purpose forward Draymond Green is the key 2015 free-agent piece, but he has gone from unsung to talk of him getting a max.