Steve Kerr’s future as a coach gets an honest assessment from Mike Dunleavy

Led by Stephen Curry, Draymond Green and the head coach Steve Kerrthe Golden State Warriors stay competitive in blisters Western Conference. The trio feels like, health permitting, they can compete with the NBA’s best like the Oklahoma City Thunder and Denver Nuggets.

But one thing is becoming more real every day: This era of Warriors basketball is coming to an end.

37-year-old Stephen Curry has one year left on his contract after the 2025-26 season. Draymond Green, who just turned 36 on Wednesday, has a player option for the 2026-27 season worth $27.7 million. And head coach Steve Kerr is in the final year of his contract.

While Curry and Green are expected to return to the Warriors next season, what does the future look like for head coach Steve Kerr?

As ClutchPoints NBA insider Brett Siegel reported after the trade deadline, the possibility of the Warriors moving on from Kerr is as close to zero as it could be. All signs point to Kerr moving on with Steph and Draymond, and the Warriors will work out the details of a short-term deal if that’s what Kerr would like.

The talk of Golden State not wanting to come back couldn’t be further from the truth, and there’s no indication that Kerr’s coaching staff or the Warriors were preparing for this to be his final season. “

Warriors GM Mike Dunleavy Jr. recently spoke with Tim Kawakami, Bay Area writer for the San Francisco Standard and host of “The TK Show on 95.7 The Game, in extensive interview it also touched on Kerr’s future as the Warriors’ head coach.

There, Dunleavy Jr. said he envisions Kerr returning next season and beyond.

“Yeah, I don’t see why not” Dunleavy Jr. replied. “I think, I think, I think Steve (Kerr) mentioned that he wanted to get to the end of the season and figure it out. I think things are going well for him. We’ll figure it all out when he comes, but I think it was interesting that the focus for us internally between me, Joe (Lacob), the player and Steve, was really about getting this right by the end of the season, so we were thinking about that.

“But obviously, on a personal level, I love having Steve here. Yeah, I would predict he’s going to be our coach next year. But again, we’re going into absolute safety, and a lot of it is on his court, so we’ll have to see.”

During his 12 seasons coaching the Warriors, Steve Kerr compiled a record of 598-338 (.639) in 936 regular season games and a record of 104-48 (.684) in 152 playoff games.

In February 2024, Steve Kerr and the Warriors agreed to a record two-year, $35 million extension to keep him as the franchise’s head coach.

Entering this season with an expiring contract, Kerr said he wasn’t particularly concerned about concluding a new contract before the end of the season.

“I’m very comfortable going into the season with one year left,” Kerr explained. “I’m so aligned with (general manager) Mike (Dunleavy) and (owner) Joe (Lacob). We’ve talked about this — there’s no discussion or concern. It’s kind of a point in our relationship where we’ll just see how it goes at the end of the year.

“I don’t expect any negotiations during the season. Who knows — maybe it all comes up at some point and they come to me. But I’m not the least bit worried about it. I’m not thinking about it. I just think it makes perfect sense for all of us (to wait).”

Through 61 games, the Warriors are 31-30 and currently sit four games behind the Phoenix Suns for the seventh seed and just 1.5 games ahead of the LA Clippers for the eighth seed. According to Positive Residual, the Warriors have the fourth-toughest remaining strength of schedule behind the Pelicans, Blazers and Suns.