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"I've said this for many years, that you're a good assistant because you have a good head coach, and you have a good team," Adams told me Monday.But the inverse is equally true: A good head coach is largely a product of capable assistants and talented players. Kerr is not only willing to acknowledge that—frequently and publicly—but to assign important responsibilities to all of them.Indeed, it isn't even crazy to cite the Warriors' coaching staff as the secret behind their league-best 67-15 regular-season record, and the reason they are expected to take down the Cleveland Cavaliers in the NBA Finals and win their first championship since the days of Rick Barry and Clifford Ray.Kerr's assistants are also what separates him most distinctly from his predecessor in Oakland, Mark Jackson.Firing Jackson after consecutive playoff runs was not an easy or popular choice. Notably, it did not sit well with star point guard Stephen Curry, who had blossomed into stardom under Jackson.But team CEO Joe Lacob had several problems with the former coach, and foremost among them was Jackson's choice, and treatment, of assistants. The original cast Jackson assembled was underwhelming, to say the least. He didn't allow them to speak to the press, and rarely praised them.After Jackson reassigned the popular Brian Scalabrine to the Warriors' D-League affiliate in Santa Cruz, and after Darren Erman was fired for secretly recording team meetings, the team entered the 2014 playoffs with a bizarre and ragtag group of coaches.
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