Steve Kerr’s future became a concerning issue after the Warriors’ play-in loss, when Draymond Green said, “I think that’s it,” referring to Kerr’s time on the bench. Kerr did not close that door. He said he would take “a week or two” before sitting down with Joe Lacob and Mike Dunleavy Jr. to discuss his future. That shifted the conversation from a routine offseason decision to a legitimate coaching question.
The situation is also tied to where the Warriors are as a team. Kerr has led the franchise for 12 seasons and won four championships, but this season ended with a 37-45 record and another missed playoff appearance. The Warriors also finished near the middle of the league in both offensive and defensive ratings, which adds more weight to questions about the roster, the system, and whether the current group needs a different voice or structure going forward.
If Kerr does leave, the Warriors would not simply be replacing a head coach. They would be deciding the direction of the Stephen Curry era from this point on. That is why the search would carry real importance.
Mike Brown
Mike Brown is the cleanest basketball answer. Tim Kawakami’s reporting has already pushed Brown into the early conversation, and in the same Warriors discussion, Kawakami framed him as the first serious checkpoint before the team would move toward younger, more developmental candidates.
That makes sense. Brown knows the building, knows Curry, knows Green, and already has championship equity inside the organization from his time on Kerr’s staff. He is not a nostalgia candidate. He is a proven coach with the Warriors’ identity.
The results this season matter here. In Brown’s first year with the Knicks, they went 53-29 and earned the No. 3 seed. Their offense posted a 119.8 rating and their defense a 113.3 rating, which is the profile of a high-end playoff team, not just a regular-season system win. Brown’s larger record is just as strong. He owns a 507-333 career regular-season record, and when the Knicks hired him, he had already built a 50-40 playoff record over parts of 11 seasons as a head coach. That is exactly the kind of experience a veteran Warriors roster would need if it is trying to win now instead of resetting the clock.
The scheme fit is strong, too. Brown has always been known as a defensive coach, but the Knicks under him do not play old, slow basketball. Brown wanted them to push tempo, and the Knicks moved away from the old grind-it-out style and scored 117.1 points per game in the regular season, their best figure in decades. That matters for the Warriors because the next coach likely will be asked to keep Curry’s off-ball gravity while adding more direct pick-and-roll, more spread-floor possessions, and more room for guards and wings who are not classic read-and-react movers. Brown has already shown he can coach that blend.
The problem is obvious. Brown is not sitting on the market. He is coaching the Knicks right now, and there is no sign that they are close to moving on. So this is a hard path in practical terms. But if the question is pure basketball fit, Brown is still first on the board. He gives the Warriors veteran command, playoff experience, defensive credibility, and enough offensive flexibility to modernize the structure without ripping out everything Curry has spent a decade mastering.
Todd Golden
Todd Golden is the high-upside outside hire, and unlike some speculative names, this one already has reporting behind it. NBC Sports Bay Area and even Yahoo Sports’ Kevin O’Connor reported that the Warriors will pursue Golden if Kerr does not return. The same report said the Warriors “love” Golden, have “long admired” him, and noted his ties to Lacob and the Bay Area. This is not random message-board noise. Golden is firmly in the discussion.
The track record is strong for a 40-year-old coach. Golden is 160-77 overall in seven college seasons and 63-12 over the last two years at Florida. The Gators won 103 games in his first four seasons, earned back-to-back No. 1 seeds, scored a program-record 87.1 points per game this season, finished 16-2 in league play, and led the nation in rebounding margin, offensive rebounding, and total rebounding while ranking second in offensive rebounding percentage. That profile is not just about winning. It is about process. Golden’s teams generate extra possessions, play with pace and pressure, and lean into data-driven advantages.
Golden also checks the background boxes the Warriors would care about. He played at Saint Mary’s, coached at USF, and he helped build a program that hit top-100 marks on both ends and had a No. 21 defense in his final year on staff there. For a Warriors organization that appears to be debating how much more analytics and offensive diversification it wants, Golden is the one candidate who most directly lines up with that conversation.
The downside is just as clear. This would be a major projection. Golden has never coached in the NBA, never managed a veteran locker room built around a 38-year-old star, and never had to handle the daily politics that come with Curry, Green, Jimmy Butler, and a win-now front office. A veteran roster points toward a veteran coach, and moving to a college coach with no NBA head coaching background would be a real risk. Golden is the swing for ideas, development, and scheme modernization. He is not the safe hire.
Terry Stotts
If the Warriors decide they want change without a full break from the current structure, Terry Stotts is the most interesting internal option. He joined the staff in 2024, and many discussions around the job have already raised the possibility of simply elevating him if Kerr steps away. That would give the Warriors continuity, but not sameness. Stotts is not a Kerr clone. He is an offensive coach with long NBA head coaching experience and a very different background in guard-centered offense.
His track record is long and stable. Stotts owns a 517-486 career record and went 402-318 with the Blazers, where he also reached the conference finals in 2019. The Warriors do not need a coach who is learning how to manage a playoff race on the fly. They need someone who understands veteran usage, offensive hierarchy, and how to keep a perimeter-driven team functional over 82 games. Stotts has done that for years.
The basketball fit is easy to see. The biggest debate around the Warriors right now is whether the system has to get friendlier to players who dribble more and are less natural in constant split-action and motion reads. That description points directly toward a Stotts-style offense. His best Blazers teams were built around spread pick-and-roll, deep shooting range, simple spacing reads, and high-usage guard creation around Damian Lillard. That does not mean copying the old Blazers. It means giving Curry more direct ways to bend the defense without asking every possession to flow through a long chain of motion reads.
The concern is freshness. If Kerr leaves, promoting from the current bench could look like half a move. Would elevating Stotts really represent a fresh start? That is the fair pushback. Stotts makes a lot of sense if the Warriors want a veteran offensive recalibration. He makes less sense if they believe the next phase needs a major identity break.
Willie Green
Willie Green is not being discussed as loudly as Brown or Golden, but he should be on the board. Green, a former Kerr assistant and recent Pelicans head coach, is a possibility to return to the staff, ESPN reported. That is not the same as being named a head coach finalist, but it does matter. It says his name is already active in Warriors planning, and once that is true, it is fair to ask whether the better move would be to interview him for the top job instead of only for a staff role.
Green’s full record with the Pelicans was 150-190, and he was fired after a 2-10 start this season. On the surface, that does not scream top-tier candidate. But the better way to read Green is to isolate the best version of his work. In 2023-24, the Pelicans went 49-33 with a 117.4 offensive rating and a 112.9 defensive rating. That is a strong two-way season, and it came with a wing-heavy roster that needed discipline, point-of-attack defense, and clearer structure than star-level creation. Green also has the Warriors background already, having served as an assistant there before his time in Phoenix and New Orleans.
That is a big point, because the Warriors still need a coach who can defend first. Even with all the talk about offensive evolution, the basic scheme remains the same: Curry is still the small guard you have to protect, Green still drives the back line when he is engaged, and the team still has to survive on planning and connectivity more than raw star power. Green has shown he can build that kind of environment. His best case is as a tone-setter, defender-first organizer and communicator with player credibility.
The question is whether that is enough for this exact roster. If the Warriors believe the main issue is offensive modernization, Green is not as obvious a solution as Brown or Stotts. If they believe the next coach has to restore defensive bite, simplify roles and reconnect the locker room around a firmer structure, Green gets stronger. He is not the flashy pick, but he is a serious basketball candidate, especially if the Warriors want NBA experience without going fully outside their own coaching tree.
The Best Path For The Warriors
If the Warriors are prioritizing the next two years above everything else, Brown is the best answer. He is the most complete blend of playoff experience, Warriors familiarity, defensive credibility, and offensive flexibility. But Brown is unrealistic because of timing and contract status. Stotts is the strongest veteran fallback because he directly addresses the roster’s biggest game plan question. Golden is the upside play if the Warriors want a larger cultural shift. Green is the easier bridge if they want NBA experience and culture control without a total reset.
The job itself will decide the order. If the Warriors see this as Curry’s last real push, they should lean veteran and proven. If they see it as the start of a necessary change that also has to outlive Curry, then Golden climbs fast. Either way, the next coach cannot just preserve the old system in a weaker version. The numbers say the same thing. The Warriors need a coach who can keep Curry’s strengths intact while building a structure that fits the roster they actually have now.
