Steve Kerr has spent a decade pulling every coaching lever there is. Film sessions, accountability meetings, public honesty, quiet nudges, and loud ones. This season, though, he chose something that feels almost irresponsible on paper.
He stopped addressing the problem altogether.
The Golden State Warriors came into January with one of the messiest issues in the league. They were 28th in turnovers, giving the ball away nearly 16 times a night. For a team built on motion, timing, and trust, it was poison. Those turnovers were not just empty possessions. They were killing flow, feeding opponent runs, and slowly eroding confidence.
So Kerr did something strange. He stopped talking about it altogether. After the Warriors 137-101 win over the Sacramento Kings, Kerr said:
“I don’t mention the word, I just say, just hit singles, be solid. Solid wins the game, and I’m not bringing it up anymore… Nope, not showing any film, just total ignorance. It’s just bury your head in the sand like an ostrich, and it’s working.”
“We did it in 22 after the Memphis series when we were turning it over left and right, and we just decided after showing clips of turnovers and talking about it and hammering the point home and it wasn’t working, we just stopped talking about it, and that worked.”
“It’s been the last few games, yeah. It’s a good life lesson. Just ignore all of your problems and never acknowledge them. Don’t look in the mirror. Just ignorance is bliss.”
It sounds like a joke. It kind of is. But the results are not.
Over the last three games, Golden State has committed 10 turnovers against the Kings, 9 against the Milwaukee Bucks, and just 7 against the Los Angeles Clippers. That is not a small improvement. It is a complete reversal of habit, and you can see it in how the offense moves. The ball pops. Decisions come quicker. There is less hesitation, less overthinking.
That part matters more than the raw number.
Kerr understands something most coaches eventually learn the hard way. When you constantly shine a spotlight on mistakes, players do not always fix them. Sometimes they freeze. They double-clutch passes. They pass up reads they would normally make without thinking. For a motion offense like Golden State’s, that hesitation is deadly.
Kerr has done this before. During the 2022 playoffs against the Memphis Grizzlies, the Warriors were bleeding possessions the same way. The staff hammered the issue. Nothing changed. Then they stopped talking about it. The offense loosened. The turnovers dropped. A championship followed.
That is the balance Kerr is striking. He is not pretending turnovers do not exist. He is trusting that experienced players already understand the stakes. The difference is mental. Players are reacting instead of thinking. Passing lanes are hit with conviction. The ball is not sticking while guys second-guess whether a pass is safe.
The numbers back it up. Assists are climbing. The pace feels cleaner without being reckless. Fewer turnovers mean fewer run-outs the other way and more chances to get the defense set, which has quietly stabilized alongside the offense.
This is not a universal solution. Ignoring problems does not work everywhere, in basketball or in life. But for this group, at this moment, it was the right psychological adjustment. The Warriors did not need another lecture. They needed space.
For a Warriors team trying to reconnect with its identity, bliss right now looks like playing free, trusting the pass, and letting instincts take over again.
