San Antonio Spurs: Steve Kerr would make an ideal successor to Gregg Popovich

It’s unclear as to when San Antonio Spurs head coach Gregg Popovich plans to retire, but former Spur Steve Kerr is the ideal candidate to take his place.

No one is ready to truly embrace this conversation, but the elephant in the room regarding the future outlook of the San Antonio Spurs is the fact that head coach and franchise architect Gregg Popovich is now 71 years old. The oldest coach in the sport isn’t getting any younger and pretty soon, they’ll have to look for his successor. One candidate that comes to mind is Golden State Warriors head coach Steve Kerr.

A 54-year-old former-Spurs player, Kerr has been a part of five championship teams in the NBA and three championships as a coach. His primary mentor in the coaching sphere has been Popovich as Kerr has notoriously taken notes from the Spurs in crafting his own culture in the Bay Area. Now that Popovich is closing in on the end of his days leading the charge in the River City, the Spurs’ front office would be wise to look at Kerr to take over next.

Though he’s put together something great with the Warriors, returning to familiar territory in San Antonio would allow the student to truly become the master. He could instill the values that made the Spurs who they’ve been over the last two and a half decades; teaching a new generation of Spurs what it takes to win an NBA championship.

San Antonio would likely need to lure him away with a big payday but his wisdom and values would be well worth the price tag. Right now, he’s making $5 million per season with Golden State. Bumping that by $500,000-$1 million might do the trick in luring him away from one of the most coveted organizations in sports.

GMs voted on who is the best coach in the NBA:

1) Gregg Popovich – 55%2) Erik Spoelstra – 17%3) Mike Budenholzer – 10%4) Steve Kerr – 7%

Via https://t.co/wWGNmWnCY9

— NBA Central (@TheNBACentral) October 17, 2019

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After his down season in the Bay Area, there are questions about how the Warriors will recover with Klay Thompson returning from a Torn ACL and Kevin Durant onto the next phase of his career in Brooklyn. Golden State has the worst record in the league this year at 15-50 and their star players are aging, so coming to San Antonio gives him the chance to start something new with the youth movement led by Dejounte Murray, Lonnie Walker IV and others.

Even besides the fact that he’s a championship-caliber leader, Kerr went to war alongside the likes of the Spurs’ Big Three and a veteran David Robinson. He saw what Michael Jordan was capable of up close and personal. He guided a young Stephen Curry to MVP trophies instead of allowing him to settle as an amazing outside shooter who could move the ball well.

Everywhere he goes, Kerr breeds success and that’s the kind of attitude that the team needs in place of Popovich when his day comes. Especially after they’ve spent so much time together in the offseason as leaders for Team USA, it’d only make sense for Popovich to pass the torch to Kerr when it’s all said and done.

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Maybe his X’s and O’s aren’t as precise as Popovich’s, but Kerr knows how to get the job done.