Steve Kerr knows the Golden State Warriors will have tougher days ahead this season, that there are higher hurdles to clear and bigger goals to reach.
That doesn’t mean he won’t enjoy the present.
“We’re 34-6. How can you not love that?” a smiling Kerr said after Thursday’s practice.
The Warriors are off to the best start in franchise history, have the NBA’s best record and are winning at such a blistering pace that Kerr and his staff already have secured their spots to coach the talented Western Conference in next month’s All-Star Game at New York’s Madison Square Garden.
The NBA also announced Thursday night that Stephen Curry (1,513,324) edged LeBron James (1,470,483) for the most All-Star votes. He becomes the first player for Golden State elected to consecutive starts since Hall of Famer Chris Mullin in 1991-92.
Indeed, the Warriors have little to complain about as they hit the official midpoint of their season when they host Sacramento on Friday night.
The messy divorce that was Mark Jackson’s firing last May is well in the past. Players are as healthy as they could hope – minus a sprained left ankle that has sidelined backup centre Festus Ezeli for a month – and they are dominating like no other team.
The Warriors lead the league in shooting (48.7 per cent), opponents’ shooting (42.1 per cent), points per game (110.7), assists per game (27.1), three-point shooting (39 per cent) and point differential (plus-11.8).
That’s the largest margin of victory since Kerr’s days playing with Michael Jordan on the 1995/96 Chicago Bulls, who outscored the opposition by 12.2 points. Yes, the same Bulls team that won an NBA-record 72 games, claimed their fifth title and carved out a place in league lore as one of the greatest teams ever.
The Warriors, who are on pace for 70 wins, have a long way to go before being compared to that club or any of the other ones that lifted the Larry O’Brien Trophy. Kerr sees little comparison to those Jordan juggernauts – though he has increasingly faced questions about the similarities – other than the way his current team competes hard at both ends.
What Kerr is trying to impart on his players from his experience on that team is to strive for perfection each game, stay focused for 48 minutes and don’t worry about their standing or their opponents’ record. That’s the difference between the teams people remember, he said, and the ones they don’t.
“It’s the same challenge for everybody: 82 games. You get worn down. You get tired mentally and physically. So it’s important for any team to fight through that,” Kerr said. “It’s easier, I think, when you’re winning. It’s fun. Every day is fun. The focus and the concentration should be something we get better with as the season goes because we’re building more and more momentum all the time.”
Keeping players fresh will be the other challenge.
Kerr has talked about resting players more often in the second half of the season, as he did last week when he gave centre Andrew Bogut and forward Andre Iguodala the night off at Oklahoma City – the Warriors’ only loss in their last 12 games. He also expects to lighten the practice load, especially with a lot of road games in February and March.
The Warriors will benefit from a deeper bench – anchored by former All-Stars David Lee and Iguodala – than during any of their past two play-off runs, when injuries and heavy minutes wore them down. They’ll also lean on the improved play from Curry – a rising MVP candidate – and backcourt teammate Klay Thompson, who could make his first All-Star team as a reserve.
“We just want to keep that momentum going throughout the course of the season,” Curry said. “And that will put us in pretty good position when it comes time to compare ourselves to the rest of the league and the rest of the Western Conference.”
These current Warriors have something else to strive for in the season’s second half, too.
No player or team in franchise history has experienced this pace of winning this deep into the season. Not Rick Barry. Not Wilt Chamberlain. Not “Run TMC” or “We Believe”.
This already is the latest in the year that the Warriors have had the best record in the league since going a franchise-best 59-23 in the 1975/76 season – a year after winning their only NBA title since moving west.
And while a championship remains the goal, players admit setting a few marks along the way would be pretty sweet.
“We still got to get there, but if we do break it, it will definitely mean something,” Thompson said. “There’s been some dark times with the Warriors before this little resurrection. So it’s gonna feel great.”
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Director: Laxman Utekar
Cast: Vicky Kaushal, Akshaye Khanna, Diana Penty, Vineet Kumar Singh, Rashmika Mandanna
Rating: 1/5
FIRST TEST SCORES
England 458
South Africa 361 & 119 (36.4 overs)
England won by 211 runs and lead series 1-0
Player of the match: Moeen Ali (England)
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Biog:
Age: 34
Favourite superhero: Batman
Favourite sport: anything extreme
Favourite person: Muhammad Ali
Dubai Bling season three
Cast: Loujain Adada, Zeina Khoury, Farhana Bodi, Ebraheem Al Samadi, Mona Kattan, and couples Safa & Fahad Siddiqui and DJ Bliss & Danya Mohammed
Rating: 1/5
Mercer, the investment consulting arm of US services company Marsh & McLennan, expects its wealth division to at least double its assets under management (AUM) in the Middle East as wealth in the region continues to grow despite economic headwinds, a company official said.
Mercer Wealth, which globally has $160 billion in AUM, plans to boost its AUM in the region to $2-$3bn in the next 2-3 years from the present $1bn, said Yasir AbuShaban, a Dubai-based principal with Mercer Wealth.
“Within the next two to three years, we are looking at reaching $2 to $3 billion as a conservative estimate and we do see an opportunity to do so,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Mercer does not directly make investments, but allocates clients’ money they have discretion to, to professional asset managers. They also provide advice to clients.
“We have buying power. We can negotiate on their (client’s) behalf with asset managers to provide them lower fees than they otherwise would have to get on their own,” he added.
Mercer Wealth’s clients include sovereign wealth funds, family offices, and insurance companies among others.
From its office in Dubai, Mercer also looks after Africa, India and Turkey, where they also see opportunity for growth.
Wealth creation in Middle East and Africa (MEA) grew 8.5 per cent to $8.1 trillion last year from $7.5tn in 2015, higher than last year’s global average of 6 per cent and the second-highest growth in a region after Asia-Pacific which grew 9.9 per cent, according to consultancy Boston Consulting Group (BCG). In the region, where wealth grew just 1.9 per cent in 2015 compared with 2014, a pickup in oil prices has helped in wealth generation.
BCG is forecasting MEA wealth will rise to $12tn by 2021, growing at an annual average of 8 per cent.
Drivers of wealth generation in the region will be split evenly between new wealth creation and growth of performance of existing assets, according to BCG.
Another general trend in the region is clients’ looking for a comprehensive approach to investing, according to Mr AbuShaban.
“Institutional investors or some of the families are seeing a slowdown in the available capital they have to invest and in that sense they are looking at optimizing the way they manage their portfolios and making sure they are not investing haphazardly and different parts of their investment are working together,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Some clients also have a higher appetite for risk, given the low interest-rate environment that does not provide enough yield for some institutional investors. These clients are keen to invest in illiquid assets, such as private equity and infrastructure.
“What we have seen is a desire for higher returns in what has been a low-return environment specifically in various fixed income or bonds,” he said.
“In this environment, we have seen a de facto increase in the risk that clients are taking in things like illiquid investments, private equity investments, infrastructure and private debt, those kind of investments were higher illiquidity results in incrementally higher returns.”
The Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, one of the largest sovereign wealth funds, said in its 2016 report that has gradually increased its exposure in direct private equity and private credit transactions, mainly in Asian markets and especially in China and India. The authority’s private equity department focused on structured equities owing to “their defensive characteristics.”
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