No team wants to miss the playoffs in back-to-back seasons, but Golden State Warriors coach Steve Kerr said the gap allowed a "rebirth" of energy within the organization.
"I think the value is that there’s a rebirth," Kerr told Sam Amick of The Athletic. "There’s a kind of an energy that exists now that, frankly, we didn’t have the last year we went to the Finals because it was so exhausting—that whole five-year run. So that final year, we were running on fumes. When you go in the tank like we did the last couple of years, and you’re struggling and trying to find your way and then you find it again, the energy naturally returns because you’re just so happy to be winning again.