The Golden State Warriors have added three potentially high end talents over the past two drafts in James Wiseman, Jonathan Kuminga and Moses Moody, but most are skeptical whether the team can afford to be patient during their title window with Stephen Curry, Draymond Green and Klay Thompson. Curry is 33 while Green and Thompson are each 31.
Joe Lacob, however, believes the Warriors have enough to win in the present while preserving the future and their desire to make a major trade has been overblown.
“Honestly, this is sort of my dream,” Lacob said. “And I know this isn’t popular with a lot of people. They think we ought to go get the next star. We already have the stars. And we have a payroll that’s – and I’ve said this when I was interviewed before, but nobody listened. It’s very unlikely, I’ve said that we’re not going to trade for anybody that people are expecting. Very unlikely. It’s not impossible. But if it was going to be somebody, it was going to be somebody really great. It was going to be a big trade. It’s unlikely.”
The Warriors rejected the overtures of the Philadelphia 76ers on trading Ben Simmons for virtually every asset they had outside their three future Hall of Famers. Bradley Beal hasn’t requested a trade and the Warriors may not be prepared to offer what it would take to be the best offer due to how much they value their own young players.
“So the more likely path – and the path that I think, as an owner, I feel most comfortable with, quite frankly – is to bridge the gap to the future,” Lacob said. “We’ve got three or four contracts and big players that are still in their early 30s, still have quite a bit of time to go, especially in this day and age. If we can kind of have a Wiseman and a Kuminga and a Moody and a Poole (help in the meantime). They don’t have to be awesome next year. With a great investment in our player development staff, we just want them to show great potential.”
Lacob believes the Warriors have enough to compete for a title as currently constructed.
“If we can’t, then you should look at Joe Lacob and Bob Myers and Steph Curry and Klay Thompson and Draymond Green and Andrew Wiggins and say you weren’t good enough,” Lacob said. “You’re paying all that money you weren’t good enough. They need to be good enough and they should be. They’ve won before. They’re a little older, but they’re still really good. Klay will be back. That’s the key. I think we’ll be good enough. Yes.
“Now, we add a few veterans. We’re going to do that (in free agency). You’ll see in the next few days. Then we now have some incredible potential that we can bridge to the future. When you can do both those things at once, it’s magic. Who does that? The Lakers didn’t make the playoffs for six straight years. I don’t want to be the Lakers, I don’t want to be six years out. It’s too important to me. I don’t want to sit and be a losing team. I think we’re going to be good and hopefully great every year.”