Warriors’ Lacob Talks Kerr, Paul, Poole, More

Speaking to Tim Kawakami of The Athletic, Warriors owner Joe Lacob expressed optimism about retaining Klay Thompson long term, as we previously relayed.

However, Thompson isn’t the only key member of the organization entering a potential walk year. As Kawakami writes, head coach Steve Kerr, who is currently coaching Team USA at the World Cup, could also be a free agent in 2024, but there seems to be momentum on a contract extension ahead of training camp.

“We have started to talk with his people, again, same as kind of the Klay situation,” Lacob said. “Very early. There’s plenty of time. Steve is just like Klay, we want Steve to be here for a long time. Hall of Fame coach, we really value him. And I’m sure we’ll be able to work out something that’s fair to both sides.”

Kerr, who turns 58 later this month, has been Golden State’s lead coach for the past nine seasons, compiling a 473-238 regular season record (.665 winning percentage) and a 99-41 postseason record (.707) en route to six finals appearances, including four championships.

Here are some more highlights from Kawakami’s conversation with Lacob, which is worth checking out in full:

• Lacob said the team didn’t plan to exceed $400MM in combined payroll and luxury tax payments for the upcoming season, but noted that trading Jordan Poole for Chris Paul created more financial “optionality” going forward — Paul’s ’24/25 salary is non-guaranteed, while Poole is entering the first year of a four-year, $123MM+ extension. “To some extent, this is a year-by-year league,” he said. “When you’ve got a chance to win, you’ve got to go for it. We did the best thing we thought we could do. This is going for it. So we’ll see what happens.”
• Golden State’s owner said the team will take a wait-and-see approach regarding Paul’s future with the team beyond this season. Lacob also said that while he was initially dubious about the trade, eventually the Warriors realized it could make them better this season, since Paul has consistently helped raise the level of the players around him. “We kind of warmed to that idea and the more we processed it the more we thought it really made sense — at least for the short-to-intermediate term,” Lacob told Kawakami. “Certainly longer-term, I’m not going to deny, we gave up a great asset in Jordan Poole, probably has a decade or so left to play in this league. He’s probably going to just get better. We were going short-term versus long-term on this. But for a lot of different reasons, both basketball reasons and financial reasons, it just made sense to do it.”
• Poole and Draymond Green had a well-documented dust-up during last year’s training camp, with Green punching the young guard. Kawakami asked Lacob if it was fair to say the Warriors had to pick between the two players this summer after a season filled with tension (Green re-signed on a four-year, $100MM deal). “I don’t want to say absolutely that’s true,” Lacob said. “I think it’s fair to say there was some level of concern going forward whether that was going to be something that would work out. To be honest with you, I think it would’ve worked out, could’ve worked out. But I think it is fair to say that in order to make the numbers work and so on, someone probably was going to be the odd man out. It just turned out, and it wasn’t planned, that it was Jordan.”
• Lacob confirmed Golden State hopes to move under the league’s second tax apron next offseason, according to Kawakami. “It is very penal to be above it,” he said. “I think our goal would be to be under it, yeah. You just lose too many options in terms of constructing your roster, draft choices and a variety of things. It is very difficult to contemplate not being under it. But look, it’s a year-by-year thing and we’ll see what happens.”