Warriors Owner Discusses Kuminga, Porzingis, Kerr, More

In an interesting interview with Tim Kawakami of The San Francisco Standard, Warriors owner Joe Lacob discussed a number of topics, including Jonathan Kuminga, Kristaps Porzingis, his expectations for the rest of the season, the future of head coach Steve Kerr, Draymond Green, tanking, and more.

As Kawakami writes, Lacob was one of Kuminga’s biggest supporters in Golden State, but he said the decision to trade the former lottery pick (and Buddy Hield) to Atlanta for Porzingis wasn’t a difficult one.

“Not hard; everyone assumes a lot about that,” Lacob said. “Look, I liked him as a player, I like him as a person. … And at times, he showed a lot of potential for us. Just never quite really worked entirely. And he got injured at inopportune times.

“I think we all knew we had to do something. But we weren’t going to give him away, either. Because he is a talent, and a lot of people think that, too. It just worked out — we got something that we thought was worth doing. Otherwise, we would’ve kept him.”

Of course, Kuminga demanded a trade on January 15 following a prolonged contract standoff with the team in the offseason, so the two sides weren’t exactly on great terms prior to parting ways. Lacob is skeptical that the Warriors could have received more value in return for the 23-year-old forward if they had moved him a year or two ago.

“I don’t think so,” Lacob said. “People say I loved him as a player, I was protecting him, I was whatever. That’s just not true. I did like him. I like all our players. Otherwise, we wouldn’t be acquiring them if we didn’t all like them. But you know, it just didn’t work. It looked like it was going to work. It was off and on a lot.”

Here are a few more highlights from Kawakami’s conversation with Lacob, which is worth checking out in full for Warriors fans.

On being encouraged by Porzingis’ Warriors debut on Thursday:

“He showed you a little bit about what he can do and why we got him. He’s always been one of my favorite players, to be honest, just in terms of his skill set, his size. You know, [general manger] Mike Dunleavy [Jr.] and the guys always laugh because I’m always yelling for more size. And we finally got it. He’s 7-foot-3, so I’m happy with that. We’ve got two real 7-footers on the team now [along with Quinten Post]. I like what I saw. Let’s get him ready, get him back to playing, get his timing back, and get used to our players. I think it’s encouraging.”

On whether there’s any clarity about Kerr’s future (his contract expires this offseason): 

“I think Steve has answered that question; there’s nothing more I can say. He has said we’re going to wait until after the season. That’s 100% accurate. We’ve discussed it. No point in talking about it now. He’s got a job to do. Let’s just let people focus — I mean, why would you do that now? Let’s just focus on the season. Really, it’s up to him. What does he want to do? And he doesn’t know, I don’t think. So we’ll have that discussion later.”

On what Lacob thinks of Kerr’s job performance in 2025/26: 

“I don’t look at it in one season. I look at it — he’s been our coach for 12 years. I think you can make the assumption that I think a lot of Steve Kerr. He’s a great coach. He’s been very successful. He’s won us four championships. Been to six Finals. He is a great human being, I really really, really respect him, admire him. But it depends what he wants to do and how he feels at the end of the season, and where we’re at. We’ll take all of it, put it into a bowl and figure it out. And I’m not really very worried about it, and I don’t think he’s very worried about it, either.“