The provided HTML code represents a portion of a web page that displays an article about the Golden State Warriors and their strategy for building a competitive team around Steph Curry. The relevant content is enclosed within paragraphs (`
` tags) and a figure (“ tag).The provided HTML code represents a portion of a web page that displays an article about the Golden State Warriors and their strategy for building a competitive team around Steph Curry. The relevant content is enclosed within paragraphs (`
` tags) and a figure (“ tag). Key Information: * Warriors owner Joe Lacob is hesitant to trade young players for a superstar because he values the team’s future. * Lacob believes in using analytical models to evaluate potential trades and avoid making shortsighted decisions. * The Warriors are currently in trade talks with the Utah Jazz for Lauri Markkanen, but they are not willing to meet Utah’s initial asking price. * Lacob emphasizes that while the team wants to win now, they also need to consider the long-term health of the franchise. * Despite Curry’s age (36), Lacob believes the Warriors still have time to build a championship-caliber team around him.
Warriors owner Joe Lacob won’t shy away from making a move to make his team better, but not at the expense of the future of his franchise.
The CEO recently spoke about what Golden State is willing to do to capitalize on Steph Curry’s remaining years in the NBA, telling David Aldridge and Marcus Thompson of The Athletic why he can’t just trade all of the team’s young talent for another superstar.
“Marcus, you’re assuming that you’re going to get better by trading all of your emerging young players, potential young stars,” Lacob told Thompson on the “NBA Show” podcast when asked why the Warriors aren’t making such a trade to help Curry. “We run analytical models on all of those things. We’re going to make the deal that makes us better. We’re looking at the short term and the mid-term and, to some extent, the long term, but that’s a factor.
“We have an incredibly complex model that these guys have about how good we’re going to be, and it’s not everything that the press writes all the time, or what people say on internet blogs. So, we’re very conscious of that. And you can’t do a deal that makes you worse, and then expect to be better.”
The Warriors are reportedly in current trade talks with the Utah Jazz for All-Star forward Lauri Markkanen, but the two sides don’t appear to be on the same page when it comes to a potential package. Consistent with Lacob’s comments to Aldridge and Thompson, Utah’s original asking price for Brandin Podziemski, Jonathan Kuminga, guard Moses Moody and draft capital was a “non-starter” for Golden State, The Athletic’s Shams Charania reported Monday, citing sources.
While signing a player of Markkanen’s caliber would certainly give the Warriors a better chance of helping Curry win his fifth NBA title next season, Lacob indicated how he thinks about big deals.
“We want to be the best we can be,” Lacob said. “… The caveat is we can’t bankrupt the team for a decade in an incredibly stupid way. You can’t bankrupt the future of the entire team to go one year, because it’s very, very hard to win. Even if we have the best team, you can get injured. That’s usually what happens, and someone else wins.
“So, within reason, we’re always going to try to win now. Not just for Steph, but for me. For everybody. For our fans. It’s everybody, and Steph feels the same way.”
It’s tough to win, even with a generational talent like Curry, but Lacob believes Golden State still has plenty of time with the two-time NBA MVP despite the 36-year-old’s contract expiring at the end of the 2025-26 season. And while the end of Curry’s career is closer than the beginning, Lacob’s vision for rebuilding his team hasn’t changed.
“I think Steph’s got a couple more years left, but … there’s a good chance we’re getting closer to the end, that’s for sure,” Lacob told Thompson and Aldridge. “And we’re aware of that every day. We want to win, but you wouldn’t change my mind. I want to win. … We’re always trying to get the best team we can, with all the different challenges that come with that.”
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