Joe Lacob has found himself in the news an awful lot in recent times. While partly that was because his team won their 4th championship in the last 8 seasons in 2021-22, it was also for how they had accomplished it. The Warriors owner was coming under some fire for the team’s payroll, which was the highest in NBA history, with rival teams being worried about their spending.
The numbers that were being thrown around were a bit crazy, and Lacob later clarified that they were not spending $400-$500 million on the roster as some were suggesting they did. Still, there is no doubt that they are open to spending a lot, provided it helps them achieve the ultimate goal of winning a title, and that is to be applauded, as many owners wouldn’t do that.
A lot of them tend to be content with just earning the millions they get from being an owner of an NBA team, but Lacob doesn’t fall in that category. He stated during an appearance on the Point Forward podcast that winning championships is all he cares about , and while most owners say this, only a few actually go to the lengths needed to accomplish it. While desperate to win, Lacob also mentioned during the podcast that the Warriors wouldn’t get reckless and throw away their future with an all-in move, as he has seen how that pans out for other teams.
(starts at 39:47 mark):
“Everyone wanted us at the beginning of the year, I know, to trade all those young players and these draft choices and to go get one more guy, one more established, over 30-kind of star … I know what we did was a little bit risky, but I believed, and Bob Myers believed, that if we were going to win this year, how far we were going to go was going to be determined by how good Steph Curry, Klay Thompson, and Draymond Green (were) obviously the rest of the guys too, but those 3, that’s where the money is.”
“So at the end of the day, what we don’t want to do… the one thing I cannot and will not stand for is not to be competing for championships. I don’t wanna go off a cliff like other teams do when they all in like really all in, they got no young players, no draft choices, I just don’t think that’s a good strategy.”
These comments come on the backs of some suggesting that the Warriors can trade away their young core to land Kevin Durant, and it seems clear Lacob isn’t a fan of the idea. The team is set for the present as well as the future as things stand, and they don’t want to throw away their future for the short term.
It is a sound strategy, and Lacob has a great example to look at in the Lakers, who first gave up some key youngsters and picks for Anthony Davis and later on for Russell Westbrook. While they managed to win a championship after trading for Davis, it has been all downhill since, and the team is left with no youngsters of note and very little draft capital. Golden State does not plan to follow in those footsteps and rightly so.
