Golden State Warriors superstar Stephen Curry remains focused on winning his fifth NBA championship, but it appears team owner Joe Lacob is looking beyond him. Warriors insider Tim Kawakami shared on The TK Show that Lacob, who bought the team in 2010, wishes to show that this organization can succeed post-Curry.
“What Lacob wants to do, and this might get Warriors fans mad, but he wants to build the next team after Steph Curry,” Kawakami said, via Curry For Game. “I don’t know how possible that is, but Lacob has a very keen interest in ‘This organization is going to show what it can do with Steph Curry and then after Steph Curry.’ I don’t think it’s going to be as good myself, but that’s what he wants to do.”
This isn’t good news if you’re Curry. Any superstar would want their team to make win-now moves, but the Warriors are instead keeping an eye on the future.
There have been instances over the years where the top brass has wanted to show that their genius in terms of team building is what resulted in them winning championships. They believe they can do it again without the superstar who has gotten most of the credit.
The example that immediately comes to mind is Michael Jordan and the Chicago Bulls, and that sure didn’t work out well. Then-Bulls GM Jerry Krause thought he could build a title-winning team post-Jordan and failed miserably. Chances are it’ll be the same with the Warriors.
Now, we have kind of known Lacob’s intentions since the two-timeline era. The Warriors were trying to win championships while developing youngsters like Jonathan Kuminga, Moses Moody, and James Wiseman. They were supposed to take over once Curry, Draymond Green, and Klay Thompson walked away and ensure the team continued to operate at a high level.
Some other owners and front offices in the Warriors’ position might have taken a different approach when they got the No. 2 pick in the 2020 NBA Draft and the No. 7 pick in the 2021 NBA Draft. They’d have traded at least one of those picks in win-now moves to give a transcendent player like Curry more help.
The Warriors instead used them on Wiseman and Kuminga. The former turned out to be a massive bust, while the latter didn’t live up to expectations. The Warriors had plenty of opportunities to trade Kuminga when his value was still somewhat high, but they kept believing in his potential and held on. They eventually traded him and Buddy Hield to the Atlanta Hawks for Kristaps Porzingis. Talk about a wasted pick.
The only major win-now move the Warriors have made since Kevin Durant left in 2019 is acquiring Jimmy Butler in 2025. They only had to give up one first-round pick in that deal, too.
The Warriors currently own their first-round pick in 2027, 2028, 2030, 2031, 2032, and 2033. The 2029 pick is top 20 protected, too. This is not the kind of draft capital you expect a team that has aspirations of winning a title to have.
Now, to be fair to the Warriors, they have looked into acquiring Durant, Giannis Antetokounmpo, and LeBron James via trades in recent years. They just never came particularly close to getting any of them.
The Warriors also looked to sign James this offseason, but he chose to go to the Philadelphia 76ers. Their backup plan isn’t anything too fancy. Re-signing Green is the only significant move that’s going to happen, and that was a given anyway.
Despite this, Curry is expected to sign a two-year, $136 million extension soon. The 38-year-old has long expressed a desire to spend his entire career with one franchise, and that’s what he’d be doing by signing that deal.
