Getty Golden State Warriors owner Joe Lacob and head coach Steve Kerr attend the 2022 NBA Summer League.
It’s a time of incredible change for the Golden State Warriors as team president and GM Bob Myers, the architect behind the team’s dynastic run, is officially stepping down when his contract reaches its end on June 30. Not only that, the team is also in clear need of a roster remix behind its Stephen Curry-led core.
Up until now, owner Joe Lacob has been willing to pay a premium to keep the Warriors at a championship level. However, fans and pundits alike have wondered whether that will continue to be the case with the NBA‘s new collective bargaining agreement with the players allowing for stiffer penalties against overspending clubs.
Lacob attempted to lay concerns about the Warriors’ spending power and their ability to keep things rolling to rest on Tuesday as he and Myers met with reporters.
“We are going to win no matter what,” Lacob said regarding the CBA’s new provisions. “I don’t care what the rules are. We are going to figure out a way to do it. That’s what good organizations do. They figure out a way to win the game. And our game is to win games and to win championships.”
New CBA Will Restrict the Tools the Warriors Have to Acquire New Players
“We’re going to win no matter what. I don’t care what the rules are.” 😳
— Joe Lacob on the new CBA
An important tweak to the salary cap/tax structure established by the revised CBA was the addition of second “apron” beyond the luxury tax line. The new threshold has been set at $17.5 million above the tax mark (a number that the Dubs will fly right by next season), and teams that operate above it will be limited in a number of ways from a roster-building standpoint.
In addition to incurring a harsher luxury tax in that zone, a team in the Warriors’ position would also lose access to the taxpayer midlevel exception. As noted by ESPN, Golden State would not have been able to add Donte DiVincenzo last offseason if the new rule had been in place at the time.
Moreover, upper-spending-limit teams will face restrictions in adding players who are waived in-season, which could prevent the Warriors from being serious players on the buyout market. These clubs will also have stricter requirements to meet when matching salaries in trades.
Despite these new hurdles, Lacob is committed to keeping the Warriors’ championship train on its tracks.
“Look, the rules will change in the game, but we’ll continue to do that. We are going to work really hard to do it, and I think we have really smart people. We’ll do it,” he promised.
Tom Tolbert Sounds Off on Myers’ Best Trait as Warriors President/GM
While Lacob has made it clear that he intends to keep things running at a high level sans Myers, the exec’s departure looms large. As former baller turned KNBR/Dubs broadcaster Tom Tolbert sees it, Myers’ ability to coordinate and communicate with a variety of different people took him to a higher level as a GM.
“Bob was kind of like the oil in the engine. He’s the viscosity. He kept things moving. He was able to keep all the different engine parts moving in different parts of the engine just because of that viscosity. He had the ability to work as well up as he did down [and] side to side,” Tolbert said on Tuesday.
“He just knew people. He knew how to communicate. I mean, obviously, he’s really bright and he knows his stuff. There’s a lot of guys that are really bright. There’s a lot of
guys that know their stuff. There’s a lot of guys that don’t, too, but he knows people.
“Bob had the ability to communicate. He had the ability to communicate with ownership. He had the ability to communicate with his staff. He had the ability to communicate with the business side of the staff. He had the ability to communicate with Steve [Kerr] and his staff. And then all the players … he had the ability to communicate with them.”