Got a hold of Joe Lacob this morning?he?s in Montana right now, and in fact monitored (and participated in) the Warriors? free-agent machinations the last few days from his computer and cellphone.
He couldn?t talk specifically about the GSWs? last few free-agent adds (Jermaine O?Neal, Marresse Speights and Toney Douglas were not yet officially approved deals when we spoke), but the Warriors? co-owner was as enthused as you?d expect him to be after landing Andre Iguodala and all the rest.
I?ve got to head over to the Iguodala presser, but I?ll be writing a column focusing on this interview later today?
?JOE LACOB interview transcript/
-Q: Can we start by you taking through this process. Did you begin with Dwight Howard, just picking the biggest guy available out there and aiming at him?
-LACOB: That?s a complicated answer, in all honesty. As you know following me for three years, we?re going to do everything we can?I tated from day 1, a lot of people didn?t believe me then, I think they kind of do now.
We?re going to do everything we can to improve our team, to get better, and if that means big trades we?ll do it, and if that means trying to acquire a big name player?a great player?in free agency, we?ll try to do that?
I feel it?s a relentless kind of approach.
I do believe you can improve your team if you really work at it and you are ballsy, if you take a few chances.
We tried to do that with the trade to acquire Andrew Bogut a while back?people didn?t see that initially, but it obviously worked out for us based on the results.
So we approached the draft this year?even though we didn?t have a pick?with aggressiveness and again because Bob Myers is really good, at what he does I?m really proud of what he?s been able to do so far, him and the team, we were able to secure a pick in the first-rounder at not too high of a cost, a surprisingly low cost and improve ourselves there.
Then in free agency, our approach was, as a team that?s capped out, at the luxury tax limit actually, with a couple of players, key contributors this last year, in Carl Landry and in Jarrett Jack, that we really did like and wanted to bring back, but to do so would?ve put us in a situation where we were, depending on what they got for contracts, put us over $80M in payroll, and with the added luxury-tax charge we would be well into the 90s. That?s what we were looking at.
So we looked at the free agent lists, we looked at those guys, and asked ourselves: How can we make ourselves better, and at the same time how can we afford to make ourselves better?
I think we keyed in a couple of guys we would take a run at.
One of them I guess I can say his name? one of them was Dwight Howard. He?s with another team, I?ll be careful.
And another was Mr. Iguodala, who we?ve always liked a lot. I think you pointed that out and it is true. A terrific player and a terrific team player who fits the role we were interested in?a great passer, great team player, does a lot of things well.
So yes, we pitched them both. At that point the goal was to see how it went. As Bob Myers has stated, in free agency one thing you can say for sure is that things will not go as anticipated. Things you don?t expect always happen.
No matter how much the pundits predict something, it always ends up being something different.
We tried to be creative, made our best pitch to a couple of really good players and then see how it goes.
And frankly those players had great interest and I think it has been confirmed by that other player. I think we were very much in the conversation with him.
Of course we had a great meeting with Andre Iguodala, met with both of them on that day in LA. That went really well.
By a day or two beyond that we knew Andre Iguodala was very interested in us and wanted to come here.
We waited a little to see if that was the case with the other key target? and then we it was clear that Andre was our focus. From there it was an amazing amount of work with Bob and our team to find out a way to make that happen. And we did.
-Q: Did you go into this off-season knowing you could move Biedrins and Jefferson to clear the space?
-LACOB: It?s not rocket science: The way to move them if you were able to move them at all was going to be through giving someone an asset to do it.
This was the time to do it; we couldn?t do it a year or two years ago? there was too much time on their contacts, well, too much time with one of those players, Andris.
But once free agency started, it became a situation where they were now expiring contracts and these had value to rebuilding teams? They knew the players might not help much this year but in the future it would help them.
We could?ve kept them if we assumed a year from now would be the time to make our play and use the cap space, but that?s a little misnomer? There?s a luxury-tax limit and a cap.
While we would?ve been below the numbers, assuming we re-signed Andrew Bogut, we really couldn?t have had that much room next summer.
We decided this was the time to make our play. To add someone to our great young core.
By the way, I want to make it clear to you, we were never going to part with our core. That was our paramount.
We worked really hard to get them, we drafted them, developed them, Mark Jackson has worked hard with them? Our goal was to keep our young core through all this.
And we were always going to keep David Lee. I know you don?t love him, but he?s an All-Star in this league. And frankly, to keep Bogut?we traded a lot to get him and he?s very much a part of our future.
The ideal circumstance was to add somebody who can impact the team in a big way and not give up a lot?
-Q: But you would?ve had to potentially trade one of two of those guys to get Dwight in a sign-and-trade..
-LACOB: I want to get off the focus on him. At the end of the day, we weren?t there.
If we got to that point?if he was interested and we were interested, there were a couple of the ways to get it done. One to clear enough space to sing him outright and one was to have a sign-and-trade discussion. I think our preferred route was to sign him outright.
So we went down a path?it was either he or Andre, depending on who was interested.
Perhaps do that and keep our team as intact as possible, and it worked out terrifically for us. We did end up with Andre Iguodala, a tremendous player, and kept our entire team together.
In the context of that, the thing that most people haven?t really focused on, we completely restructured our financial structure. We?ve completely, set up the next several years? salary structure with no luxury tax? and we?ve got a better team, too.
This is really the ideal scenario. You can conclude what our primary goal was, the truth is we were looking at a couple different things.
You can?t predict what will happen. You just have to be able to put yourself in the conversation and get people to want to join your team and then figure out how to do it without giving up much.
We put ourselves in that situation and it worked out extremely well for us.
-Q: Were you comfortable with some of your players? names put out there the rumor mill? Bogut and Lee specifically?
-LACOB: These are NBA players; they know trades happen. It?s part of their lives, part of their business.
To some extent, that?s what they signed up for. Having said that, these guys know?each and every one of them?that we really put a lot of time putting this team together and they?re all key components of our team and we love our team going forward.
We didn?t want to trade any of them or give them up in any way. We wanted to do whatever could to add to them.
The only thing?we did unfortunately Jarrett Jack, a key contributor, and Carl Landry? I wish we could?ve brought them back. They got big offers, as we suspected they might, and I wish them well.
-Q: You did give up two first-rounders in the process, which is gambling a bit on your future. First, are they protected in any way?
-LACOB: They?re unprotected.
Simplicity is the best approach sometimes in making deals. I think we?re going to be a pretty good team in the future and we had to make the decision to part with a little bit of our potential upside by giving up some of our picks. Hopefully they will be low picks in the first round because we?ll be a good team.
That was not an easy decision. But you?ve got to remember we lost really one first round pick to get Andre Iguodala. The second first-round pick was really an effort to clear space.
We?ve got a lot of financial option-ality now. You look a it that way, it?s not really a lot to give up.
If we were a team trying to rebuild, no, we wouldn?t have done that. We would be gathering picks.
But the way we feel about our team now, we?re on schedule or maybe ahead of schedule? We?re pretty good, with a chance to be really good, and this was the time to make a move to restructure our payroll for the future and to add pieces
-Q: How good is this team now? Are you a Western Conference finals team? Better than that?
-LACOB: I?m going to leave the prediction stuff to people like you. That?s your job.
I?m an optimist, as you know. I feel very, very? forget it? I?m excited. I?m ecstatic with what we?ve been able to put together.
I think Bob Myers and our group has done just an incredible job putting a team together.
We?ve added a sixth starter, that?s the way to look at this thing and a really good one, an Olympian, an All-Star.
I don?t think I know of another team in the NBA that can make the claim that they have six starters.
And we?ve addressed the bench?I can?t talk about those players yet, until some deals are official? And we?ve got a couple of great young players that are developing into very good players, we think, in Draymond Green and Festus Ezeli when he comes back.
And we brought in several other players who are really quite good and addressed the individual needs?
I think what we have right now is a very interesting team.
We are at this point big?much bigger than we used to be, bigger at all positions, really.
We are much better defensively than we were two years ago and even a year ago?by adding Andre and some other people, we can put out a real good defensive team.
We are versatile, we have players who can play multiple positions, and that?s key. We have the ability to drive to the basket which we really didn?t have a year ago, Andre helps for that.
He can drive and kick out to shooters and know we have great outside shooters. And we have rim protection, with Bogut and Ezeli, in the middle.
I think we?ve got a lot of the components to be really successful as a team. I think we?re better than last year is all I?ll say.
Now we?ve got to prove it on the court, whether it?s get to the Western Conference finals or whatever; time will tell and we?ll have to perform on the court and make it happen.
-Q: Can you see making more moves this off-season?
-LACOB: I think we?re done for now. We have 13 players, 13 contracts, I believe, is the number when these people are signed up. We can go to 15, so we have a couple of spots, or if we want to use want of these trade exceptions, which is another part of the Andre Iguodala deal?
We?ve accumulated some pretty massive trade exceptions, which allow us to take advantage of some situations..
-Q: What are the figures for your trade exceptions?
-LACOB: I know there?s at least one big one and a smaller one in there. Have to ask Bob that. I know we have at least an 11 I believe and a 4. There might be a 9 in there too.
They?re certainly enough to add one key player through an acquisition from a team? maybe a player has a few years on a contract and a team may want to rebuild? or we can pick up a player a team wants to move and we can get a first-round pick?
-Q: So I?m assuming you?re prepared to go into the luxury tax?
-LACOB We were prepared to go well into luxury tax this year at the start of free agency. We were prepared for that to be one of the ways for this all to add up.
We could?ve been well into the 80s or 90s. No matter what, we were going to make sure that we were better next year.
It turns out we were able to work it out so we completely re-structured our payroll as well as make the team better.
And now frankly if Bob Myers comes to me or to our ownership group and says, ?Hey, we have a chance to acquire such-and-such player but it takes us into luxury tax,? that is not an issue.
Ultimately, our goal is to win an NBA championship and I believe we?re going to get there.
-Q: And next season there?ll be one massive free agent on the market. I?m assuming you?ll try to be back in the middle of that, too, next July.
-LACOB: I?m not going to speculate on that. Way too far off in the future.
Honestly, I really believe we have a really good team right now. We?ll see how they play this year, see how it goes, and we?ll enter the draft without picks, again, and free agency again and we?ll see if there?s something that makes sense to make our team better.
And we have a lot of assets at this point, a lot of really good players that people want. Bob Myers gets called every day?we had some amazing offers, people calling, not us calling them, on some really good players.
We have the ability to do that if it made sense for us to do it, but I want to emphasize, we?ve got a really good team right now.
If Mark and the coaching staff do the job I think we?ll do, we?ll see what happens. Then we?ll address the future.
-Q: You think Dwght would?ve signed with you if you had the space outright without having to go through major contortions?
-LACOB: I don?t want to speculate on that. That?s really his decision. I think we certainly had some good conversations.
I think he was very impressed. But beyond that, at the end of the day, he chose to go with another team. A team we?re going to beat up this year I hope.
It is what it is. We?re very, very happy with what we?ve done and we have added one of the best players in free agency, a terrific player that we?ve wanted for a long time, and I could not be happier with the way this worked out.
If you told me prior to free agency that this would be the end result, I?d say that?s going to be really hard to do but I?d love to do it.
We were able to get it accomplished. We?re really, really, really happy with the addition of Andre to our team and I love the fact that we added him to Andrew Bogut, who I hope will be with us a long time and David Lee, who is going to be with us for a long time, and obviously Steph and Klay and Harrison Barnes.
-Q: My sense is you went into this summer, despite aiming for huge adds, determined that you weren?t going to give up Curry, Barnes or Thompson. Was there a line drawn around them?do not trade?
-LACOB. Pretty much. I never say never because you never know entirely, because you have to be open to listening and open to thinking outside of the box.
But having said that, that would?ve been extremely remote. I can tell you that teams approached us during the process, and we never once approached anybody about any of our players.
I know it was in the papers that we were trying to trade this or that person, that?s not true. Our goal was to keep those five players in particular. Obviously, we knew it?d be hard to keep Jack and Landry and it was too hard? It worked out, to be honest a dream scenario.
-Q: Let?s get back to David Lee. Are you saying the Warriors never once discussed trading Lee over the last few weeks?
-LACOB: He has never been offered in trades. Never. Not once was it discussed on our end to consider him for anybody.
He?s an All-Star. You know I think he?s a terrific player?we think he?s a terrific player. He?s a great teammate, plays hurt, he?s a double-double machine; I know you hate that term. But he is.
We love David Lee and never once offered him. Of course, we listen, we always take calls. Do you listen? We?ll always listen, and it could be about anybody on the court.
It could be anybody in the organization?hey, this year a coach was traded for a draft pick. That?s just the way the business is.
But I assure we have no intention to trade David Lee.
-Q: OK, you?ve got six starters. How does that work out?
-LACOB: Mark Jackson?s going to have to figure that out. I think there?ll be a lot of speculation about that obviously, whether Klay comes off the bench or Andre comes off the bench, or Barnes?
All kinds of speculation probably all the way up to opening day unfortunately, but that?s a nice problem to have.
The truth is, what I love about this team, all of those guys?everyone of them is a willing and good passer and team-oriented guy. And I?m sure with Mark Jackson?s leadership, which he really did a great job this last year, bringing that locker room together, I?m sure he?ll figure out a way that everybody is happy and everyone is getting the minutes that they need and they want and makes us a better team. Who knows how that?s going to work out..
-Q: Is the plan right now that Iguodala is the back up point guard?
-LACOB: There is another player about to be announced, a back up point guard, and we also drafted a guy who?s a point guard, and Bazemore can play point as well.
The nice thing about Andre is he can play backup point guard?he did it for a while in Denver. He?s really a play-maker, can play the 2 , play the 3, play the 1, and even play little 4.
He?s really versatile. That?s what makes him so valuable. He has experience, experience on the Olympic team, the fact that he wanted to be a Warrior and his versatility?makes him an incredibly valuable addition to this team.
That has got to make us a lot better, whether it?s at point guard, the 2, the 3, maybe the Jarrett Jack role, who knows. There are many ways it works out.
-Q: What were the conversations like with Dwight and Iguodala?
-LACOB: Ask Andre what it?s like. We went into our discussions very orchestrated, architected? We had our coach there. I was there. Bob Myers. And Jerry West.
We tried to cover all the bases as to what this organization has done, the people he?d be betting on, what the plan is, what the vision is, how we saw that player fitting in.
And I guess it went pretty well.
-Q: Did Dwight give you an indication beforehand? Or did you go to that meeting not knowing how serious he might be?
-LACOB: I don?t want to go there. It?s obviously well chronicled?we were in the discussion. And I?m happy with the player we got. Happy with Andre Iguodala, that was a huge win for us in free agency.
-Q: Have you talked to Bogut since his name was out there in the rumor mill?
-LACOB: Bob has. And I believe I talked to his agent. He?s really excited about our team going forward. He?s getting really healthy this summer. And we?re really excited to have him.
We gave up a lot to get him. He?s one of the top centers in the NBA.
I just want to make sure all of our fans understand?al these other discussions and rumors, whatever they were? The bottom line is we?re really happy with the guy we do have. You saw what he did in the playoffs and we look for a lot of that this next year and the years going forward?
-Q: Could you talk extension with Bogut soon?
-LACOB: I?ll let Bob address those kinds of questions.
-Q: How important was it for you to know that Iguodala wanted to be a Warrior and that a guy like Dwight was willing to listen? That would?ve been hard to imagine three years ago.
-LACOB: I think it was a hard thing to imagine three years ago. And it is rewarding that players like Andre now want to be with the Warriors. That is a big statement.
The fact that we can even be in those conversations is important, and fact that we?ll be in those conversations forever more is important.
It?s a testament to the job that Mark Jackson and Bob Myers and really our entirely organization, business side as well, has done.
To make this an attractive place for someone like Andre Iguodala to want to be. He was not unaware that we already have five really good starters on the team and yet that was never brought up in a conversation when we were recruiting him. He never brought it up, what?s my role going to be?
Mark Jackson and him discussed it a little, but not with any resolution and I don?t think it mattered to him.
He understands what it takes to be on a winning team and the sacrifices everyone has to make. I think that?s what?s so impressive about him.
-Q: You picked up Mark Jackson?s option for 2014-15, but no long-term extension yet. Is that coming?
-LACOB: We envision Mark as our coach long term. We picked up the option because we?re now really just halfway through his contact, for three years and team option for the fourth, picked it up a year early because he did do a good job and is very much on the right path as a coach.
We told him we?re picking that up and let?s take it from here and see how it goes. We don?t have a specific plan for when we?d do an extension.
He?s still our coach for the next two years.
-Q: So there?s nothing imminent on that front.
-LACOB: We?ll have those discussions at the appropriate time. Mark is happy, we?re happy. I want to emphasize that we do see him with the organization long term.
Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/kawakami-merc/~3/XeAKHjHGRb8/
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