Warriors beat writer Danny Emerman shares his thoughts on the NBA.
Late in the first half of Jimmy Butler’s Chase Center debut as a Warrior, the six-time All-Star drove into the middle of the paint and flung up an and-1.
A few feet away, Joe Lacob rose in his seat and threw both arms up at first, then pumped his right fist.
Lacob has seen the Warriors’ on-the-fly revival after the Butler trade up-close, from his courtside seat post. Nobody is loving it more.
That moment was the type of reaction that happens dozens of times a year, the type of image that serves as a reminder of the type of owner Lacob is: one that really, truly gives a hoot.
He has proven as much time and time again, putting his money where his fist pumps are.
Since 2017, Lacob has paid the luxury tax every season except for the lost 2019-20 campaign. No other owner in the league has shown a willingness to spend like that over such a period of time.
And there’s no end in sight. Lacob wants to be the modern day Dr. Jerry Buss, who bought the Lakers in 1979 and, in his first 12 years as owner, won five championships and made it to four more.
At the deadline, the Warriors could have waved the white flag. They were floundering, playing lottery-level ball for two months. They could have shedded salary to dip under the tax, saving a buck for a team going nowhere.
Instead, they went big-game hunting. They nearly traded for Kevin Durant, only for the former Warrior to nix the idea. Then they pivoted to Butler.
“We’re always looking,” Lacob told Tim Kawakami on his podcast. “This is no different. We’re always looking to do something, maybe even significant, at all times. Why not? Why not try to get better? Whether that be trade deadline, summer, whatever. Sometimes it doesn’t work out. And sometimes it does.”
What more could anyone possibly want out of an owner? Since Lacob and Peter Guber bought the team in 2015, all they’ve done is gone full-throttle toward winning.
Lacob’s biggest mistakes as owner has been to spend too much while trying to win (Kelly Oubre Jr.) and speaking too passionately about his team that it comes off as hubris (“light-years ahead”). If those are his worst moments as an owner, any fan base would take that 10 times out of 10.
The influence of a bad owner is perhaps the most underrated aspect of major sports. Bay Area fans should know this after seeing what John Fisher has done to the Athletics over the past 20 years. Owners that don’t like to spend, that insist on yielding outsized personnel power, that threaten to move or hold their city’s taxpayers feet to the fire, that treat their franchises as a vehicle for passive income, can doom a team for decades.
The Warriors don’t have that problem.
The real question will be if the Warriors can stay relevant whenever Steph Curry retires. Lacob has certainly thought about that pending reality, and he has a plan.
“We’re going to do everything we can to try to maintain and be a significant NBA franchise with aspirations to win championships for as many years over the next 15 years I’m doing this as we have over the prior 15,” Lacob said.
Given his track record, there’s no reason to doubt him.
Lacob hears fans that say that the Warriors will be nothing without Curry. Their franchise value since drafting the icon in 2009 has gone from $335 million to $8.8 billion — the second-most valuable in U.S. professional sports.
Those skeptics might be right. The Warriors will never get another Curry. He’s a one-of-one talent and possibly the greatest face-of-the-franchise ever. The Warriors have some nice young players, but no one to carry the torch and certainly no one like Kobe Bryant and Shaquille O’Neal like Dr. Buss’s Lakers lucked into.
But Lacob might just be crazy enough to find a way.
“If it takes spending money to make money, or spending money to — in this case — win, we’ll do that,” Lacob said. “Whatever it takes, we’re going to do that. I’m not here to screw around. We’re not here to screw around. This is not some passive thing for me. This is every day, every night, waking up I think about it all day, all night. It’s what we do. It’s what we want to do. It’s what we enjoy doing. We want to win. We want to be a significant player of the NBA landscape every year.”
Warriors-Lakers crash course in playoffs?
Since the trade deadline, the Warriors are 7-2 and the Lakers are 8-2. Golden State ranks second in net rating, the Lakers rank seventh.
As of March 1, the Lakers are a half-game out of the third seed while the Warriors are tied for sixth with the Clippers.
LeBron, Steph, Luka, Jimmy. The league wouldn’t be upset with that being a 3-6, first-round matchup.
Cake and candles for Podz
Brandin Podziemski has been outstanding since returning from his abductor injury earlier this year, shrugging off his slow start by limiting his turnovers and sinking perimeter shots at a 35% clip.
Podziemski has even taken on the toughest on-ball defensive matchups recently, becoming Golden State’s go-to point-of-attack defender without Andrew Wiggins. He’s on pace to lead the Warriors in plus-minus for a second straight season.
Podziemski turned 22 this week. A stat to celebrate:
Through Podziemski’s first 120 games, Podziemski has a total plus-minus of 437. That ranks 12th all-time (plus-minus data goes back to 1996-97 on Stathead), among all players’ first 120 games. He’s right above Fred VanVleet, Manu Ginobili and Dwyane Wade on a list that includes Tim Duncan, Jayson Tatum, Joel Embiid, Kawhi Leonard and Shawn Marion.
Thunder have 2015 Warriors vibes?
Maybe it’s the nostalgia bait of the past week talking, but the Thunder are giving off serious 2015 Warriors vibes.
On pace for 67 wins — just like those Dubs — young and with the top defense in the league, the Thunder have done everything but proven it in the playoffs. The furthest Oklahoma City has gotten under the current iteration is the second round — same as the 2014-15 Warriors.
Teams don’t need to fail over and over again in the playoffs to break through. The Warriors showed that a decade ago. The Thunder might just be on that same trajectory.