‘THREE!’ chronicles the Warriors run to the 2018 NBA Championship.
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OAKLAND – The Warriors could finally relax. They did not need to worry about pacing themselves through an 82-game regular season or playing at their best through the playoffs. They did not need to worry about how their star-studded roster and championship equity would match up against teams determined to beat them.
The Warriors already proved they had just enough, winning their third NBA championship in four years. So the Warriors spent their championship parade consuming alcohol, roaming the barricaded streets and interacting with fans.
Warriors general manager Bob Myers was not one of those people. After riding on one of the Warriors’ buses through the parade route, he returned to the team’s practice facility to oversee a pre-draft workout for Cincinnati junior forward Jacob Evans III. The Warriors have since drafted Evans with the No. 28 pick, but Myers’ itinerary will only become busier.
“You’d like to stop for one second,” Myers said. “But here we go.”
Here we go indeed. The Warriors are four days away from when free agency begins at 9:01 pm PT on Saturday. And the Warriors have more questions than answers on how that will play out.
The Warriors know that Kevin Durant will re-sign with the team after repeatedly stating multiple times he would before and after winning his second NBA championship and Finals MVP award in consecutive seasons. When it comes to whether Durant will re-sign on a one-year deal or multi-year deal? That is not as certain. Same thing as to whether Durant will seek a max contract or take a discount as he voluntarily did last summer.
“I think we’ll figure that out this week or early next week,” Myers said. “But again, I’m not too focused on it. Whatever works for him and us, I’m sure it’ll be easy.”
The Warriors anticipate the same thing with coach Steve Kerr. Both parties plan to agree to an extension on a contract that currently expires following the 2018-19 season. Nothing has progressed for the past two weeks, but Myers stressed that means absolutely nothing.
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“I don’t have any fear. I don’t have any trepidation. We’ll get that done,” Myers said. “Steve’s been a great partner. I know he wants to be here. We want him here. That should be one of the lower stress negotiations we have to do.”
Some of the higher stress negotiations: how do the Warriors upgrade their bench?
“We still need depth. We still would like to add maybe a young player or maybe one more veteran. But a lot of it will depend on what’s available to us,” Myers said. “I don’t know we’ll be engaging in deals at the jump. I think we’ll have to be a little bit more patient. But that’s okay.”
Granted, the Warriors do not exactly need to chase marquee free agents. They already have Durant, Stephen Curry, Klay Thompson and Draymond Green. But the Warriors want to strengthen their championship armor with a stronger bench. Only problem, they do not have many spending tools to do so.
They have a mid-level exception ($5.3 million) and veteran’s minimum contracts. The Warriors would like to retain restricted free agent forward Patrick McCaw and unrestricted free agent forward Kevon Looney, but that partly hinges on if they receive any lucrative offers elsewhere. While the Warriors can only offer Looney up to $2.3 million per season, they have three days to match any offer McCaw receives. Though Warriors majority owner Joe Lacob has stated and shown he will absorb luxury tax penalties, he will not write a blank check.
“Joe has always shown a high level of aggressiveness. So if it makes sense for us and helps us win, he’s always said yes,” Myers said. “But that’ll be the markers that have to be met. ‘Is this guy going to play for us?’ Obviously being in the tax, there’s an exponential cost for using tax payer mid-level for us. We have to be smart and prudent with whatever we spend, even if it’s a minimum. Our roster spots are somewhat limited as well. There’s a little bit of juggling that has to go on. Hopefully when the dust settles, we have a team that is as competitive as last year’s team.”
That partly hinges on how many of their pending free agents the Warriors keep.
Warriors veteran forward David West has not informed the team yet if he plans to retire following his 15th NBA season. If the 37-year-old West would like to return, the Warriors are open toward resigning him on a veteran’s minimum deal. West would not be expected to log significant minutes, but the Warriors would likely value him for his locker-room presence.
“We’ll respect that,” Myers said about West’s decision. “We’ll have dialogue with him and his agent and see what might happen.”
The Warriors are not expected to re-sign veteran center Zaza Pachulia after experiencing a fluctuating role throughout the 2017-18 season. Though Kerr altered his center rotation for matchup purposes, Pachulia played in only mop-up duty in seven out of a possible 21 playoff games because his plodding 6-foot-11, 270-pound frame did not match up well against small-ball oriented teams that played at a fast pace.
Though the 34-year-old Pachulia expressed optimism he will attract interest in the open market, he sounded uncertain about his Warriors future after making $3.2 million last season.
“Bob doesn’t need to tell me. We all know the way how it was for me. It’s different,” Pachulia told The Bay Area News Group. “I wasn’t expecting it. It just happened. That’s it. We’ll see what they’re going to think. I’m not saying I’m not coming back for sure. You never know what’s going to happen. There’s always a chance and always a possibility. We’ll see. At the end of the day, there are 30 teams. It’s like the same thing I did last year. We listen to the offers and try to make the best decision possible for me, my career and family. That’s it.”
It appears more likely that the Warriors would retain center JaVale McGee, even if Kerr also shuffled him in and out of the lineup.
The Warriors liked how McGee kept a positive attitude and remained productive despite uneven playing time. Despite playing sparingly in the Western Conference Finals (Houston) and semifinals (New Orleans), Kerr leaned on McGee for matchup purposes in the first round against San Antonio (8.4 points, 5.2 rebounds) and the Finals against Cleveland (8.0 points, 2.3 rebounds). If the Warriors retain McGee, it will likely be on a veteran’s minimum deal.
“I’m open for some things. I’m definitely open for the veteran’s minimum,” McGee told The Bay Area News Group. “But I definitely have to play the field and really see what is out there.”
It appears likely Warriors forward Nick Young will have to look elsewhere. Though Kerr has publicly praised Young for his defense in the playoffs and a key 3-pointer in Game 7 of the Western Conference Finals against Houston, the Warriors are mindful of Young’s shooting inconsistency (41.2 percent in regular season and 30.2 percent in postseason) and his season-long conditioning issues.
“I’m not here to talk about boring questions like that,” Young said about his pending free agency at McGee’s charity softball game on Saturday. “You don’t know what’s going to happen.”
Because of that uncertainty, Myers anticipated he will not finalize the team’s roster until late July or early August. The Warriors will weigh if they want to use their two roster spots for two-way contracts on developing players or ones immediately ready to play. The Warriors might wait on filling out their bench, mindful that free-agency decisions likely hinge on where LeBron James and Paul George sign.
“The league is always going to be competitive whether we’re good or not, the league is going to come after us or any team for that matter. That’s what it should be,” Myers said. “This is competition. You’re trying to win a championship. You expect it. For us, the job would be more about what are we trying to accomplish and then whatever happens with the league, you tip your hat to him. There are some really smart people out there and competitive front offices and ownership, coaches and players. That’s what makes winning a championship worth while, going up against great minds and people that have great work ethic and great strategies.”
As for the Warriors, Myers said he plans to strategize with his front office colleagues and Kerr this week on the team’s pending free agents. They had spent the previous week focusing on the NBA Draft. That also partly explains why Myers did not have any formal exit meetings with Kerr, Curry, Durant and Green. But what does Myers need to say to an accomplished coach and a group of star players that just won an NBA title?
“I don’t know what I would’ve said anyway. Congrats guys,” Myers joked. “It would’ve been ‘Hey great job.’”
This time, the conversations will be more substantial.
“It’s more on any thoughts they wanted to convey that maybe I wasn’t aware of. I think one thing we do well with this organization is a lot of these conversations are very organic,” Myers said. “They don’t have to take place at a certain time or date. If Kevin has something to say or Andre [Iguodala] or Draymond, they pick up the phone and call or text. They do that. So whether it was an exit interview or assigned meeting, that’s not the one opportunity to hear from them.”
Hence, Myers’ vacation will not start any time soon.
“It’s not healthy, in my opinion, to be so consumed that you can’t have some segment of balance,” Myers said. “It’s hard to do any job that way.”
Myers will still try anyway, in hopes of still fielding the NBA’s best roster.
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