Inside Joe Lacob's vision for Warriors: Curry's sacrifice, cap space and what's next

Golden State Warriors owner Joe Lacob plopped on a couch in a small room at Chase Center on Tuesday, about an hour before his team’s exhibition game against the Lakers. Lacob was relaxed if slightly preoccupied with his other team, the Golden State Valkyries, as they steam through the WNBA playoffs.

The conversation turned to the Warriors and, inevitably, Stephen Curry. That was the biggest news ahead of training camp, when Curry signed a two-year, $116 million contract extension – about $20 million less than he could have commanded – to provide precious salary cap space to upgrade the roster around him.

Lacob embraces the financial flexibility, though he offered few clues about how the Warriors might take advantage of it. He did make one thing clear: He never feared Curry would leave. 

“We were going to take care of him and make sure he stays, no matter what,” Lacob said in a Chronicle interview. “Fortunately, we were able to convince him if he wanted to help out … he saw the benefit of that. And we’re very appreciative, obviously. If he would take even less, we’d be happier (smiling).

“But we appreciate what he’s done. Most players don’t ever take less, and he didn’t have to – if he had demanded to take all of it, we’d have paid it. He deserves it. … The most important thing is he stays a Warrior for life, because he’s so important to this franchise.”

Curry will begin his 18th season with Golden State on Oct. 21, a season with unusually modest expectations as Jimmy Butler and Moses Moody recover from major knee injuries and Kristaps Porzingis deals with an undisclosed health issue. It’s understandable, then, for Warriors fans to let their mind drift ahead – to the trade deadline in February and even to next summer.

That’s when Lacob and general manager Mike Dunleavy are positioned to reshape the roster. Curry’s gesture helps. So does the abundance of expiring contracts, including Butler’s ($56.8 million) and Draymond Green‘s ($27.7 million). It also would be easy to part with Porzingis; only $3 million of his 2027-28 salary is guaranteed.

If the braintrust has a master plan here in October, it will remain sheltered from public view. Lacob suggested it could change in the months ahead, anyway, much like last season flipped in an instant Jan. 19 – when Butler landed awkwardly, tore his ACL and disappeared into what likely will become a full year of rehabilitation.

That suddenly, the Warriors went from 25-19 and surging … to sputtering, badly. They won only 12 of their final 38 games, a plunge to oblivion accelerated by Curry’s own knee injury.  

So as Lacob looks ahead to potentially seismic changes on the horizon, he does so in a measured tone.

“One thing I’ve learned in my 16 years doing this – so many things change much faster than you can anticipate,” he said. “These are human beings. This is not artificial intelligence. It’s not code and it isn’t scripted. So sometimes players are better than you think, or they get better faster than you think. Sometimes they age faster and get worse. You just don’t know.

“As of this moment, yeah, we have some expiring contracts and the ability to have a lot of cap space. That could be what happens, or we could make trades at the deadline. Or Jimmy comes back screaming good, and guys like that we re-sign them. We just don’t know right now.”

There will no doubt be restlessness to give Curry more support in the twilight of his transcendent career. That became a national talking point this past offseason, when the Warriors whiffed on their attempt to sign LeBron James. They made no splashes in free agency, striking late, low-wattage deals with guard Brandon Williams and forward Georges Niang.

Their biggest acquisition, of course, was No. 11 overall draft pick Yaxel Lendeborg. He has flashed early signs of quickly becoming a productive player on the wing, exactly what the Warriors need with Butler and Moody sidelined.

Even so, the offseason critiques resonated loudly – especially when Golden State re-signed several of its own players (Green, Porzingis, Al Horford, De’Anthony Melton, Gary Payton II). That kept the team’s core together, but it also was the core of a 37-45 team that missed the playoffs for the second time in three years.

Not ideal.

“I can understand those criticisms, why fans might look at it that way if they don’t understand,” Lacob said. “Sometimes, people undervalue continuity. That’s important. We have some good young players here. Whether people want to admit it or understand it or not, we have some really good older players, too. …

“There are times to make moves and times maybe not to make moves. Sometimes, the best deals you ever do are the ones you don’t do. We could make a really bad deal and then everyone would be happy because we did something, quote unquote. But that’s not necessarily the right thing to do.”

Other topics Lacob addressed in the rare interview:

Butler:The Warriors surged down the stretch to reach the playoffs in 2024-25, going 23-7 with Butler in the lineup (in the regular season) after acquiring him from Miami. Last season, they were 23-15 with him before his injury. That’s collectively 46-22.

And then Butler collapsed in a heap.

NBA players routinely return from torn ACLs, but those are generally younger players. Butler turned 37 last month and probably won’t play in a game until February, the standard 12-month timeframe after his surgery (Feb. 9).

Now the big question: What kind of player will Butler be upon returning? He expressed confidence in quickly regaining his old form, though Lacob acknowledged nobody – not even Butler – really knows.

“My guess is he’ll come back and be pretty damn good,” Lacob said, “because he’s Jimmy damn Butler and he works hard.”

Steve Kerr:Lacob and general manager Mike Dunleavy cleared the first big hurdle of the offseason in May, when Kerr agreed to return as head coach. Last week, in training camp, Kerr launched notable changes to his offensive system, pushing the Warriors toward a five-out alignment – starting possessions with all their players positioned along the perimeter – in an effort to improve their spacing.

“I think he’s very motivated,” Lacob said of Kerr. “I looked around and said, ‘Am I really gonna get a better coach than Steve Kerr?’ Look, he’s a great coach with a tremendous track record of success. We don’t agree on every little thing all the time, but for the most part we do agree on things.”

On that topic: One disagreement Lacob and Kerr reportedly have had centered on the coach’s habit of publicly offering his political views. That emerged in April, when ESPN’s Marc Spears said during a radio appearance that Kerr was “maybe being stifled a little bit in that regard.”

Kerr dismissed the issue during his news conference in May, saying it didn’t come up during his discussions with Lacob and Dunleavy. Kerr then told the San Francisco Standard’s Tim Kawakami that Lacob has always given him license to say what he wants, but Lacob also “rightfully doesn’t want any controversy.”

And what does Lacob think about all this?

“Steve knows there are times he has said things which I did not agree with,” Lacob said. “But I do trust him to say the right things, do the right thing. Now sometimes he goes a little far and I have to go back and say, ‘Hey Steve, maybe that was a little far.’ (laughing) …  

“But we don’t have to agree on everything. Steve’s a really smart guy and we’re lucky to have him as our head coach. I really love our relationship, so I would not make anything more of it than it is.”

Lendeborg:The most fascinating character in the season ahead, in many ways, is Lendeborg. Kerr planted him in the starting lineup in the team’s first preseason game, and he has promised Lendeborg will play “a ton” with Butler and Moody sidelined.

Let’s face it: The Warriors need Lendeborg to make an immediate impact. Lacob called him “an incredibly interesting archetype,” given his diverse skill set (ballhandling, passing, outside shooting) and imposing, 6-foot-9, 241-pound frame.

“We feel very confident he’s going to be really good,” Lacob said. “Early returns suggest we’re right, but let’s not put too much pressure on him. Let’s let him evolve. He’s going to get a lot of opportunity, which I think is really good for him.”

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This article originally published at Inside Joe Lacob’s vision for Warriors: Curry’s sacrifice, cap space and what’s next.