San Francisco – The Warriors head coach Steve Kerr and General Manager Bob Myers took questions from the media today ahead of NBA’s Media Day this upcoming Sunday, September 25, 2022.
Q. All summer long, you’ve been waiting for specific veteran to decide what he’s going to do. What’s your latest inkling? Obviously he says he’s going to announce it on his Podcast but what’s your inkling?
STEVE KERR: I’m just hopeful. Beyond that, I really don’t know, you know, what Andre is going to do. He’s been in here working out and kind of getting training staff to work with him and look at him and I think he’s getting a feel for what he wants to do, and we told him from the beginning, take as long as you want.
So he’s taking his time and that’s fine. So we’ll see.
Q. Is there any injury concerns heading into camp or do you basically expect everyone ready for practice day one?
STEVE KERR: Yeah, we’re expecting everybody to be ready to go. But we will take precautionary measures for anybody, especially our veteran guys, if there’s anything, you know, especially early in camp, we want to make sure we ramp them up at the right pace. You know, we’ll get a good feel for that the first day or two.
Q. I think you said that you liked the work that Kuminga put in in the off-season. What exactly were you hoping to see him work on specifically in the off-season?
STEVE KERR: Well, with Jonathan, it’s similar to James in that you’re talking about a really talented young player without a ton of experience. So there are specific things that we want from him: Running the floor, rebounding, becomes a great defensive player. Being able to utilize his physical size and strength and athleticism.
But some of that just means playing a lot and figuring out the game, figuring out the NBA game, seeing the advantages, seeing when to attack, when not to attack.
Most of that comes with experience. So he just needs to continue on the path he’s been on and I think he’ll be in good shape.
Q. You mentioned earlier the difference between last time you guys were defending titles and now with the youth movement. During that run of five straight, you were viewed as overwhelming favorites. Obviously we know you have to show up. How do you view this team knowing obviously what you did last year but knowing you have some youth and just the rest of the NBA and who else is in the conference and the League, heading into camp, what do you see for this team and how do you feel like you’re viewed going into the year?
STEVE KERR: I think last year we were hoping to be in the mix and we were hoping we would but we weren’t sure. Obviously winning the title and returning our top six guys, we feel really good about being in the mix now. We’re back in it.
But there’s a lot of teams that are right in it, and the league is super competitive. I think the West has gotten even stronger. There’s a lot of competition out there. So we are one of the teams that’s in the mix and that’s exciting. We have to start over. It doesn’t just automatically happen from one year to the next, so we’ve got a lot of work.
Q. What have you thought about Moody and Poole in the off-season?
STEVE KERR: Well, Jordan really established himself last year as a really good NBA player. So for him, it’s now about getting better defensively, more consistent defensively, to become — for Moses, it’s about taking the next step and earning a spot in the rotation. Last year he was on the fringe and as a rookie, that’s usually how it works.
But Moses has a great shot right now to really take a spot in the rotation and make himself a really big part of this year’s team.
Q. You had very flexible starting lineups in the playoffs throughout. After what seems like a pretty secure starting five, Jordan, sixth man, is that how you’re viewing it, like you have your starting five and Jordan is your best bench player, or can you see in certain matchups, Jordan starting, you’re going small, that type of thing?
STEVE KERR: Only way I’m looking at it right now our top six are really clear but like last year, there will undoubtedly be injuries and things will happen and our lineup about change based on circumstance.
But those guys are going to play a ton. It’s too hard to say right now, are we going to start the exact same way every single game. We have to see how it all shakes out. I think that’s more the story is what happens after those six.
We know those guys are all going to get playing time but from what happens from there, to me, it’s wide open. We have JaMychal and Dante who have been a big part of rotations for great teams in this league. I have a lot of faith they will be able to come in and contribute at a high level, and we have got all these young guys fighting for spots. I’m excited about the competition that’s ahead.
Q. Does your mentality or approach to the regular season change at all this year, as opposed to maybe a year ago?
STEVE KERR: Maybe a little bit based on the circumstances. I mentioned that last year we really felt it was important to establish ourselves right away, and we got off to that quick start, 18-2, I think. We needed our vets to play together and develop that chemistry.
I think in the end, we won 53 games. Started out strong and kind of, you know, had that lull late in the regular season. You never know how this stuff is going to shake out, but I think we have more confidence in our ability to compete at the highest level going into this season. And the season may take on a slightly different shape in terms of the momentum and the energy and everything else. We have got to navigate that as it comes.
Q. With your three vets of Steph, Klay and Draymond, usually you keep those guys in the mid-30s, minutes-wise. Is there any consideration to shaving off a few minutes per game in the regular season or do you want to keep it the same as you have the last few years?
STEVE KERR: We’ll see how it goes. I think early in this run, they were all like around 32, which we were able to do because we were very talented and we were able to win a lot of games where we could rest guys in the fourth quarter. We didn’t have that luxury last year, and I think if I’m not mistaken, Steph’s minutes went up by a couple minutes.
I think all that stuff matters. It would be great if we could limit some minutes and be able to have guys really ready and physically in a great place going into the playoffs. But you’ve got to get there, and every season is different, and you have to read it as it goes. So we’ll see.
Q. How important was it getting a free agent like JaMychal, someone who came in and said that he’s here to do all the little things, set the screens, fight for loose balls, etc.?
STEVE KERR: Thrilled to have JaMychal. I thought Otto Porter and Bjelica last year were such important pieces to our team, veteran players, who just knew how to play the game. Good shooters. Smart screeners, rebounders, and that’s how I view JaMychal. He’s really an accomplished player.
And especially given all the youth on our team coming off the bench, I viewed JaMychal as a critical addition to our team, so really excited to have him.
Q. You guys played Boston in the Finals and they played a couple bigs a lot of the times. Minnesota traded for Rudy this summer and they will play him and Karl together. Cleveland is playing two bigs. You guys are obviously at the forefront of going the other way playing small. What is your thought about some other teams around the league going that direction and what do you think are the pluses and minuses of it all?
STEVE KERR: I like it. I like when teams zig when everybody else is zagging. I think it’s smart. I think our advantage has always been Draymond Green. He gives us the flexibility to play big or small. And sometimes we accomplish the small part even playing big because he’s so smart.
And I think Loon has now entered that conversation, too. You think back to the Finals, we played Loon and Draymond together a lot. What we lost in terms of spacing we more than made up for in terms of intelligence, hand backs, screening. We were able to generate plenty of offense, and then at the other end, put our best defensive lineup on the floor.
We have been lucky just because of our versatility on our roster with — with multiple guys, but particularly with Draymond.
As other teams play bigger, or really stretch you out and go smaller, we always feel like we can adapt either way because of Draymond mainly. But like I said, I think Loon is part of that, too. Not to mention Wiggs who can guard multiple spots; Klay Thompson.
We have been blessed to have a great, flexible roster.
Q. What do you think James missed specifically by missing two training camps, and what do you think he’ll gain just in this next two-week period where you guys are installing and everything that comes with training camp?
STEVE KERR: I think what James missed between two training camps and two Summer Leagues, too, is just all the foundational stuff that young players need. This is not 30 years ago where Patrick Ewing plays four years at Georgetown or Tim Duncan plays four years at Wake Forest and you’re getting these guys that are ready to roll right away.
In a case like James, you have three college games and zero training camp, zero Summer Leagues. So now, comes the foundational stuff. His work ethic is fantastic. His approach, his attitude; he’s beloved by his teammates. They are seeing how hard he works.
So now it’s a matter of experience. He just has to keep playing, and we have got to continue to be patient and allow that development to happen an organic, natural rate.
Q. I know you’ve addressed the salary situation. I was just wondering, there’s ownership in sports, all sorts of sports, where stuff like this happens and nothing changes. What is it about the NBA that it isn’t tolerated to the point where someone will actually sell a team? This is not the first time this has happened. But it seems unique to the NBA that the players can bring pressure and change the narrative.
STEVE KERR: Yeah, that’s a good point. I had not really thought of that dynamic. Maybe there haven’t been similar situations in football and baseball. I haven’t really given it much thought.
I think some of it is the age that we are in, the era that we are in. Everything is really laid out. Everything is exposed. Everything is laid out there, and then everybody is sort of free to play judge and jury and just here comes the hammer and it’s really difficult to withstand that sort of barrage of whatever — in whatever direction. We have seen it happen in a lot of different areas of life, not just sports.
I don’t really know that the NBA is different but I’ll have to give that one some more thought.
BOB MYERS/GM
Q. You have several guys in contract years coming up. How do you prioritize how you address all those situations?
BOB MYERS: Well, we want all those guys. Can we get them all? I don’t know. It depends on what the money ends up being, what the ask is, what we can do. We are not at a point to make those decisions yet. Right now, you could make the decision, we want all of them.
But where it ends up, the more I’ve been in this, the more I realize there’s no absolutes. I can sit here and say, we want this, we want that. Some of these decisions may be made in the next two weeks and some might be made in seven, eight months, and the information that we have then will be helpful as far as making those.
And then it’s a negotiation to be honest. It requires a conversation. And usually you don’t really realize a true position, even hours, until you’re at a deadline. Sometimes you’ve deadlines, sometimes you don’t. Sometimes you have deadlines that are not set that are not formal, and others that would say, if it’s not done at start of the season, let’s just.
But we haven’t even gotten to those kind of conversations. I think we will but I don’t know where we’ll end up but we like them all. I’m not going to like them in order for you. That doesn’t do me any good but we like them all.
Q. In terms of Jordan, because there was the deadline coming up on him, how much has been discussed, talked about or consideration given to doing something with him?
BOB MYERS: We are going to meet with his representatives I think after Tokyo and sit down for the first time and start having that conversation, and I think that’s about two weeks out from the deadline for him. Where that will go, I don’t know. I know that they want to meet and I know we want to meet, and then we’ll see what the next two weeks give us.
Q. You guys have been in this situation before and you guys have been extremely successful. When you’re successful, people want raises and people want to get paid. Going into this situation, do you feel like you’ve been in this kind of predicament before with a bunch of guys who probably want a raise, probably want to get extended. Have you had this exact situation? Do you feel like this might be your most difficult one to navigate as you try to retain guys and keep this team intact?
BOB MYERS: I mean, every year, Jason is never — we have not had this specific situation. We have won the most games early in the season and we were the worst team in the league. We’ve seen a lot, even myself, and even prior to that. But I don’t know that we have been here exactly.
But that’s the beauty of the NBA and my job is to try to navigate stuff we haven’t seen. We’ve seen iterations of having to exceed a salary threshold, and that’s Joe’s decision. We have gotten under the cap for a few years. I think it’s true. We within two titles under the luxury tax and obviously we won a couple over, and quite significantly over the last year.
So it can be done a lot of different ways. My experience is that sometimes these things sort themselves out and sometimes they don’t. Right now it’s hard to say where this unfolds. But we like all those guys. It’s a high-class issue in my opinion. Most of the time you’re struggling to get any players but to have a lot that you want to keep and that are worthy of getting paid, kind of what you want. And then we have to see what — what ends up happening.
Q. You mentioned Jordan, and with Draymond and their representatives, and if so, how did that go.
BOB MYERS: Yeah, great. The meetings are all great. These are nice people. I saw Draymond; spoke to Rich Paul the other night.
But again, you can negotiate about buying your car, but if I know I have two or three weeks until you decide what you want to do, it’s real but it’s not — you don’t force the decision. Sometimes things get done prior to a deadline. You see guys that are extended in certain situations but many times it does approach a deadline.
A couple of these guys don’t have a specific one. Jordan does. But they have all been good. The good news for us is I don’t hear anybody that wants to leave. That would be a worse problem if they said, I don’t want to be here, I’m out of here at the end of the year or I don’t want to be here, trade me. I don’t hear any of that. The goal will be to do the best we can.
Q. If some of them don’t get done, do you anticipate that potentially being an issue in-season?
BOB MYERS: I don’t think so. But you know, I’ve been on the side whereas an agent, I would sit with you and say, Anthony, you want to take had $100 million or do you want to play it out? Hard for us to imagine that decision but some players will say, I honestly don’t think that will go well for me and I don’t want to play with that over my head.
And some will have the ultimate confidence to say, that means nothing to me, and I want to hold out for what I think might be a bigger payday.
It depends. It’s personal. If the money is close, you know, if you get it close to where guys want it to be, they usually take it in my — having been on this side and that side.
But if it’s a big gap, and a player has a certain kind of mindset, they will go with it and play it out. I can’t tell with these guys. They all seem like they are pretty confident, stable and they will take a deal if they like it, and I guess if they don’t, they won’t, but it’s hard to say right now.
Q. With three guys coming up contracts and the looming luxury tax out there, is it just get these guys in and you can deal with the number in a year or are you already thinking about what’s coming down as you talk to these guys about their number now?
BOB MYERS: You know, the thing I’ve learned in — and this isn’t a criticism at all but look at the team down the road. You just don’t know, you know, what’s going to happen. You have no idea, things flip immediately as far as what you think is going to happen, what everybody thinks is going to happen and what does happen. So our job, my job is to like, let’s do all these things in a way where we feel good about it. That may not lineup in the way they feel good about it.
Then even if that’s the case and we got something doing, then look forward and see what you do with that. I’ve got a story I can tell you later about a situation where we were thinking about extending a guy and much was written that if we had done that, we couldn’t have signed a free agent. And looking back, that player that we offered an extension to ended up signing a maxed contract. Evening if we had him at the number that we offered, we could have moved that player and gotten something for it. Are you following that at all? Okay. So you know the deal.
It’s an example of, like, who knows, right? But it’s not necessarily — there’s a lot of variables to these decisions, a lot of variables. So even when we model, the goal is to get players on a deal that obviously they like and we like. And if you can get there, then now you deal with that. But I don’t know if that’s going to happen. I don’t know right now.
Q. You’ve been saying for the last few years, you know, you just want to see the team, right. Feels like you saw them. Are you still in that mode where there’s some things you still need to see? Is that the perennial existence of the general manager where you just see the team before you deal with all these big decisions?
BOB MYERS: Last year, I was sitting somewhere else, but someone asked, what do you think of the team, and it was hard to say. And I thought if Klay comes back, we’d have a shot. Probably feel a little better this year than last year. Doesn’t mean we’ll do what we did last year but I feel like we know our team a little bit better. Even with the young guys, there’s still a lot of uncertainty.
Those three guys have just — their ability to compete at the level Steph Curry, Draymond. I mean, I got to see it again. It’s almost like until they don’t, I have to believe they will and they can. Why would I believe anything else?
It’s a little unclear. Like I do think Porter, Peyton, Bjelica, we knew a little bit more about them than we might know about JaMychal and Dante. We have an idea of them.
So I don’t know what they will be. I don’t know as much as you on the young guys, what’s Wiseman going to be. He’s going to obviously help us. He didn’t do anything last year, so I think he’ll be helpful.
The league has a lot of guys coming back from injury in the West. I think the West will be really difficult. The east is really hard, too. I think our goal in the front office is can we be labeled as a contender. I don’t know where you draw the line there. I think it was easier to say that this year than it was last year for me. Doesn’t mean I rank us as a favorite or anything like that.
But last year, if you said, are you a contender, I might say, I think so but I’m not sure. This year, I’d say, yeah, I put us in that category as a contender.
Q. How much have you lost to free agency — how much of it wanting to keep the path somewhat clear for the young guys who obviously are going to have much more of an opportunity to play this year?
BOB MYERS: I mean, it wasn’t as simple as let’s not sign guys to clear the path. If those guys wanted to come back, they could have come back. It was more about the financial part to be honest.
And we didn’t not say to the free agents who you’re referring to, well, you know, we want — they didn’t say — we didn’t say come back at this number; no, we need that space for the young guys. It just happened the way it happened and some of the guys got nice deals, and we couldn’t match them, and so it cleared the path that way. But it wasn’t a conscious, you know, we would love to have these guys back that were really helpful, but then the young guys wouldn’t play. It wasn’t that.
Then it became, well, who else can we get on a minimum or some of the tax pyramid level, and are those guys better than the guys wedge we have? And the answer was, let’s just roll with our young guys and see what they can do, rather than sign an unknown that we didn’t love. That was the thought process.
Q. You said in the past, you wanted to get some guys, right, and they want to come here. Is that different? Was that different this summer after winning the title and after seeing Steph and Klay? Was it easier to get the guys you wanted to get?
BOB MYERS: Well, no. Because we didn’t have a lot of money. You need money. But you know, it’s funny, when we were with Dante, even when we were trying to get Gary or Otto, our guys are so — he should just be GM. They are more important than I am.
When Curry calls a player, that’s, you know, very important. That’s important when he calls a free agent and say, do you want to come and play with us. And he did that. And Draymond I can’t stop from doing that. He just does it on his own. Klay, I have know idea if he knows who he signed. He doesn’t even know who is on our team. He’s down there right now.
So I’m lucky to have guys that free agents want to play with. But we had to work. We had to wait, see if JaMychal got bought out. He had options; chose us. DiVincenzo was fortunately for us was a guy that liked our situation. I think he had a better financial situation in front of, and look, we tried on some guys we didn’t get. It’s hard to say.
I do think in the end, last year, what those three, including Iguodala, it’s very hard to get that kind of output from four minimums. It’s kind of unprecedented, in the Finals, Gary was starting in the series, minimum player, Otto, minimum player, huge minutes, Andre, what he gave us, Bjelica. That’s — I don’t think we can redo that one. That was pretty good. That’s a hard one to do.
Q. NBA off-season drama has affected two contending teams. You mentioned the longevity you guys have. How important is the stability in the leadership positions on this team, front office, you, Steve, in terms of what you have been able to do? Can you draw a direct correlation?
BOB MYERS: When we lost Game 7 in 2016, Steve and I were back in the old arena, and for those of you that were there, probably a lot of you were, you’re not in our capacity, but it’s a pretty raw time for emotion. There’s so many opportunities to just say things that you can’t unsay. And I’m lucky to work with a guy like Steve where he’s such a decent human being and so kind of humble and selfless, that we — any of you could work with Steve. You’d love to work with Steve.
So he’s a wonderful par and his leadership, because he touches the players more than anybody from our organization, and to guide us through some high-highs. Even when you’re in the high-highs at the top, there’s a lot of scrutiny on your team. There’s a lot of focus.
And when we were talking the other day about what we did last year, he referenced the hard part wasn’t last year. It was the year we had the worst record in the league, COVID, keeping the culture together and not fracturing. Because when that happens, somebody gets fired, somebody starts blaming other people. Steve and I get at odds. Players get frustrated. Curry calls me and says: I don’t know if I want to be there — none of this happened by the way, I just want to be clear — headline: Curry called Meyers.
But that happens, right. Happens all the time. Every day, a star player says I’m not sitting here, where is our team going. My wing man is out for the year, you’ve got all these young players. Not doing this. I’ve got four or five good years left. I’m not saying here.
None of that happened. Curry is a huge part of it. Joe allowing us to spend. Steve’s leadership.
Stability in sports I think is the hardest thing now. You’re going to see teams, whether it’s free agency, whether it’s players seeking a quick change or people like me or owners getting impatient. It’s really hard. I mean, I think something like Steve is the third longest-tenured coach, and I’m the third GM or something. It’s crazy.
I guess we’ve been here a long time but that’s the thing that I guess if we were to be proud of something, it’s that. Obviously the championships matter but yeah, stability, because in the course of a relationship or if you’re in professional sports, you’re going to go through these really tough situations which people forget we did. You don’t want to be the worst team in the league and we were looking pretty bleak.
Then to come out of that, you just don’t get that chance to do it like that because usually when you’re that bad, it’s all over. So it’s people, it’s Joe sticking with us, I suppose. And Curry is huge. I mean, that guy, he’s not — I mean, I see him every day but I know you appreciate him but who he is, it’s the rarest of rare. It’s just so unique to have that kind of temperament, that kind of leadership, be that teammate. When he acts the way he acts, you can’t not follow that. Even me. So it’s probably for all those reasons, I guess.
Q. You have several guys in contract years coming up. How do you prioritize how you address all those situations?
BOB MYERS: Well, we want all those guys. Can we get them all? I don’t know. It depends on what the money ends up being, what the ask is, what we can do. We are not at a point to make those decisions yet. Right now, you could make the decision, we want all of them.
But where it ends up, the more I’ve been in this, the more I realize there’s no absolutes. I can sit here and say, we want this, we want that. Some of these decisions may be made in the next two weeks and some might be made in seven, eight months, and the information that we have then will be helpful as far as making those.
And then it’s a negotiation to be honest. It requires a conversation. And usually you don’t really realize a true position, even hours, until you’re at a deadline. Sometimes you’ve deadlines, sometimes you don’t. Sometimes you have deadlines that are not set that are not formal, and others that would say, if it’s not done at start of the season, let’s just.
But we haven’t even gotten to those kind of conversations. I think we will but I don’t know where we’ll end up but we like them all. I’m not going to like them in order for you. That doesn’t do me any good but we like them all.
Q. In terms of Jordan, because there was the deadline coming up on him, how much has been discussed, talked about or consideration given to doing something with him?
BOB MYERS: We are going to meet with his representatives I think after Tokyo and sit down for the first time and start having that conversation, and I think that’s about two weeks out from the deadline for him. Where that will go, I don’t know. I know that they want to meet and I know we want to meet, and then we’ll see what the next two weeks give us.
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