Three (Thompson, Cousins, Durant) of the Warriors regular-season starting five are eligible for free agencyNBAE/GETTY IMAGES
The Warriors are set for a run at another championship, but as key players could enter free agency this summer before the team moves to Chase Center next season, Warriors co-Owner Joe Lacob said the plan is "trying to keep our team together, especially going into a new arena," according to Sam Amick of THE ATHLETIC. Lacob said, "When you’ve got something great, you try to keep it together. ... People call it a dynasty. I’m not going to call it that. But to keep what we have going." Lacob noted there are some teams around the NBA which "haven’t been successful but maybe are building, and still have chances and -- if they got the right players -- could be successful." He pointed to Clippers Owner Steve Ballmer and others who "certainly are trying very hard to create something and move forward." Lacob said the Warriors "have to respect that." Meanwhile, Warriors ticket prices will go up when the team moves to Chase Center, but Lacob acknowledged tickets "are expensive now too." He said, "They’re going to be a little more expensive -- not that much. And the truth is that 70 percent of our people who are in the current arena are coming over. ... They’re going to be very, very happy. ... Everything about it is going to be fantastic" (THEATHLETIC.com, 5/11).
MAKING A SPLASH: Warriors G Klay Thompson during the team's Game 6 win over the Rockets made a 3-pointer and then pointed at Lacob, and ESPN's Nick Friedell noted there are "a lot of conspiracy theorists out there (who) thought he was saying, 'Pay me my money.'" Thompson will be a free agent this summer, and said he was just "living in the moment." Lacob said, "I have come to expect this from (Thompson and Stephen Curry) over time. I want them to be part of this organization forever." Friedell said Lacob "can't come out and say, 'I'm going to give Klay Thompson a max contract this summer,' but that's as close as he can go." Friedell: "From where I'm standing , I am certain now the Warriors and Klay are going to figure out that extension" ("SportsCenter," ESPN, 5/11).
ASSESSING THE MOVE: In N.Y., John Branch wrote under the header, "The End Of The Warriors As We Know Them." The Warriors are "paddling for one more" title in Oakland "against an undercurrent of change and the foreboding sense that these good old days are ending." The Warriors "want people to think that location does not matter" and that they "will always be the Bay Area’s team." But it "does matter," and it "matters most to Oakland, where the Warriors have played for 47 seasons." The Warriors "did not need to leave the grit of Oakland for the gloss" of S.F. They "chose to do so." It is a move "borne of vanity, dressed as necessity." The franchise "worries about any perception that it is abandoning Oakland." Warriors President & COO Rick Welts said the team is substantially "keeping the same crowd," echoing the 70% number voiced by Lacob. But Branch noted it will "take until next season to figure out how much the remaining 30 percent is missed, or what and where it represented" (N.Y. TIMES, 5/12).
LIKE FATHER, LIKE SON: In S.F., Rusty Simmons noted Lacob's 26-year-old son Kent is a "fast-rising executive in the Warriors’ organization, with an increasing voice in decision-making as one of the most important summers in franchise history nears." Kent Lacob recently finished his third season as the GM of the G League Santa Cruz Warriors, and is "heading to Chicago to work double duty in evaluating draft-eligible players for both the G League squad and the big club." He has "quieted whispers of nepotism with his talent evaluation and ability to turn far-reaching thinking into real-time action" (S.F. CHRONICLE, 5/13).
