Dub Hub: Warriors owner Joe Lacob discusses payroll, roster, James Wiseman, and more

Rounding up all the Warriors and NBA news from around the web. 

Good Morning Dub Nation,

As the Golden State Warriors approach the halfway point of the season with the conclusion of this current homestand, owner Joe Lacob did an interview with The Athletic’s Tim Kawakami to discuss various topics regarding the team. The entire article is worth a read but here are a few highlights from the interview:

Lacob discussed the possibility of spending $450 million for next season’s roster.

“It’s not possible without losing quite a bit of money at the bottom line, let’s put it that way,” Lacob said on my podcast earlier this week. “I did say that (it was impossible). And it is from a business perspective an almost insane thing to even consider. But I think we’re going to have to wait and see, because the truth is, winning matters. And I want to win another championship. We want to win another championship this year, and I’ll probably say it at the end of this year too. …

“And right now, we’re in the present and we’re trying to win. And I think we’ve got a good shot to do that. I think we’re coming together. And the trade deadline is coming up, we’ll see if there’s a way we can improve our team, and if we can obviously improve our financial situation going forward, we would love to do that. But not at the sacrifice of being able to win. We’ve got to evaluate this in real-time but with a look toward the future as well.

Lacob discussed his excitement for the two-timelines approach to the roster and believed that it may have been the best “depth of talent” that the Warriors ever had coming into the season.

“I had very high expectations for this year, probably a lot of our fan base did, too,” Lacob said. “I thought we had, honestly, the best roster of talent and depth or depth of talent that we’ve ever had. Let that sink in. I know a lot of people don’t agree with it. … I think we were talented, doesn’t mean experience, doesn’t mean that they’re going to play together well, doesn’t mean we weren’t going to have a punch that’s going to interfere with things or a variety of things. But I’m just saying depth of talent. Everybody on that roster was pretty talented, although some very young, clearly. And I had high expectations that by the end of the year that we would be a very formidable team.

Lacob discussed the possibility of Stephen Curry, Klay Thompson, and Draymond Green all finishing their careers with the Warriors.

“I want to keep those guys here. I want them to be here. As long as they’re playing at a very high level, rest assured they will be here. I would love obviously for some of them to sacrifice (in salary) a little bit, or what they perceive as a sacrifice, to stay and to help our organization maintain a great roster. You always hope for that. It usually doesn’t happen. And I can’t blame them because they have limited life spans as players and they want to make as much money as they can.”

Lacob discussed the development of former second-overall pick James Wiseman.

“I think obviously there’s a time schedule — he has to play well, start playing better. But I would argue to you that he actually played pretty well his first year, he missed his second year, his third year here, you know, didn’t start out all that great, got a little injury now (when) he could’ve been getting some minutes with JaMychal Green out.

“But I — and I want to correct something for you and our fans — our entire front office and head coach wanted to draft James Wiseman. We were universal in that regard. I know people like to make up stuff. We all loved him, and I think we all are still very high on him. The question will be: What do we have to do with (the) roster, how important is winning today versus two years from now? We have to balance all that. And we have to balance financials. So I think there’s a lot of ways this thing could go, but as of right now, I’m still very, very positive (about) the young man. And in fact, all of our young players. And I think we have a great roster.”

Here are the rest of today’s stories:

In case you missed it from Golden State of Mind:

• Steph Curry among six Warriors headlining first returns of NBA All-Star fan voting
• Steph Curry’s injury didn’t sink the Warriors
• Luka vs. Tatum and Jokic vs. Kawhi star in TNT Thursday
• Warriors announce target date for Curry’s return
• Steve Kerr critical of officials’ decision to eject Draymond Green

Other Warriors News:

• Kawakami: Warriors’ Joe Lacob on the possibility of a monster payroll, James Wiseman, Draymond Green and more (The Athletic)
• Andrew Wiggins’ Warriors return a double delight for Steve Kerr, Bob Myers (NBC Sports Bay Area)
• Warriors GM Bob Myers’ confident statement on NBA title repeat chances (NBC Sports Bay Area)
• Warriors owner Joe Lacob confirms interest in buying Angels (Los Angeles Times)
• Dray opens up about Jordan Poole incident, Warriors’ up-and-down NBA season (Youtube)

NBA News:

• LeBron James, Kevin Durant lead early NBA All-Star starter voting (ESPN)
• In move to save money, Celtics trade Vonleh to Spurs (who waive him) (Yahoo Sports)
• The Achilles Whisperer: How Kevin Durant helped Justin Moore, Klay Thompson and others with their recoveries (The Athletic)
• The Fred VanVleet dilemma: A closer look (SB Nation)
• The Nikola Jokić-Aaron Gordon duo is smashing opponents to dust (SB Nation)

Tweets to end the week:

Enjoy this video of Curry cheering on his teammates during the current homestand alongside this video of him talking trash to the Memphis Grizzlies during last season’s playoff series. Enjoy the weekend Dub Nation!