The Warriors seem in no rush to name a GM

It will probably be Mike Dunleavy Jr. But it might not be for a while.

It’s been more than two weeks since Bob Myers announced that he was stepping down as president and general manager of the Golden State Warriors, after more than a decade heading the front office. Succession may have concluded at just about the same time, but the Warriors still have not named a successor for the most accomplished architect in franchise history.

You can very easily come up with potential interesting reasons for this, but the most likely reason could probably just be summed up with a picture of Joe Lacob shrugging.

When Myers announced his decision, Lacob sat next to him at a press conference, and quipped about how he’ll use the outgoing GM until his contract runs out on June 30. While I’m guessing that Myers is still involved in some capacity, Lacob’s remark was said largely in jest. The Athletic’s Anthony Slater already reported that “Kirk Lacob and Mike Dunleavy Jr. are currently running the show,” so it’s clear that Myers has already moved out of the lead role. That said, it could still be the reason for a lack of announcement — Slater added that “there doesn’t appear to be any urgency to officially announce a front office restructuring,” which could mean that the Warriors want to let Myers fully ride into the sunset before announcing anything.

You could also theorize that Dunleavy’s future is a tad cloudy. At his outgoing press conference, Myers mentioned multiple times that Dunleavy — a former Warriors lottery pick turned scout turned assistant GM — would be great at the job. I doubt he says that if Lacob didn’t plan to offer Dunleavy the job. But each time that Myers made that proclamation, he followed it up ominously, by adding, “if he wants it.”

That would seem to suggest that Dunleavy is unclear on whether or not he wants the highest-ranking front office job, and you could understand the trepidation after watching the burnout that Myers clearly felt. But that might also be reading way too much into it. Perhaps Dunleavy — or the Warriors — want to see how a month in the role goes before making a commitment. Perhaps it’s just a logistical measure of figuring out how to assign job titles since Myers is leaving not one, but two roles vacant. Perhaps Lacob wants to make sure that Dunleavy can answer the five to 20 daily calls.

It’s worth noting that the Warriors don’t need to hire a GM anytime soon. While it would be largely unprecedented to enter the frenzy of the first week of free agency without a GM — and to go through the draft with a GM in name only — it’s certainly allowed. You don’t need the magic signature of a GM to make a move. If the Warriors have already determined that Dunleavy and Kirk Lacob (currently the executive vice president of basketball operations) will sit atop the front office hierarchy in some form or fashion, then there should be no problem with making offseason moves that way, regardless of what their technical job status is.

There’s always the chance of a surprising move, such as trying to poach an executive from another team. But all the reports have suggested that the Warriors plan to promote from within to replace Myers, and that seems clearly to be the right move. For the next few years at least, the most important trait a GM can have is a good relationship with Steph Curry, Klay Thompson, Draymond Green, and Steve Kerr.

And of course, there are so many other factors. Perhaps Lacob is out of town and doesn’t want to make an announcement until he can be at a press conference. Perhaps he and Dunleavy are still hammering out the financial details of a contract. Perhaps Lacob just wants the large NBA stories like the NBA Finals and the draft to pass so that a Warriors move gets more press.

We may never know why the Dubs are taking their sweet time with this, though it seems increasingly clear that it doesn’t matter, either. Same for Myers, the front office power structure remains largely unchanged, and it will presumably stay that way even as a few people move into cushier offices.