The Joe Lacob credo is not complicated or confusing. His formula for the Warriors is extremely simple. The methodology does not require mythmaking or complex narration.
Here it is, if it hasn’t become thoroughly obvious: If you want to win big, you have to be ready to spend big.
In Lacob’s mindset, you don’t try to buy every expensive new toy, but you can’t flinch in the moment when the right massive investment is sitting there to be made.
Now, of course, the Warriors’ dramatic trade for Jimmy Butler earlier this month had many layers and risks involved. But what separated the Warriors from other interested teams — and what makes their current 7-1 run since Butler’s arrival so rewarding — is that they didn’t have to burn many assets to do it. How did they pull this off? It’s partly because the 35-year-old Butler, serving his second suspension of the season with Miami at the time of the trade, had such a distressed value. But this was a clear win for the Warriors because they were willing to sign Butler to a two-year, $112 million extension, which is what it took to make Butler happy to be here. Money, not assets.
“When you compare us to some other teams who have gone, quote, all-in, we’ve gone all-in on money more than any other team,” Lacob said on my podcast this week. “We’ve paid whatever to bring people to try to win. But we have all of our draft choices — after this one’s [moved to Miami] this year. … We have a lot of good young players. We haven’t given up any of them, really. … If we wanted to change things around at some point this summer or whatever, we have the option to do that. We have the assets to do that.”
Lacob swiftly added that the Warriors might just keep rolling with this group through next offseason and into the near future. The results with Butler have been excellent and Jonathan Kuminga is ready to come back from his ankle injury soon. And everybody will see how far they can go in the playoffs.
But the financial commitment has been made — the Warriors have paid enormous amounts of tax penalties over the years and could’ve dipped under the luxury-tax line pretty easily this month. Instead, with the season wavering, they made a push that will cost them potentially hundreds of millions in salary plus tax penalties over the next several seasons. They did it because Butler has brought life back to this season, lifted Stephen Curry’s spirits, and opened up the game for several other Warriors players. Lacob and his front office spent this money because that’s what it costs to be relevant, to make a run for the fifth championship of this era even theoretically plausible. For now and for the future.
“Jimmy Butler is a significant, big-time addition and actually didn’t cost us that much in terms of taking away from our future,” Lacob said.
None of this will drive the Warriors below the NBA poverty line, of course. It’s actually the reverse, and all part of the Lacob M.O. Sportico’s most recent estimate listed the Warriors as the most valuable team in the league, pegged at $9.14 billion — just slightly more than the $450 million that Lacob and Peter Guber paid to buy the team in 2010. They’ve turned the Warriors and Chase Center into a money machine that only gets more valuable with every home playoff game (they rake in about $7 million in gross revenue per date) and every splashy performance deep into the postseason.
“I think from a business point of view, clearly, we would love to [get out of the tax],” Lacob said. “But we just want to win. And so, at the end of the day — I guess it’s my fault. We make the decision to stay in and go for it, if we think we can go for it.
“Maybe I’m too much of an optimist, I don’t know. But I think we can go for it still. I think we’re good and gonna be quite good, and that’s what we’re doing today.”
What Lacob and his lieutenants saw and felt a few weeks ago was a team teetering on irrelevance, that didn’t have enough help for Curry, and that needed a jolt. Are they good enough now with Butler to win multiple playoff rounds for the first time since 2022? Hard to say. But they’re definitely in a better position than they were before the trade. And they’ll probably have another decent shot at it over the next few seasons, too.
Yes, they’ve extended Curry’s important years. And Lacob’s important years, too.
“I’m not naive, but we’re going to do everything we can to try to maintain and be a significant NBA franchise with aspirations to win championships for as many years of the next 15 that I’m doing this as we have over the prior 15,” Lacob said. “I’m sure I can see the texts right now from the internet saying, ‘Oh, Lacob, you’re ridiculous. You’re done when this group’s gone.’ Well, I don’t really think so. …
“We’re going to continue to try hard, work real hard, and if it takes spending money to make money, or spending to, in this case, win, if that’s what it takes within the construct of the rules, we do that. But whatever it takes, we’re going to do it because I’m not here to screw around.”
‘This should be a very happy marriage’
The Warriors didn’t go blindly into business with Butler, who has had extremely messy endings with several different teams. They paid Butler the money. And Lacob is clearly counting on general manager Mike Dunleavy Jr.’s relationship with Butler, dating back to when they were teammates in Chicago, and the blend of Butler with the Warriors’ veterans and Steve Kerr’s coaching staff.
“I don’t know for sure anything — but I feel pretty confident,” Lacob said. “I’ve talked to him since a little bit directly and Mike certainly has. He seems really happy. Sure, can these things change? I guess Jimmy has a little bit of a reputation for that. But these are always two-way streets. So there’s always reasons for these things. Let’s just say we did our homework and we feel very confident that in this situation, this team, these players, our GM, that I think Jimmy will remain very happy. And, of course, we’re all happy if we win. Right now, we’ve been winning. So hopefully, if we’re all right about what we project here, this should be a very happy marriage.”
Trying for Durant
The Warriors only made the Butler trade after they put together a trade offer for Kevin Durant that was far enough along for both the Warriors and Suns to believe it could get done. I asked Lacob if he was disappointed that Durant essentially scotched the deal when he let the Warriors know that he didn’t want to rejoin them.
“Well, I heard that, obviously; but you know, Jimmy Butler also said he didn’t want to be part of the Warriors,” Lacob said. “So I think you have to take it with a grain of salt when you hear something. Now when you hear directly from Mr. Durant what he said, whatever he said, I guess that’s legit. It’s coming from the horse’s mouth. But there’s always usually a motive for these things. Somebody wants to get paid or not paid. Somebody wants to influence somebody to trade them to a certain place. It doesn’t always mean it’s black and white.
“And, you know, maybe someone like Kevin said he didn’t want to be … I heard he said something, I listened to [Durant on Draymond Green’s podcast this week], he didn’t want to be traded in the middle of the season.”
Hmm. I’ve said this before and I’ll say it again: The Warriors could try to put together a Durant trade again next summer and maybe his feelings would be different. They have the assets to do this. Or maybe things will go so well in the playoffs that they don’t need to check back in. That’s what Lacob would call optionality.
What’s next for Kuminga
Lacob gave a big sigh when I asked if he’d be willing to pay Kuminga market rate this summer as a restricted free agent — which would shove the Warriors deep into the luxury tax and on their way to a $300 million total payroll (counting penalties).
“Why don’t you look at history and then you can make the answer to that,” Lacob said. “You can answer that question for yourself.”
A market-rate salary for Kuminga, probably averaging around $35 million a year, would take the Warriors into the first apron and to the brink of going into the second apron, which teams badly want to avoid because it strips them of several roster-building tools. But Lacob and Guber could be OK going into the second apron, anyway, if it means assembling the most talent possible. Or they could sign Kuminga and off-load other contracts to stay below the second apron. It can be done.
Or Kuminga could be traded in July — he would’ve been a key piece in any Durant trade. But if Kuminga helps lead a run this postseason, the Warriors will have a lot of reasons to hold onto him for the long term.
“He represents that sort of power-athleticism and scoring ability that I don’t see how it doesn’t help us,” Lacob said. “We’re not the most athletic team in the league. … If we were gonna go trade for somebody, I don’t think you could find anybody that might fit in the team construct of what we might need here any better. So I’m very, very optimistic about it. …
“I think that Jimmy Butler is potentially going to be a great role model. … JK came up to me, actually, just in the [last] couple of days and said to me, ‘I love Jimmy.’ He says, ‘I really like that guy.’ I got a feeling that this is going to go really, really well.”