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Kawakami: Warriors GM Bob Myers season-wrap and look forward: “A sense of desperation has passed”
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Allen
May 21, 2013, 1:25:16 PM5/21/13
to
Talking Points
with Tim Kawakami
Warriors GM Bob Myers season-wrap and look forward: �A sense of
desperation has passed�
Posted by Tim Kawakami on May 20th, 2013 at 4:04 pm
http://blogs.mercurynews.com/kawakami/2013/05/20/warriors-gm-bob-myers-season-wrap-and-look-forward-a-sense-of-desperation-has-passed/#more-18468
* Side note: If the Warriors pick up Mark Jackson�s option, he�ll be
signed through 2014-15, which is the same time span as Bob Myers�
current contract.
-This is long. I didn�t get quite type out all of the 52-minute session,
but I got a lot of it.
Lots of issues covered, lots of Myers logical evasion (he can�t say what
they�re going to do this off-season if he doesn�t know what�s available
and he won�t know that until July)�
I can say that I didn�t expect Myers to get as poetic as he did about
the changing of the atmosphere around the Warriors� big-picture
thinking, but sometimes it�s good to be surprised.
And I think he nailed the difference: A year or two ago, the GSWs and
co-owner Joe Lacob were urgently trying to do ANYTHING big, and after
this playoff run they can be reasonably comfortable with their
foundation, no extreme need to make a massive play for a big name, and
if something big comes, it comes.
* Repeated note: I did not transcribe LARGE PORTIONS of this group
interview.
�-BOB MYERS gaggle partial transcript/
-Q: How interested are you in getting a draft pick this year? And can
you get one?
-MYERS: Well, it�s hard. First-round picks have a ton of value in the
new collective bargaining agreement. So they�re not given away.
You used to be able to buy them for $3M. I don�t think that�s happening�
this year. It�s all about the price. It� a cost-benefit analysis. What
does it cost to get a pick? What does it cost in a player? What does it
cost in whatever trade�s proposed?
We�ll see what comes up� Those types of discussions will come much
closer to the draft.
-Q: Where do you need to improve this roster?
-MYERS: I think it�s hard to evaluate this roster because of the lack of
continuity we had this year. Although it came together at the end, I
don�t think we played many games with a healthy starting roster.
We never really played any games with a healthy Brandon Rush backing up
a healthy roster. So from our perspective in the front office, we still
need to do some evaluating as to what we exactly need.
We saw some great growth in certain areas; we saw some line-ups that
worked; we saw some rookies step up; we saw Curry be healthy for 95% of
the season; we saw what Bogut can do when he feels good.
We didn�t get to see David Lee with a healthy Bogut that much. So
there�s a lot of questions. I think we�re positioned pretty well but I
think we need to still see more�
Somebody can do the analysis of how many games did we play where we had
a healthy� I don�t think Bogut was healthy in one game, as far as 100%
healthy. So it�s hard to evaluate.
-Q: Do you expect Bogut to be 100% next year or is that still to be
determined?
-MYERS: I think we expect him to be 100%. Now I don�t know what that
kind of water to sit here and say that. But we expect with the time off,
with the rest� A lot of times procedures like his take longer than a year.
And that surgery was done late-April 2012, so we�re coming up on a
little over a year here, about 13 months, and his body needed some rest.
And that�s what he�s going to do.
But then he�s going to have the time to ramp it back up, have the
training camp, and there�s no reason to believe he won�t come to camp
100% healthy. I know that�s his goal.
-Q: What�s involved with bringing back Jarrett Jack and Carl Landry? Can
you bring them both back�is that possible?
-MYERS: Anything�s possible. If I sat here a year ago today and somebody
asked me, can you guys get Carl Landry and Jarrett Jack, I would�ve said
that�s not very possible.
Doesn�t mean we�ll be able to retain them. Doesn�t mean we�ll be able to
keep one. I don�t know what it means.
The thing I�ve learned in this business is that free agency is
predictably unpredictable�
-Q: If you came back next year with the same roster, what would you think?
-MYERS: The exact same roster? I don�t know. I�d have to rate that
against what our opportunities were to change the roster.
If we go with the same roster I think we�d be a better basketball team
just by the fact that we have better chemistry. I think one of the
things that surprised me most was that we too, as an organization, a
somewhat new coaching staff and 6 or 7 or 8 new players and asked them
to gel and be cohesive in a short amount of time.And to to see them
actually do that was something that we hoped for, but didn�t necessarily
bank on�
-Q: Who�s untouchable on your team?
-MYERS: I don�t like to get into who�s untouchable and who isn�t,
really. I think all the players have value. Certainly pleased with a lot
of what they did.
At this point I would say that we�re not on the phone actively trying to
shop any of our players. For a lot of reasons�extremely talented group,
extremely young, high-character guys.
And again, there�s still an evaluation process that needs to take place
with this group in order to determine where we need to go and how good
they can actually be as a healthy unit.
-Q: Do you think Jarrett Jack might take less to stay with you guys?
-MYERS: I think the thing with any free agent, and Jarrett specifically,
is you want a player you had on your roster to want to come back. I
think Jarrett genuinely thinks that.
I think if it was a tie financially, he would come back and be very
happy. What does free agency hold for him? I don�t think he knows, I
don�t think anybody knows.
He�s done a great job of positioning himself�any praise and accolades he
received, whether locally or nationally or amongst his peers is well
deserved. But again, by representing so many players as an agent,
everybody makes different decisions for different reasons�
-Q: Joe Lacob has spent money in the recent past. Is it safe to say that
you might go over the luxury tax to retain a guy like Jack?
-MYERS: Yes, I would say unequivocally that this team has shown by last
year that we�ll go into the tax to sign players and be competitive.
The best thing about working for the ownership that we have here, the
best thing I can say, is that in all the conversations we have as a
group, the first word that is brought up is �win.� That�s a blessing to
be able to work in organization like that where it�s not budget, it�s
not cost, it�s not dollars, it�s winning.
So when you start from a place of winning, you may venture into the tax
if it does help you win and it�s worth it. But you have to be smart
about it, you have to be prudent about it.
But we�ve shown last year�I can tell you, it was a decision we made with
Carl Landry, with his signing, and re-acquiring Brandon Rush. Do we want
to go into the tax? And the dialogue our front office had with our
ownership was, �Are you comfortable going into the tax? And we cannot
promise that we�ll be able to get out of the tax.�
And ownership answered in the affirmative. �Go, if you think Cal Landry
and Brandon Rush are going to be important to this team, go get �em.�
I imagine it�ll be the same directive this summer.
-Q: How fundamentally do you think this franchise has changed in the
eyes of free agents from a year ago?
-MYERS: What�s the best word to describe a 180? 180. You know what? I
think the thing that I would say is every organization is a brand and
any time you hear an NBA franchise mentioned, it brings to your mind
certain thoughts, whether it�s success, winning, destination city,
whatever comes to mind, all those things are thought of when you mention
any organization.
Well, I hear from our players, I hear from other general managers,
coaches, our ownership hears from other owners, that they love watching
our team play. Talked with somebody this morning who said that.
And a lot of times you think people are just being nice. But we�ve heard
it from enough people to believe that it�s true. People do enjoy
watching this group of players play; they do enjoy watching our games on
TV and seeing what the crowd brings; they do enjoy watching our coaches
get the most out of the group that we have.
So what does that say? Well, if you�re a player in the NBA and you�re
witnessing these things, it does make it a desirable place to go and be
a part of. Our owner�s on the floor, living and dying every play. As a
player, I can tell you, that�s meaningful.
We�ve shown that we would go into the tax; we�ve shown we can have some
success; we shown that we have an unselfish group of players.
So that all matters when players are choosing where to go play in free
agency. Because certainly financial objectives are important. But
winning is very important. Happiness is important.
So we are now, in my opinion, in the conversation to get players.
Whereas before it was a harder objective to accomplish.
-Q: Are you in the conversation for championships?
-MYERS: I don�t know. Internally we know we need to get better�. Our job
is to work hard every day and the coaches� job and the players� jobs for
that matter is to get matter.
I don�t think we are where we need to be right now. We need to get
better. And there�s a lot of ways to get better. But I don�t sit here
and I don�t think our group sits here today thinking �we�re done. Our
work is done and we can rest on anything we�ve accomplished.
-Q: How much do you think Kuzmic can help?
-MYERS: We will have a better answer to that question at the end of July
when he comes over here for Summer League. Saw him over in Europe, had
some good moments in Europe. But playing in the NBA Summer League will
be a great chance for us to see what he can bring to this team.
-Q: You did very well with the small lineup with four three-point
shooters. What did you learn from that?
-MYERS: It may have been the match-up that we had with Denver, maybe
their style of play. I think what it showed us internally was that we
can throw out different players, different lineups and be successful.
Clearly it was a lot to do with Draymond Green playing the four
position. Bogut�s health. I mean, when you have a healthy Bogut you can
pretty much put a lot of different lineups around him and he can hold
down the paint.
It gives us some different ideas. Because a lot of the NBA plays
differently. But I think it gives us some things to think about going
into next season�but it�s such a small sample size. I mean, it�s not
something we did over the entire season, so it�s hard to say for sure
how that�ll be implemented next year.
-Q: What�s the situation with Mark Jackson�s contract?
-MYERS: He is under contract right now.
-Q: Have you picked up his option?
-MYERS: No, his option is for 2014-15 and it has to be picked up by the
end �13-14, I think June 30. It hasn�t been picked up as of today.
-Q: Is this something that could happen soon?
-MYERS: Something I�ll discuss with his formidable agent, Arn Tellem.
(Laughs.) That should be a good conversation.
-Q: Do you think a longer-term extension is possible this off-season?
-MYERS: I�m going to try to get together with Arn and we�ve talked about
discussing everything, so we�ll probably sit down. And I haven�t done
that yet. So it�d be premature to say what would come up in the course
of that.
I want to hear his thoughts and go from there� I think what we would say
with certainty and unequivocally is that the organization think Mark did
a great job and we really are proud of the effort that he got out of our
players.
I don�t think anybody expected us to get as far as we did and we think
he had a big part of that. And we think he�s part of our future.
But as far as specifically on his contract, we haven�t had those
discussions yet.
-Q: Is he asking for an extension?
-MYERS: Haven�t had those discussions yet.
-Q: If he doesn�t get the option exercised, he could go into next season
as a lame duck.
-MYERS: Well, in the NBA parlance, sure. If you want to characterize
somebody heading into the last year with a team option as a lame duck,
you could do that. Now I�m not saying he�s a lame duck at all.
I think he did a great job and I look forward to talking to his
representative. We just haven�t had those discussions yet.
-Q: What will it be like negotiating with Arn on this?
-MYERS: I look forward to talking to him. I think that he�s a brilliant
negotiator. (Smiles.) Mark did a great job. Look forward to those
conversations.
-Q: In previous years, your owner certainly always mentioned being
involved with the big deals, pushing to try to make a big deal. Has the
playoff success this season changed your approach to that maybe�not as
eager to look at all the big names this time?
-MYERS: I think a sense of desperation has passed.
I think that�whereas when you�re trying to do anything to get over the
hump you do sometimes chase things that may be difficult to acquire.
Whereas now, doesn�t mean we�re satisfied, it doesn�t mean we think our
work is through, but we can be prudent and patient with opportunities as
they come along.
I think the development of some of our players this past season changes
how we value them in a positive way. What Harrison Barnes was able to do
in the playoffs, Klay Thompson, a lot of our young players, to see that
core grow together�
Clearly you�re evaluating your team every day, but the playoffs is a
great opportunity to evaluate your team. If you�re a great performer in
the regular season that can�t perform in the playoffs, then it would
diminish your value. But we feel that a lot of our players�most of them,
all of them�stepped it up in the playoffs and showed us what they could
do. It was good to see on a bigger stage.
-Q: Are you wary about messing with your chemistry?
-MYERS: You never want to mess with your chemistry certainly on purpose.
It�s a funny thing, chemistry. It�s a very fragile thing and we were
able to develop it. Wed like to keep it.
I think our coach had a lot to do with it and our players�. I do
genuinely believe it�s a unique group of people. And that�s hard to
find�it�s hard to find in any sport. So we do value chemistry and we
would like to keep this group together as much as possible and see what
they can do when healthy.
But there�s a lot of variables that sometimes can be out of our control.
-Q: Did you conclude from the playoffs that Curry can lead this
franchise or do you need someone else to do it?
-MYERS: I think Curry can lead the franchise. I think he wants to lead
the franchise. I think he took a huge step this year in proving that. He
did a tremendous job.
The best thing about playing a team like the Spurs is they force you to
step outside your comfort zone and they show you what your deficiencies
are. I think every player leaves that series, Curry included, thinking I
need to do a couple things better to be successful every night.
I think he�s able and capable of doing that. But the thing our team
needs to�I think, in our opinion, as a front office, is become more
consistent. Win games that we should win in the regular season. not have
as much fluctuation kind of up and down.
But Curry was tremendous and certainly over a two- or three-week period
just really catapulted himself in the conversation of being a marquee
player.
-Q: What do you make of this playoff run happening largely without David
Lee and the thought that you might be better without him?
-MYERS: I think we dismiss that we�re better without David Lee. Even
though he was only to play limited minutes against San Antonio, I would
argue that we would�ve had a more competitive series�even though it was
competitive-with David�s being out there.
He�s a weapon. How we utilize him going forward is going to be something
the coaches will decide on. But he�s going to be somebody we expect to
put up production on the offensive end, on the rebounding end� It�s
going to be fun to see how we use a Draymond Green, and if we go with
Bogut and Lee and things like that�
I think the sample size wasn�t big enough to really get a great sense on
how we�re going to utilize everybody going forward.
-Q: To what extent might this organization consider, pardon my phrasing,
a �knucklehead�?
-MYERS: It�s funny, somebody told me that Gregg Popovich, when making
personnel decisions, says character is first and then talent is second.
And they�ve been pretty good over the last however many years.
Ideally you want both. Nobody really targets �knuckleheads,� to use your
word. Are there knuckleheads on good teams? Yeah. And there�s some that
are a product of their environment and some that fall in line and some
when you put them in a good situation they�re good and you put them in a
bad situation they�re bad.
The best are always good. I don�t think we had anybody who even
approached that word on this team�
But for us, we like our group and we�re really going to continue to
focus on character.
-Q: Is the approach that you want to keep this team together or that
you�re close enough that a few key moves could put you over the top?
-MYERS: I think it goes back to the way I answered a previous question,
which was we�re not in the period of desperation. We have a core we like
and are confident that can win.
But at the same time we recognize the need to improve. If that means
making sure our players that are on our roster now get better every day,
that�s what we need to do to improve� If it means adding players,
trading players, we�re always going to be looking towards that, no
matter what the situation is that we�re in.
I do believe we can be more patient now. That doesn�t mean we settle and
relax and stop working. We�re always going to work. But we can be
smarter and more patient with the decisions we make�
The nice thing about going into �13-�14 is we feel like we have a
starting lineup that can win and win in the West, which his really
tough. And we�re looking forward to a lot of healthy ankles and a lot of
guys coming back.
with Tim Kawakami
Warriors GM Bob Myers season-wrap and look forward: �A sense of
desperation has passed�
Posted by Tim Kawakami on May 20th, 2013 at 4:04 pm
http://blogs.mercurynews.com/kawakami/2013/05/20/warriors-gm-bob-myers-season-wrap-and-look-forward-a-sense-of-desperation-has-passed/#more-18468
* Side note: If the Warriors pick up Mark Jackson�s option, he�ll be
signed through 2014-15, which is the same time span as Bob Myers�
current contract.
-This is long. I didn�t get quite type out all of the 52-minute session,
but I got a lot of it.
Lots of issues covered, lots of Myers logical evasion (he can�t say what
they�re going to do this off-season if he doesn�t know what�s available
and he won�t know that until July)�
I can say that I didn�t expect Myers to get as poetic as he did about
the changing of the atmosphere around the Warriors� big-picture
thinking, but sometimes it�s good to be surprised.
And I think he nailed the difference: A year or two ago, the GSWs and
co-owner Joe Lacob were urgently trying to do ANYTHING big, and after
this playoff run they can be reasonably comfortable with their
foundation, no extreme need to make a massive play for a big name, and
if something big comes, it comes.
* Repeated note: I did not transcribe LARGE PORTIONS of this group
interview.
�-BOB MYERS gaggle partial transcript/
-Q: How interested are you in getting a draft pick this year? And can
you get one?
-MYERS: Well, it�s hard. First-round picks have a ton of value in the
new collective bargaining agreement. So they�re not given away.
You used to be able to buy them for $3M. I don�t think that�s happening�
this year. It�s all about the price. It� a cost-benefit analysis. What
does it cost to get a pick? What does it cost in a player? What does it
cost in whatever trade�s proposed?
We�ll see what comes up� Those types of discussions will come much
closer to the draft.
-Q: Where do you need to improve this roster?
-MYERS: I think it�s hard to evaluate this roster because of the lack of
continuity we had this year. Although it came together at the end, I
don�t think we played many games with a healthy starting roster.
We never really played any games with a healthy Brandon Rush backing up
a healthy roster. So from our perspective in the front office, we still
need to do some evaluating as to what we exactly need.
We saw some great growth in certain areas; we saw some line-ups that
worked; we saw some rookies step up; we saw Curry be healthy for 95% of
the season; we saw what Bogut can do when he feels good.
We didn�t get to see David Lee with a healthy Bogut that much. So
there�s a lot of questions. I think we�re positioned pretty well but I
think we need to still see more�
Somebody can do the analysis of how many games did we play where we had
a healthy� I don�t think Bogut was healthy in one game, as far as 100%
healthy. So it�s hard to evaluate.
-Q: Do you expect Bogut to be 100% next year or is that still to be
determined?
-MYERS: I think we expect him to be 100%. Now I don�t know what that
kind of water to sit here and say that. But we expect with the time off,
with the rest� A lot of times procedures like his take longer than a year.
And that surgery was done late-April 2012, so we�re coming up on a
little over a year here, about 13 months, and his body needed some rest.
And that�s what he�s going to do.
But then he�s going to have the time to ramp it back up, have the
training camp, and there�s no reason to believe he won�t come to camp
100% healthy. I know that�s his goal.
-Q: What�s involved with bringing back Jarrett Jack and Carl Landry? Can
you bring them both back�is that possible?
-MYERS: Anything�s possible. If I sat here a year ago today and somebody
asked me, can you guys get Carl Landry and Jarrett Jack, I would�ve said
that�s not very possible.
Doesn�t mean we�ll be able to retain them. Doesn�t mean we�ll be able to
keep one. I don�t know what it means.
The thing I�ve learned in this business is that free agency is
predictably unpredictable�
-Q: If you came back next year with the same roster, what would you think?
-MYERS: The exact same roster? I don�t know. I�d have to rate that
against what our opportunities were to change the roster.
If we go with the same roster I think we�d be a better basketball team
just by the fact that we have better chemistry. I think one of the
things that surprised me most was that we too, as an organization, a
somewhat new coaching staff and 6 or 7 or 8 new players and asked them
to gel and be cohesive in a short amount of time.And to to see them
actually do that was something that we hoped for, but didn�t necessarily
bank on�
-Q: Who�s untouchable on your team?
-MYERS: I don�t like to get into who�s untouchable and who isn�t,
really. I think all the players have value. Certainly pleased with a lot
of what they did.
At this point I would say that we�re not on the phone actively trying to
shop any of our players. For a lot of reasons�extremely talented group,
extremely young, high-character guys.
And again, there�s still an evaluation process that needs to take place
with this group in order to determine where we need to go and how good
they can actually be as a healthy unit.
-Q: Do you think Jarrett Jack might take less to stay with you guys?
-MYERS: I think the thing with any free agent, and Jarrett specifically,
is you want a player you had on your roster to want to come back. I
think Jarrett genuinely thinks that.
I think if it was a tie financially, he would come back and be very
happy. What does free agency hold for him? I don�t think he knows, I
don�t think anybody knows.
He�s done a great job of positioning himself�any praise and accolades he
received, whether locally or nationally or amongst his peers is well
deserved. But again, by representing so many players as an agent,
everybody makes different decisions for different reasons�
-Q: Joe Lacob has spent money in the recent past. Is it safe to say that
you might go over the luxury tax to retain a guy like Jack?
-MYERS: Yes, I would say unequivocally that this team has shown by last
year that we�ll go into the tax to sign players and be competitive.
The best thing about working for the ownership that we have here, the
best thing I can say, is that in all the conversations we have as a
group, the first word that is brought up is �win.� That�s a blessing to
be able to work in organization like that where it�s not budget, it�s
not cost, it�s not dollars, it�s winning.
So when you start from a place of winning, you may venture into the tax
if it does help you win and it�s worth it. But you have to be smart
about it, you have to be prudent about it.
But we�ve shown last year�I can tell you, it was a decision we made with
Carl Landry, with his signing, and re-acquiring Brandon Rush. Do we want
to go into the tax? And the dialogue our front office had with our
ownership was, �Are you comfortable going into the tax? And we cannot
promise that we�ll be able to get out of the tax.�
And ownership answered in the affirmative. �Go, if you think Cal Landry
and Brandon Rush are going to be important to this team, go get �em.�
I imagine it�ll be the same directive this summer.
-Q: How fundamentally do you think this franchise has changed in the
eyes of free agents from a year ago?
-MYERS: What�s the best word to describe a 180? 180. You know what? I
think the thing that I would say is every organization is a brand and
any time you hear an NBA franchise mentioned, it brings to your mind
certain thoughts, whether it�s success, winning, destination city,
whatever comes to mind, all those things are thought of when you mention
any organization.
Well, I hear from our players, I hear from other general managers,
coaches, our ownership hears from other owners, that they love watching
our team play. Talked with somebody this morning who said that.
And a lot of times you think people are just being nice. But we�ve heard
it from enough people to believe that it�s true. People do enjoy
watching this group of players play; they do enjoy watching our games on
TV and seeing what the crowd brings; they do enjoy watching our coaches
get the most out of the group that we have.
So what does that say? Well, if you�re a player in the NBA and you�re
witnessing these things, it does make it a desirable place to go and be
a part of. Our owner�s on the floor, living and dying every play. As a
player, I can tell you, that�s meaningful.
We�ve shown that we would go into the tax; we�ve shown we can have some
success; we shown that we have an unselfish group of players.
So that all matters when players are choosing where to go play in free
agency. Because certainly financial objectives are important. But
winning is very important. Happiness is important.
So we are now, in my opinion, in the conversation to get players.
Whereas before it was a harder objective to accomplish.
-Q: Are you in the conversation for championships?
-MYERS: I don�t know. Internally we know we need to get better�. Our job
is to work hard every day and the coaches� job and the players� jobs for
that matter is to get matter.
I don�t think we are where we need to be right now. We need to get
better. And there�s a lot of ways to get better. But I don�t sit here
and I don�t think our group sits here today thinking �we�re done. Our
work is done and we can rest on anything we�ve accomplished.
-Q: How much do you think Kuzmic can help?
-MYERS: We will have a better answer to that question at the end of July
when he comes over here for Summer League. Saw him over in Europe, had
some good moments in Europe. But playing in the NBA Summer League will
be a great chance for us to see what he can bring to this team.
-Q: You did very well with the small lineup with four three-point
shooters. What did you learn from that?
-MYERS: It may have been the match-up that we had with Denver, maybe
their style of play. I think what it showed us internally was that we
can throw out different players, different lineups and be successful.
Clearly it was a lot to do with Draymond Green playing the four
position. Bogut�s health. I mean, when you have a healthy Bogut you can
pretty much put a lot of different lineups around him and he can hold
down the paint.
It gives us some different ideas. Because a lot of the NBA plays
differently. But I think it gives us some things to think about going
into next season�but it�s such a small sample size. I mean, it�s not
something we did over the entire season, so it�s hard to say for sure
how that�ll be implemented next year.
-Q: What�s the situation with Mark Jackson�s contract?
-MYERS: He is under contract right now.
-Q: Have you picked up his option?
-MYERS: No, his option is for 2014-15 and it has to be picked up by the
end �13-14, I think June 30. It hasn�t been picked up as of today.
-Q: Is this something that could happen soon?
-MYERS: Something I�ll discuss with his formidable agent, Arn Tellem.
(Laughs.) That should be a good conversation.
-Q: Do you think a longer-term extension is possible this off-season?
-MYERS: I�m going to try to get together with Arn and we�ve talked about
discussing everything, so we�ll probably sit down. And I haven�t done
that yet. So it�d be premature to say what would come up in the course
of that.
I want to hear his thoughts and go from there� I think what we would say
with certainty and unequivocally is that the organization think Mark did
a great job and we really are proud of the effort that he got out of our
players.
I don�t think anybody expected us to get as far as we did and we think
he had a big part of that. And we think he�s part of our future.
But as far as specifically on his contract, we haven�t had those
discussions yet.
-Q: Is he asking for an extension?
-MYERS: Haven�t had those discussions yet.
-Q: If he doesn�t get the option exercised, he could go into next season
as a lame duck.
-MYERS: Well, in the NBA parlance, sure. If you want to characterize
somebody heading into the last year with a team option as a lame duck,
you could do that. Now I�m not saying he�s a lame duck at all.
I think he did a great job and I look forward to talking to his
representative. We just haven�t had those discussions yet.
-Q: What will it be like negotiating with Arn on this?
-MYERS: I look forward to talking to him. I think that he�s a brilliant
negotiator. (Smiles.) Mark did a great job. Look forward to those
conversations.
-Q: In previous years, your owner certainly always mentioned being
involved with the big deals, pushing to try to make a big deal. Has the
playoff success this season changed your approach to that maybe�not as
eager to look at all the big names this time?
-MYERS: I think a sense of desperation has passed.
I think that�whereas when you�re trying to do anything to get over the
hump you do sometimes chase things that may be difficult to acquire.
Whereas now, doesn�t mean we�re satisfied, it doesn�t mean we think our
work is through, but we can be prudent and patient with opportunities as
they come along.
I think the development of some of our players this past season changes
how we value them in a positive way. What Harrison Barnes was able to do
in the playoffs, Klay Thompson, a lot of our young players, to see that
core grow together�
Clearly you�re evaluating your team every day, but the playoffs is a
great opportunity to evaluate your team. If you�re a great performer in
the regular season that can�t perform in the playoffs, then it would
diminish your value. But we feel that a lot of our players�most of them,
all of them�stepped it up in the playoffs and showed us what they could
do. It was good to see on a bigger stage.
-Q: Are you wary about messing with your chemistry?
-MYERS: You never want to mess with your chemistry certainly on purpose.
It�s a funny thing, chemistry. It�s a very fragile thing and we were
able to develop it. Wed like to keep it.
I think our coach had a lot to do with it and our players�. I do
genuinely believe it�s a unique group of people. And that�s hard to
find�it�s hard to find in any sport. So we do value chemistry and we
would like to keep this group together as much as possible and see what
they can do when healthy.
But there�s a lot of variables that sometimes can be out of our control.
-Q: Did you conclude from the playoffs that Curry can lead this
franchise or do you need someone else to do it?
-MYERS: I think Curry can lead the franchise. I think he wants to lead
the franchise. I think he took a huge step this year in proving that. He
did a tremendous job.
The best thing about playing a team like the Spurs is they force you to
step outside your comfort zone and they show you what your deficiencies
are. I think every player leaves that series, Curry included, thinking I
need to do a couple things better to be successful every night.
I think he�s able and capable of doing that. But the thing our team
needs to�I think, in our opinion, as a front office, is become more
consistent. Win games that we should win in the regular season. not have
as much fluctuation kind of up and down.
But Curry was tremendous and certainly over a two- or three-week period
just really catapulted himself in the conversation of being a marquee
player.
-Q: What do you make of this playoff run happening largely without David
Lee and the thought that you might be better without him?
-MYERS: I think we dismiss that we�re better without David Lee. Even
though he was only to play limited minutes against San Antonio, I would
argue that we would�ve had a more competitive series�even though it was
competitive-with David�s being out there.
He�s a weapon. How we utilize him going forward is going to be something
the coaches will decide on. But he�s going to be somebody we expect to
put up production on the offensive end, on the rebounding end� It�s
going to be fun to see how we use a Draymond Green, and if we go with
Bogut and Lee and things like that�
I think the sample size wasn�t big enough to really get a great sense on
how we�re going to utilize everybody going forward.
-Q: To what extent might this organization consider, pardon my phrasing,
a �knucklehead�?
-MYERS: It�s funny, somebody told me that Gregg Popovich, when making
personnel decisions, says character is first and then talent is second.
And they�ve been pretty good over the last however many years.
Ideally you want both. Nobody really targets �knuckleheads,� to use your
word. Are there knuckleheads on good teams? Yeah. And there�s some that
are a product of their environment and some that fall in line and some
when you put them in a good situation they�re good and you put them in a
bad situation they�re bad.
The best are always good. I don�t think we had anybody who even
approached that word on this team�
But for us, we like our group and we�re really going to continue to
focus on character.
-Q: Is the approach that you want to keep this team together or that
you�re close enough that a few key moves could put you over the top?
-MYERS: I think it goes back to the way I answered a previous question,
which was we�re not in the period of desperation. We have a core we like
and are confident that can win.
But at the same time we recognize the need to improve. If that means
making sure our players that are on our roster now get better every day,
that�s what we need to do to improve� If it means adding players,
trading players, we�re always going to be looking towards that, no
matter what the situation is that we�re in.
I do believe we can be more patient now. That doesn�t mean we settle and
relax and stop working. We�re always going to work. But we can be
smarter and more patient with the decisions we make�
The nice thing about going into �13-�14 is we feel like we have a
starting lineup that can win and win in the West, which his really
tough. And we�re looking forward to a lot of healthy ankles and a lot of
guys coming back.
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