The Warriors are set to open the 2022-23 season Tuesday night, but many in the basketball world are already thinking about how they’ll keep the gang together for 2023-24.
Salary cap projections peg next season’s salary gap commitments at north of $500 million. Warriors president of basketball operations/general manager Bob Myers is well aware of that looming price tag, but first he wants to know how the $359.7 million roster plays out this season.
Myers joined 95.7 The Game’s “Willard & Dibs” live from Chase Center Monday to discuss the future of the franchise and more. His biggest message? Worry about next summer, next summer.
“Teams like this don’t come along very often -- this team, this year,” Myers told hosts Mark Willard and Dan Dibley. “We can worry or think about what the future might hold, but no one knows that. I don’t know it, the players don’t know it, the coaches don’t know it. It makes for an interesting conversation at the bar, but at the bar I’d be watching this year’s team and the other part would be in the back of my mind. But I can’t tell fans. If they wanna worry about that, can’t stop ‘em.”
And don’t worry, Dub Nation. Myers didn’t take Dibs’ advice to ask Warriors owner Joe Lacob for “half a bill” next summer.
“I didn’t do it like that,” Myers said with a laugh. “That’s not how I do it. Not, ‘Half a bill.’ When you’re trying to get someone to do something, you don’t say, ‘Half a bill.’ That doesn’t help.”
When you factor in the extensions for Jordan Poole and Andrew Wiggins, along with the strong possibility that Draymond Green exercises his $27.6 million player option for 2023-24, it’s no wonder that the Warriors payroll will reach unprecedented levels next season.
“Realistically, I dunno what we’re gonna do next year yet,” Myers said. “I have ideas of how things go. If somebody woulda told me last year that we’re gonna pay Poole and Wiggins this year, I woulda said, ‘Nah, we’re not doing that.’ It’s something that we look at and we talk about internally, but it’s also the idea that it changes. It depends on what this year is. Bottom line, our owners are willing to spend a lot of money, and I’m lucky to work for a guy like that.”
Myers and his staff have assembled one of the deepest rosters since he arrived. Now the onus is on Steve Kerr and the coaching staff to make it all work.
“I think Steve would tell you, it’s gonna be a little bit of a challenge finding minutes for guys and they’re gonna have to be patient,” Myers said. “One of deepter teams we’ve ever had. The youth needs to play, but what are you gonna do, not play some of the vets? It’s gonna be interesting.”
So long as the Warriors have Steph Curry, Myers feels confident.
“He really is the beacon of how we move,” Myers said. “To have him in the building and know that he’s gonna hold people accountable, for his work ethic, for who he is on and off the court, we’re so lucky to have him. We really are.”
Related
