There has been plenty of talk about a possible reunion between Kevin Durant and the Warriors after the Nets star requested a trade out of Brooklyn, no matter how unlikely it might seem.
And now, Warriors owner Joe Lacob has weighed in -- sort of.
Without mentioning any names, The Athletic’s Tim Kawakami asked Lacob during Thursday’s episode of “The TK Show” whether or not the Warriors would be willing to trade away their stash of young players for a superstar.
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“To run it back, there is a theoretical way to trade a lot of what you have and to get a big, big, big name coming back, who may or may not be requesting a trade that you’re familiar with,” Kawakami told Lacob. “I won’t mention names, I’m not in this to get you in trouble. But is that at all a prospect, that you could tear it all up because of what you’ve built here? We’ve won a championship, and you know what, there’s a superstar out there. Let’s go get that guy.”
As ESPN’s Zach Lowe pointed out in the aftermath of Durant’s trade request, the Warriors ironically have the ideal package to go after the two-time NBA Finals MVP, including All-Star Andrew Wiggins, a handful of young, exciting players and plenty of draft picks.
In his response to Kawakami, Lacob also declined to comment on any specific player or their looming trade request in his response, while making it clear nothing is ever out of the realm of possibility.
It all depends on what’s in the Warriors’ best interest, he said.
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“You know what this answer is going to be,” Lacob laughed, “which is, we will always look at any opportunities to make ourselves better. The question you have to ask is: better near term, better intermediate term or better long term?
“Some options to building the team, if we were to pivot in some way, some partial way, might give us an even higher upside near term, but might decrease the long term. So these are the things that [general manager] Bob [Myers] and the group all have to look at and determine what's the right path.”
Giving up the team’s future in order to trade for a win-now player like Durant certainly would impact any long-term plans Golden State has in mind for young stars like Moses Moody, Jonathan Kuminga or James Wiseman, whether or not their names would be involved in the hypothetical transaction.
But whether it’s Durant or any other big names on the market, these are decisions Lacob, Myers and the rest of the Warriors’ front office are forced to ponder each and every offseason.
“There are always -- if it isn't the player you're referring to -- there’s going to be an ‘X’ player,” Lacob continued. “It's the one thing about the NBA … It's just unbelievable how these things seem to happen every year. And we're always going to be looking to make our team better to try to win a championship. And if we thought it was something better to do for the team, we would do it. You know, we have to weigh short term, long term and all that. We have to weigh the financial obligations in both scenarios. But we will do all that and make the decision we feel is best.”
Despite the Warriors having the ideal package for Durant and Marc J. Spears reporting Sunday, citing sources, that the team is interested in a reunion, other reports have indicated the opposite.
The Athletic's Marcus Thompson II reported on Sunday night, citing multiple sources within the Warriors organization, that a trade for Durant is “highly unlikely.”
So with all that being said, Lacob had a word of advice for Golden State fans on “The TK Show.”
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“We've got a good thing going. We're not going to go doing a dumb deal, whether it be now or in the fall or any time for anybody, if we didn't feel was something that was really good for our team, we wouldn't be doing it,” Lacob said. “So I think the fans, you know, I’ll speak to them right here and just say, and believe me, I'm getting bombarded every day about all these things. Just trust Bob and our group to look at all the angles and make good decisions going forward. We've done a pretty good job over 12 years, and Bob deserves the respect to give him that opportunity to do that.”
Dub Nation would certainly agree that four NBA championships over the last eight seasons is, in fact, a pretty good job.
And as rumors about where Durant will end up continue to float, Warriors fans can rest assured that the team on the floor next season is the team Lacob, Myers and Co. believe is best suited to win another ring.