Warriors owner Joe Lacob expects the team to be “really good” next season, health-permitting and with the acquisition of Andrew Wiggins.
Lacob says the swap for Wiggins in exchange for D’Angelo Russell at last week’s trade deadline is a “great deal for us.”
Golden State’s braintrust acknowledged that Russell was a poor fit in their scheme.
Per The Athletic:
Was trading Russell before he played a full season with the Warriors a sign that management miscalculated his value and the Warriors’ ability to fit him in?
“What people don’t understand is that if we lost Kevin Durant (straight up in free agency), we would’ve got nothing,” Lacob said. “We just got somewhat fortunate that he went to Brooklyn and we were able to get a sign-and-trade for a guy that is a good player. Questionable whether he was going to be a fit. You’ve heard (Steve) Kerr’s comments. I mean, everyone knew that. But we were hopeful. And you want to have a positive attitude. And we didn’t have Steph and Klay to play with him this year, so I don’t think that we had a fair test. But I think … there was a chance that we were going to make a move at some point that maybe made more sense. There was a chance. And it just turned out that we did it now. We got what we wanted. I think if I would’ve bet before the trade deadline, I probably would’ve said we would’ve re-evaluated in the summer, gone through the whole year. But we were fortunate. We got what we wanted, and we did it.”
Does he believe that (Stephen) Curry, (Klay) Thompson, (Draymond) Green, Wiggins, (Kevon) Looney and whomever else the Warriors can add to that next season is a group that can win a championship?
“I think we’re going to be really good,” Lacob said. “We almost beat — well, we stayed competitive with the Lakers (Sunday night.) They played all their guys and we lost by what, five points. And we didn’t have arguably our three best players (Curry, Thompson and Green). So you tell me. The reason we didn’t win the game tonight is we didn’t have enough perimeter scoring. It’s not football, one player can make a huge difference. We’ve got two great ones coming back. Arguably the two greatest shooters of all time. So I feel pretty damn good, and our fan base should feel great about our future.”
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