Tim Kawakami dropped a detail on The TK Show that hit the Bay Area like a August two-a-day in full pads. The longtime San Francisco Standard reporter said Warriors owner Joe Lacob is focused on what comes next — after Stephen Curry.
“What Lacob wants to do, and this might get Warriors fans mad, but he wants to build the next team after Steph Curry,” Kawakami said. “I don’t know how possible that is, but Lacob has a very keen interest in ‘This organization is going to show what it can do with Steph Curry and then after Steph Curry.’ I don’t think it’s going to be as good myself, but that’s what he wants to do.”
The comments, circulated through Yahoo Sports and BasketNews, landed exactly where Kawakami predicted — badly. Warriors fans lit up over the suggestion that ownership is already planning for a future without the player who delivered four championships and changed the geometry of the sport.
The frustration has teeth because of what the Warriors haven’t done. This offseason, Golden State pursued LeBron James in free agency. James chose the Philadelphia 76ers. The Warriors also explored trades for Kevin Durant, Giannis Antetokounmpo, and Kawhi Leonard in recent years, per multiple reports, but never came close to landing any of them. Their backup plan amounted to re-signing Draymond Green and bringing back Al Horford, Kristaps Porzingis, De’Anthony Melton, and Charles Bassey. They drafted Yaxel Lendeborg at No. 11.
That’s not the haul of a team going all-in on a 38-year-old icon. Curry is extension-eligible in late August and expected to sign a two-year, $136 million deal, keeping him in gold and blue through his 40th birthday. He has long said he wants to play his entire career with one franchise.
The pattern isn’t new. Back in 2020, the Warriors held the No. 2 pick and used it on James Wiseman — a swing-and-miss that would make any ranch hand wince. In 2021, they took Jonathan Kuminga at No. 7. Both picks were part of what the organization called its “two-timeline” approach: win now with Curry while developing young talent for the next era. Wiseman washed out. Kuminga underwhelmed and was eventually shipped to Atlanta in the Kristaps Porzingis deal.
The only genuine win-now move Golden State has made since Durant left in 2019 was acquiring Jimmy Butler in 2025, and that cost just one first-round pick. Meanwhile, the Warriors still hold their first-rounders in 2027, 2028, 2030, 2031, 2032, 2033. That’s not the draft cabinet of a team pressing its chips to the middle of the table.
The Yahoo Sports piece drew the comparison that every Bulls fan over 40 dreads: Jerry Krause, convinced his front-office brilliance built the dynasty, tried to prove it by constructing a winner post-Jordan. That experiment produced zero championships and a decade of irrelevance.
Then there’s the Bob Myers angle. Myers, the architect of four title rosters, stepped down as general manager in 2023. At the farewell press conference, Lacob sat right next to him and admitted he couldn’t fathom the decision. “I’m not going to sit here and tell you I understand it because I don’t,” Lacob said.
Myers said it wasn’t about money — he’d declined ownership offers that would have placed him among the league’s highest-paid executives. He said the job required “complete engagement, a thousand percent,” and he could no longer give that. But ABC News reported that sources pointed to power struggles between the front office and ownership, with the franchise trending toward more of a family business. Lacob’s son, Kirk, was already an executive vice president of basketball operations and in line for a larger role.
You connect those dots however you want. The film doesn’t lie.
Curry wants his fifth ring. Lacob, by Kawakami’s telling, wants to prove the organization can win without the greatest player it ever employed. Those two timelines are pulling in opposite directions, and the 2026-27 season might be the last chance to reconcile them before the fork in the road becomes permanent.
Sources:
- BasketNews – Lacob wants to build next team after Curry
- NBA.com – Lacob confident in re-signing Durant and Curry (2016)
- Yahoo Sports – Kawakami: Lacob focused on post-Curry era
- ABC News – Bob Myers steps down as Warriors GM