Four days before Steph Curry’s 33rd birthday, Warriors general manager and president of basketball operations, Bob Myers, admitted that he feels pressure to maximize the remaining prime years of the two-time NBA MVP.
Myers told 95.7 the game “Steiny, Guru & Dibs” on Wednesday that sentiment hasn’t changed since he joined the organization almost a decade ago, realizing shortly afterwards that the Warriors had a “generationally good” player to build the franchise.
“We feel that responsibility until that guy retires or is not part of our team,” explained Myers. “You have to honor that. You have to do what you can, but that doesn’t mean that these opportunities are available every day and are easy to find. You’re always looking, but this is the job. This is what we do, and we understand.
“I don’t feel that way because social media is that way, or there is pressure to feel that way. I feel that pressure because I’m competitive and I want to win and I grew up as a Warriors fan. I want to give the fans, a great team, like everyone else. We listen say that [chatter], but we are always trying [improve]. “
In the midst of Curry’s best season since he became the first unanimous NBA MVP in league history, the Warriors (19-18) emerge from the All-Star break in ninth place at the Western Conference. This would give Golden State a place in one game (or two) for the chance to reach the playoffs as the eighth seed, and a series of seven games against the best team in the Western Conference.
This is a far cry from the Warriors’ 73-9 campaign in 2015-16, when Curry last reached those heights. Curry averages of 29.7 points, 6.3 assists and 5.5 rebounds per game this season were not enough for the Warriors to solidify into one of the first six seeds of the mid-season conference, leading to consternation and criticism within – and outside – the fan base.
The Warriors imagined the season would be very different, waiting for Klay Thompson to return from a torn ACL and join Curry, the second choice in the 2020 NBA Draft and Draymond Green in a rejuvenated team. Instead, Thompson tore his Achilles hours before the Golden State chose pivot James Wiseman, forcing the Golden State to change its plans on the spot.
Although the Warriors have become one of the best defensive teams in the league, consistency eludes them every night. They have not won – or lost – more than three consecutive games throughout the season, making them a puzzle just over two weeks before the negotiation deadline.
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Curry winning his second contract, along with an unprecedented increase in the NBA’s salary cap, allowed CEO Joe Lacob to say that Golden State was “light years” ahead of the league and gave the Warriors the space to hire Kevin Durant. While Curry is still worth every penny (and more) to the Warriors, building around his supermax contract presented Myers and Co. with a different challenge.
Even if the goal remains the same.
“What is your responsibility? It is to help you win a championship, put the best players you can,” said Myers. “So we tried to do that, and I think for a moment, we did it. … And now we say, ‘How are we going to keep doing this?’ And it was never easy then, and it is not easy now, but – we never got it all figured out.
“Even when you win a championship, you don’t just sit there and think, ‘Oh, we’re great. We are better than everyone else. We hit all the right buttons. ‘ You still make mistakes, you still learn from them along the way. “
Time will tell if Myers and the Warriors have learned enough to ensure that Curry’s third NBA championship is not the last.
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