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GOLDEN STATE WARRIORS MEDIA CONFERENCE

September 30, 2019

Bob Myers

Oakland, California

BOB MYERS: Thanks for coming. First on the injury front, because I know that'll be a question, Klay, you'll get to talk to him at 2:00, but he's doing fine. We'll have another update on him probably around the All-Star break. Don't construe that as if we think he'll be back by the All-Star break, that just means we'll have an update then, but you'll get a chance to talk to him today, as well. And then Willie Cauley-Stein suffered a mid foot strain last week scrimmaging in his left foot. He's going to miss camp and we'll probably look at him again and give you an update at the end of October or so. About 30 days from now. Other than that, we're healthy and obviously we start tomorrow. Any questions on any of that or anything else?

Q. How did you envision D'Angelo Russell fitting in on this team from an on court standpoint when you acquired him?
BOB MYERS: Just a good player, good off the ball, good on the ball. Obviously young, still growing, still getting better, coming off a good year. I think I said this previously, the hardest thing for any team to do is -- especially a more mature team, which we were heading into free agency, is to get good young players. You either have to usually draft them, develop them on your own, but they're hard to acquire via trade, and obviously in free agency, most of them are restricted or are hard to get. So we looked at him as a good young player that's getting better, smart, skilled, coming off a really good year. His team did well, he did well, and we're excited to see how he fits with us. We think he'll be good, and that process starts tomorrow.

Q. Your thoughts as an agent, former player, what are your thoughts on what the governor signed today, collegiate players getting paid?
BOB MYERS: Yeah, so I literally just saw that. Clearly that's kind of a landmark thing. I think it's probably still in the nascent stages. We have no idea how that'll look, how it'll play out. I'm sure the NCAA will have some ideas on it, but the tide is shifting. Whether this is the beginning of it or the -- it'll all move from this position, I don't know. But I do think you're seeing public sentiment. Obviously athletes have their own opinions, but I think it signifies a shift in the direction of -- at minimum, the changes needed, and maybe this is the change, I don't know. But I think it's a statement towards that.

Q. Do you feel that the roster is set with like the 14 you have, and obviously the hard cap kind of lingering over you and your 2, 2A guys, do you feel like stuff is up for grabs in the next month?
BOB MYERS: Well, I think playing time is up for grabs. As far as option at to change the roster, obviously it being hard capped, it makes it harder to do. It doesn't mean we can't do things during the season or won't do things, but I think what is up for grabs at least in the last five years is who's going to rise up and grab a spot. We have openings, we have competition at certain spots, certainly at the small forward there's competition to see who starts there. Steve is coming up after me and he'll have more specific thoughts on those types of things, but it's not as if it's been in the last five years where we knew exactly who would be starting. We had an idea of how many minutes they'd be playing. A lot of youth, and a lot of to be determined with this roster. We know who certain guys are, but even with Klay being out, what happens there? What happens with the minutes there? How do you stagger Steph and D'Angelo, and that's obviously for Steve, but he's been meeting with his staff, and I'm obviously in a position similar to you, where we'll meet with some of the people we don't have intimate knowledge of, who are they, how do they fit on this team.

Q. You have eight knew guys on the roster, and that's the first time in a long time you've really had a lack of continuity on that roster. How long are you anticipating before the team starts to gel and kind of -- how long do you think before they start to gel?
BOB MYERS: Man, I don't know. I don't know how long it'll take. It'll take as long as it takes, I guess. I will say this: We do have eight new guys. I think we still maintained at least in the near term with Steph, Klay and Draymond and Looney being healthy, I suppose Klay not being healthy, but we have some of our foundation, a big part of it still there. That's helpful to teach these guys it's not all brand new, and obviously most of our high-minutes guys at least coming into this group are guys that have been here. So that'll help. But as far as how does the dust settle, when does it settle, I think that's a question that we have, too, internally. I don't know the answer to that. I mean, I do know this: We believe that things take time to evolve, and we're prepared especially with a younger roster to allow that to happen, and that's the mindset that we have from a coaching staff, from a front office staff, is let's see how things are going before we make any blanket decisions or judgment on any of it. But we're excited. I mean, look, we're excited about the youth. We're excited about the unknown. In years past we've had a lot of known, which has been fantastic, but this is different.

Q. Have you and Steve and Steph and the medical staff sat down given the injuries with Klay and the roster transition, is there any kind of minutes limit or a target you're shooting for night to night with Steph in how you manage him through the season?
BOB MYERS: Obviously I'll talk to Steve about it and obviously you'll talk to Steph. There's no plans to rest him unless something develops. I don't think he's of that mind. I think Steve likes the minutes he had. I think the bigger question will be -- the bigger discipline will be do you increase those, and I don't think Steve is of that mindset. But with potentially less margin for error, there may be opportunities where we say we've got to put Steph back in the game, that'll require discipline. But I don't think anyone is saying now at this moment in time going into camp that we're going to rest him X amount of games or his minutes are going to be diminished or decreased. But we know who he is. We know how important he is to this roster, this organization, and so we're mindful of that. But I think we've always tried to be mindful of that. I don't think we're going to all of a sudden kind of 180 on how we view him and put him in a compromised position. It's just, hey, we know who he is, we know how important he is, we still want to win, so it's balancing all those things.

Q. You talked about bringing in Russell and the hard cap, and there are a bunch of logistical challenges that come with that. When did you start seriously considering the possibility that that might be on the table, and what was the preparation like for something that was so different from your other off-season options?
BOB MYERS: Yeah, I think the challenge -- when I went to New York, I think a lot of people wrote and opined that Kevin was absolutely leaving. Maybe that's my fault. I felt like that opportunity for him to return was still there. I hadn't heard it from him, and I had a relationship with him where I felt like if he knew that, he'd say it. But he told me the day of free agency, a few hours before free agency actually began in New York, and at that moment in time it was the finality of it, so now we could at least internally say what do we want to do with this now, with Kevin, having said he's going somewhere else, and then we thought, well, we know where he's going, told me where he was going, and so I thought, well, how can we evaluate what we could do with that situation.

But there's so many moving parts to it. We had to wait until free agency actually began that evening, which was a few hours later, and Kevin wanted his own moment, which I'm respectful of, to say this is where I'm going, and after free agency began, it was almost to the point of, well, would you help us with the sign and trade. And usually those things come later, but we were forced into kind of asking that question because D'Angelo had suitors, and he was meeting with other teams, and being asked to make a decision.

All that happened really fast, so that evening of free agency was pretty late in New York, we started saying, well, if this is something we can do, can we do it, one, because it seemed to be report -- I don't think anybody said it was easy, but you had to get the permission of Brooklyn, you had to get D'Angelo to say he would come, you had to get Kevin to say he would agree to a sign and trade. That's three things but all happening for different reasons, different motivations, different self-interests, so to get all that aligned went way into that morning, and then obviously into the next day, that wasn't even done until the following day of free agency. Getting another team to help take on a contract, we had to move getting our own books in order.

It happened really quickly, but from our standpoint, it was either we try to get something from the situation or get this, or we don't get anything at all and Kevin goes, which he certainly had the right to do, and Brooklyn could have taken him into space.

Q. Given the talent and experience that Steph and Draymond have together, what do you think they can do to help bridge everything, both with their play on the court and behind the scenes?
BOB MYERS: Leadership. I think leadership will be huge for those two guys. Steph is our oldest player, which I still have to remind myself of. I think he does, too.

We will be tested. You know, we will be tested, and they're going to have to lead through adversity, through youth. They're going to have to tolerate some inexperience. They're going to have to tolerate not having the wise old Shaun and Andre, and we've even had vets beyond that whether it's David West or Zaza, and they're those guys, and I think that'll take a little bit of time kind of looking over your shoulder and maybe a big brother that isn't there, and you say, well, now I'm that guy. That's a new challenge. I think they'll both embrace it, and they're both fully capable, but they haven't done that yet. We couldn't probably ask for two better guys to do that, and they're different personalities, so I think we need both to lead.

But we're going to learn a lot about all of us this season, but that's okay. They'll learn about leadership. We'll learn about -- and obviously I'm big on humility, so we're going to have to be humble in certain situations, which is good for us, too. So it's going to be -- I'm excited. There's a lot of newness to it, but that doesn't -- that should be something that for me it excites me, and I think it excites them, too.

Q. How much of a setback do you consider the injury to Willie Cauley-Stein? Obviously he's a guy who I'm sure as much as anybody you would want in here adapting to his team and vice versa.
BOB MYERS: Yeah, it's disappointing. For him mostly. I know he was ready to go. You like to have new players get a chance to get acclimated in camp, so for him and obviously the coaches, myself, the whole organization, we want him to get back. The good news is he will be back, but camp is a formative time for him and his teammates. Nothing you can do. Injuries are clearly part of it.

But yeah, we want everybody to be healthy, and hopefully he'll be able to watch and pick up on some things without participating and stay as in shape as he possibly can. But yeah, it's one of those things you just wish didn't happen.

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