GOLDEN STATE WARRIORS MEDIA CONFERENCE

September 27, 2021

Bob Myers

Media Conference

Q. (No microphone).

BOB MYERS: Through successes, tragedy, eight rings, all of those things make him somebody worth listening to, but I think my favorite part about Steve and I think why people do listen to him, whether it's our players, obviously our fans or anybody, is that he doesn't make it about him, and that's pretty rare I think in this day and age. He makes it about the team. And I think that's what players want to see, and I think they know that, too.

So it's not -- Steve is not chasing his first championship as a coach or a player. So he's doing it for them, and he's really good at it. And I've seen him grow. He started off without any experience and I think he's seen quite a bit now obviously coaching in five Finals. We had those teams -- we had one of the worst teams a couple of years ago and now he's navigated and seen all different sides of the NBA and I think that experience makes you better and he would agree with that.

Again in, this profession, you get to -- well, you do see each other all the time. So my favorite part of Steve, selfishly is just who he is, separate from basketball. That's my life.

But from the standpoint of our fans and our team and our players, I think it's all the skills he's built up over his career and they are pretty remarkable.

Q. With the uncertainty surrounding Wiggins being able to play in this building, how do you prepare the team with the possibility of having one of your starters not be available for half the games of your season?

BOB MYERS: I don't get to that level because like I said previously, my belief and my thoughts are that we'll have the full team. I'm not preparing really for anything different right now.

Again, learning -- sitting in this chair, I don't know, what, 2020, February, not knowing if we were going to play a game before fans and music, and last year, I don't think -- the hypothetical stuff doesn't serve me. I get why you have to ask. I get why people have to wonder. But we're going to deal in reality now and that's what we're doing each day.

Like I said, I'm confident we'll have a full team.

Q. You've stated in the past that your goal is to contend for a championship while also building for the future. How do you think this off-season's moves helped you do that?

BOB MYERS: Yeah, I think, you know, it's always trying to get better and I think some of our veteran additions, we think, were great value additions, with Iguodala, Bjelica and Porter. We'll see what they become. We'll have good expectations for all three of them.

Then we added the young guys we added which we like and we'll see what they can provide. The answer to what they can do, I don't quite know yet. We have to see them in camp. We think when healthy we have a pretty good team, but that "when healthy" part, I guess it applies to every team, but we haven't gotten to see that. And it's not an excuse. We've just got to see how good we are or not with our full team, and we can answer what's right or wrong with the roster.

But the hardest part about evaluating it and wondering about what it's going to be is not kind of seeing the full complement of it yet. So maybe it doesn't serve your question, but at the end of the year I'll answer it and you may not even need me to tell you.

But I like the blend. I like the blend of the veterans that we added and the youth that we added as well.

Q. (No microphone).

BOB MYERS: Yeah, the 15th spot will probably be decided in camp, we've done that before with guys likes Juan Toscano, Mulder, JaVale a few years back came in on a non-guaranteed. We like the guys that are going to compete for it. We like the group that came in with Bradley and Mulder and Payton and Galloway and so we think it's going to be a competitive camp and we have to decide, do we fill that spot or not? Because it's not -- you know, nobody's -- the financial part matters to us and it's another addition to what is already the biggest payroll in the league. So if we are going to add a 15th, I would think we would have to have a pretty good reason to do it.

But we've done it before, and if that's what we have to do well.

Q. It sounds like you're won't go clear James for practice until at least October 15th. If he is cleared to that timeline, how long do you think it will take him to be ready to play in games?

BOB MYERS: James was I think written and said by us, full kind of released to do anything October 15th. And so that's a couple weeks, two and a half weeks, and then it will be how fast does he get up to speed as far as not having played in so long. And I can't really tell you when that will be. I don't think we'll rush it. Same with Klay. Different injuries. Different time off. But it's hard to know how long it takes for a player to get back into basketball shape.

I think we have learned we don't want to throw them out there. We need both of them but it's hard to say. Probably see some time in the G League for both of them, whether that's practice initially, because it's hard to practice here for either of them when our season gets going. It's just tough to get real practices in. That's why they are excited, we're excited to see them get their legs and wind underneath them there.

But if you were to watch Klay, certainly, at this point out working out, if you didn't know, you'd say, well, this guy looks like he can play now. But he hasn't played five-on-five in quite some time. So that's up to the training staff and it's up to the individuals to see when that's the right time to come back. But we'll tell you. I just don't have the exact answer to those questions yet.

Q. Your reaction to (no microphone).

BOB MYERS: Yeah, I didn't -- I haven't seen it but you certainly can't live and not hear about it because I don't have all that stuff, and it wasn't -- I just don't watch a lot of things but heard about it for sure.

It didn't really bother me to be honest. I have a great history with Draymond. I have a great relationship with him and I look at Kevin and Draymond for that matter as two unbelievable players. I really like both guys, love talking to them, being around them. They helped our team and our organization - Draymond three and Kevin two championship. It's going to take a lot more than that for me to really be bothered by it.

I don't view it as much by my side. Like I said, knowing Draymond, I have seen all kinds of different levels and I love the guy, I really do, same for Kevin. I'm happy that they are buddies. That's all I care about.

Q. Over the weekend, Steph relayed a conversations that he had with you asking about Ben Simmons conversations, without trying to get you fined in any way here, unless you'd prefer to --

BOB MYERS: I'm not that rich.

Q. These conversations, does that mean you are in any way engaged in trade discussions now or would you rule that out in the immediate right now?

BOB MYERS: Yeah, so, thanks for not teeing it up in a too difficult way. As far as trades now, tomorrow, today, next week, those conversations are always happening. That's my job. That's the league. That's the league we live in.

But I would say to you, if you're looking for some clarity, I expect this roster to be our roster. Certainly in the near-term and probably heading into the season and we'll see how everything goes.

But that's what we would do, anyway, separate from rumors, separate from thoughts, I think when our team looks like it needs a change, that's when we start to be a little more urgent. But at this point I like the team. I want to see what the team looks like as constructed. I've been waiting for that for a long time, mostly because of injuries.

And then as far as conversations, those are happening quite a bit all the time and we'll continue to have conversations. But nothing imminent at all right now.

Q. Is the organization looking at a specific date in the year as to when he might be able to return?

BOB MYERS: Not a specific date. I think it's more about -- so he's in camp, starting tomorrow. He can do a lot. He just can't do contact and he's not doing five-on-five. Then it will progress to how does he feel doing that.

Then I think the hardest part is going to be come, sometime, maybe in December, maybe in January, I don't know when, when Klay probably says, "I'm ready, I can play now," and that will mean he will have been playing five-on-five. And we have to decide, do you let him do that for a couple more weeks, or has he been doing that a couple weeks. But until we kind of know that part, I could guess a day just like you could but it's just a guess and I don't want to put him or us in a position of, we said the wrong thing, we said it too early.

As soon as he can and as soon as it's safe, he'll be back.

Q. You touched on this a little bit after the draft, but having now built the rest of the roster, you know that you've got to see how the rookies play and produce over the course of the season, but you've built championship teams before. Do you walk into this season believing this is a championship-caliber roster?

BOB MYERS: You know, it's not as good as we had in 2017, 2018 where it didn't take a genius to see how talented those teams were. But watching our guys the last couple weeks, there's a good feeling about it. I like our depth. Clearly '19, '20, '21 -- we have a more talented roster. I guess if you look at a team, which any general manager does, healthy, yeah, I think we can compete with all these other teams. Doesn't mean we'll beat them.

In my role or any person that does what I do, sometimes if you're being honest, you say, this roster can't beat that roster if you're being honest, or maybe you all say that. This roster, I don't look around the league and say, we can't compete with that team. But we have to be healthy. We are not so great that we can just have our best players out and still beat some of these really good teams in the West, in the East. So we've got to see what that looks like and that doesn't mean just the day Klay comes back. That means February, March, April, some games under his belt, James is back, and now what are we.

But you know, I like the roster. I'm hopeful that if we're healthy we can compete with some of these really good teams.

Q. You've been asked about Moody since Summer League, or just what you've seen in the workouts, you don't know until you see them in games, do you have further impressions of Kuminga and Moody and how they might fit and what the timeline might be?

BOB MYERS: Summer League, that's probably our best indication of watching them play. But since they have been in here, they have been working. The thing I'll say I like the most about both of those guys is their approach. They are young. They are super young - one is 18 and one is 19. They look like and act like they want to be good.

I don't take that for granted. A lot of these players when you draft them, you don't really know if they are going to work or how they are going to prepare, especially this young, because you've only seen them for a little bit. I see Andre grabbing Moody, Kuminga, they have had conversations with Draymond, Steph has been around, Klay, certainly.

The best things those guys have going for them is they get to watch champions work. Meaning, they are around Steph, Klay, Draymond, even Looney, our coaching staff, that's unique for lottery picks to walk into a team like that.

The hard part for them is going to be opportunity. Because they are not going to get automatically thrown out there. They are playing behind some pretty good players. My favorite part is they seem like they have the right approach, which I always worry about. You never know. You draft -- you never know how they are going to prepare. So my favorite part is kind of their mental part right now, and we'll see what they can do on the court if they get a chance.

Q. There was a lot of talk at the end of last season about Steph's window and I'm wondering how much urgency do you feel or do you think the team feels about capitalizing on Steph at this stage of his career?

BOB MYERS: Yeah, when you get a guy like that, you feel urgency, really, all the time. I felt urgency when I got the job, and you look at him as a player, as a guy and you say, we have to surround him with as much talent as we can, and luckily we were able to do that for hopefully a good chunk of his career, and we're going to try to keep doing it.

That's not going to change. I mean, he had one of his best seasons last year. I don't necessarily personally prescribe that he's tailing off or he's only got a couple more years. I think he's got more than that. Especially if you all got to watch him in our facility, he's probably one of the hardest if not the hardest-working guys on the team and mentally he's never been sharper.

Everybody throws out Tom Brady and you can kind of laugh at that but athletes are playing a lot longer and a lot more effectively for many reasons. As much as we want to do it this year, if it doesn't happen this year, doesn't mean it can't happen this year or the year after that. I'll say that on the record: We really want to give him the best -- and not just him, all the players, there are other players on the team, too, and we want to give them a chance to win.