Comments suggest Green and Speights will stay…
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Golden State Warriors owner Joe Lacob has implied that he will try his best to keep the current roster together by paying the luxury tax next season.
The Warriors currently have $78,772,757 committed to David Lee, Andrew Bogut, Andre Iguodala, Stephen Curry, Shaun Livingston, Klay Thompson, Harrison Barnes, Brandon Rush and Festus Ezeli, according to Pro Basketball Talk.
As a result, even if they filled the rest of the roster with minimum-salary players, they would still slip on to the wrong side of the projected luxury-tax line of $80.7m.
Golden State will undoubtedly want to re-sign both Draymond Green and Marreese Speights this summer, and so Lacobs will be forced into a situation of having to pay the bill if he wants to keep this current group together and competing for a championship over the next two years.
Lacob was asked in a Q&A with Talking Points if he was prepared to go into the tax next summer to keep this team together, he replied:
“Committed or not committed, I don’t think we have any other choice. Numbers would dictate–anyone can look at them–that we’re very likely in the luxury tax and very likely very substantially, next year.
“And you know what? We’re OK with that. I tell Bob all the time; he keeps asking me, ‘Are you sure?’ We’re prepared to do whatever it takes to win a championship; I’ve said that before.
“You want to do it when the timing is right. Maybe the timing’s right, right? We’re pretty good. And so, I think we need to take advantage of that and go for it.”
Lacob added that he was unable to discuss Green’s future due to NBA regulations, but he admitted that he was “born to be a Warrior” and believes he has now established himself as part of the core of the team. Therefore, expect Green to remain in Golden State one way or another.
Nevertheless, if the Warriors are willing to pay a substantial luxury tax bill at least next year, the new NBA TV deal will certainly give them some relief the following year with the salary cap set to rocket.
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