Warriors assistant GM Kirk Lacob: On tinkering, futures of Barnes and Ezeli, ultimatum to dad about Curry, etc.

Posted on January 9, 2016 by Steinmetz

Golden State Warriors assistant general manager Kirk Lacob joined the “NBA This Week” on 95.7-FM The Game in San Francisco and talked a lot of subjects in and around the Warriors and NBA. Lacob joined us from Santa Cruz, site of this week’s D-League Showcase.

Lacob, the 27-year-old son of Warriors owner Joe Lacob, discussed several topics with Matt Steinmetz and John Dickinson, including: What the Warriors need right now, if anything; the futures of Harrison Barnes and Festus Ezeli; an update of rookie Kevon Looney; how to keep his ego in check; and a disagreement with his dad about Stephen Curry.

The “NBA This Week” also welcomed Israel Gutierrez, ESPN.com NBA columnist and frequent panelist on “Around the Horn” and “The Sports Reporters. Parts of Lacob’s interview is below. To listen to all segments of the “NBA This Week,” click here or at bottom of text.

–On if he’s had time to reflect on helping win a championship:

Lacob: “As a lifelong Warriors fan sometimes I have to pinch myself and wonder how this team got to be the envy of every other team, maybe in all of North American sports, not just basketball. It is a really amazing feeling. That being said I never doubted it for a second that we’d be able to reach this pinnacle. Being around my dad my entire life I knew that when he said something he meant it and it was going to happen eventually. I think the first conversations he and I had and he said ‘let’s turn this around. I think we can build something special in five years.’ Lo and behold, it took exactly five years.”

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Curry injury likely to be blessing in disguise for Warriors

Posted on January 8, 2016 by Steinmetz

While many Warriors fans seem to be concerned and a little bit pessimistic about Stephen Curry’s latest injury – a shin bruise – there’s a whole other way to look at it: This is a blessing in disguise for Curry and the team.

Curry is expected to play tonight against the Blazers in Portland. But beyond that, like Saturday at Sacramento, who knows? That doesn’t mean the injury (called a lower leg injury by the team) is serious though. Not at all.

From the owner, to the general manager to the medical staff to Curry, the player himself, nobody believes this injury is a big deal. Curry has a bruise in his shin and it hurts. When he gets hit there it really, really hurts. That’s why he’ll wear shin guards in Portland tonight.

But if there’s an upside to a bruise, the Warriors have found it.

We all know that if the Warriors had their way, Luke Walton or Steve Kerr would like the option to rest players at the time of their choosing in the next few months. The Warriors are 33-2 and are a lock for one of the top two playoff seeds in the Western Conference. It’s not at all too early to start thinking about being as healthy and prepared as possible by Game 1 of the first round of the playoffs in late April.

Hey, it’s what the Spurs do and they’ve fared pretty well. Problem is, the Warriors aren’t the Spurs. The Warriors are just starting out on this process of being consistently elite – or so they hope – and whether they like it or not sitting their star players on the road is going to come with some backlash.

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In hypothetical matchup between 72-win Bulls and current Warriors, don’t forget shorter 3-point line

Posted on January 6, 2016 by Steinmetz

There’s been a lot of talk this season about the Warriors and whether they have a shot at winning more games than the 1995-96 Chicago Bulls, who went 72-10. It sounded somewhat laughable in late November/early December to even broach the subject, but now that Golden State is 33-2 … the discussion lingers.

It’s difficult assessing teams of different eras, but if we’re going to do it, the first natural question would be: Which era are we playing in?

On the surface, and most likely true, it would seem logical that a theoretical game staged in   the mid-1990s would benefit the Bulls while a make-believe game played now would aid the Warriors.

The thinking is pretty simple: The Bulls, with elite defenders such as Michael Jordan, Scottie Pippen, Dennis Rodman and Ron Harper, would be at a big advantage because the game was more physical back then.

Since 1997, the NBA has devised rules to limit that kind of play. In 1997-98, the league disallowed using a forearm to defend a player facing the basket. In 1999-00, it did away with all defensive contact in the backcourt. And in 2004-05, the NBA did away with hand-checking completely.

All that would give the Warriors a huge advantage in present times, the thinking goes, because their ability to spread the floor combined with a defense’s inability to make contact with them creates an almost unguarded-able team.

While this all may be true, there does seem to be an aspect of this matchup that has been overlooked: The 3-point line was shorter when Bulls had their historical season. That’s right. The line wasn’t as deep. From 1994-95 through 1996-97 — a three-year period — the 3-point line was a uniform 22 feet from the basket, including in the corners. After that year, the NBA went back to the original line, which was 22 feet in the corners and 23 feet, 9 inches at the top of the key.

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