Bob Myers

Bob Myers Wins Executive Of The Year

May 1st, 2015 at 11:37am CST by Chuck Myron

11:37am: Votes that went to Budenholzer were meant as nods to Ferry, multiple executives tell Ken Berger of CBSSports.com (All Twitter links).

11:03am: Warriors GM Bob Myers has won the NBA’s Executive of the Year award, the league announced. Cavaliers GM David Griffin was a fairly close second, followed by Hawks coach and acting GM Mike Budenholzer, whose nomination over GM Danny Ferry stirred controversy.

Each team can nominate one candidate for the award, and executives vote for the winner from among their ranks. Hoops Rumors learned that there was talk among some executives that they would abstain from voting out of displeasure that they couldn’t vote for Ferry, who’s on a leave of absence after having constructed most of the roster of the 60-win Hawks. However, all 30 executives eligible to vote for the award went ahead and did so. Many around the league felt as though Ferry would have been the clear favorite for the award, as Chris Vivlamore of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution wrote. However, his absence stemming from the racially charged comments he relayed about 2014 free agent target Luol Deng short-circuited his candidacy.

Myers nonetheless has no shortage of qualifications for the honor, having been at the helm as the Warriors went from perennial lottery participants to a 67-win juggernaut over the past few years. His contributions to the team’s decision against trading Klay Thompson as part of a potential Kevin Love trade last summer and its hiring of new coach Steve Kerr played key roles in the team’s leap from 51 wins last year into an historically great regular season this year. Myers also helped fortify the team’s bench this past summer with the addition of Shaun Livingston on a three-year mid-level deal. Chris Crouse of Hoops Rumors profiled Myers’ Executive of the Year candidacy a couple of weeks ago.

Myers garnered 13 first-place votes, while Griffin collected eight and Budenholzer picked up four. Blazers GM Neil Olshey was the only other executive to receive multiple first-place votes, with two, though he finished sixth in the weighted points system which assigns five points for a first-place vote, three points for a second-place vote and one point for each third-place vote. Celtics president of basketball operations Danny Ainge, who finished fourth, Bulls GM Gar Forman, who was fifth, and Pistons coach and president of basketball operations Stan Van Gundy, in eight place, received one first-place vote each. Executives voted anonymously for the award in contrast to the writers who select many of the other NBA award winners.

Executive Of The Year Candidate: Bob Myers

April 18th, 2015 at 11:24pm CST by ChrisCrouse

Every year, many teams improve, but making the leap from a good team to a great team is arguably the hardest feat to accomplish. The Warriors, who improved their win total over last season’s by 16 games, have reached the pinnacle that so many teams are unable to attain. The roster is a collection of talent that meshed together beautifully and formed a team that is considered one of the favorites to win the title. The transformation wasn’t simply a product of good fortune; it was a series of calculated moves that catapulted the 2014/15 Warriors into the conversation about the best teams of all time.

Golden State hired Bob Myers to be the assistant GM in April of 2011. While he didn’t have full control of the front office yet, he played a part in the 2012 trade that netted Andrew Bogut, according to Antonio Gonzalez of the Associated Press. Trading a fan favorite in Monta Ellis for an injury-prone center wasn’t an easy choice, but it was necessary in order to add a defensive anchor and give Stephen Curry more reign within the offense. Golden State promoted Myers to GM in April of 2012 and the ensuing year would set the table for this season’s championship run.

Myers’ first draft as the GM was a success. Golden State picked Harrison Barnes with the No. 7 overall pick in the 2012 draft. Barnes hasn’t lived up to the superstar hype that surrounded him when he first committed to North Carolina, but the forward has turned into a solid two-way player and an important contributor for the team. With the last pick in the first round, the Warriors selected Festus Ezeli out of Vanderbilt. The center has progressed during his first three seasons in the league and looks like he will have a decent career in the NBA, something that is not a given for players selected that late in the draft.

Second-round pick Draymond Green was Myers’ most impressive selection. Many teams saw Green as a man without a position in the NBA, someone who was not big enough to play power forward and not swift enough to guard small forwards. Myers just saw a winner. “Draymond, look at his resume,” Myers said during the team’s post draft press conference. “He went to one of the top colleges in the country and all he did was produce and win.” Green has evolved into one of best defenders in the league and has become an integral part of the Warriors’ success.

Some even believe Green will earn a maximum salary contract when he becomes a restricted free agent this offseason. If that happens without the team trading away any of its core players, Green will be one of five Warriors players who will make more than MVP candidate Stephen Curry during the 2015/16 season. Myers signed Curry to a four-year, $44MM extension in 2012. The pact was considered a high-risk, high reward move for Golden State because of Curry’s injury history. By signing Curry to the extension before the 2012/13 season rather than letting him hit restricted free agency and potentially sign a maximum-salary contract, the team saved nearly $17MM, which allowed Golden State to allocate its resources into improvements around the point guard.

During the 2013 offseason, Myers added Andre Iguodala in a three-way deal with the Nuggets and Jazz. It was a surprising move at the time considering the Warriors’ lack of cap space. Golden State sent Andris Biedrins, Richard Jefferson and Brandon Rush to the Jazz along with two future first-round picks. Given the current market for first-round picks, it may seem like a steep price to pay, but Iguodala has been a key contributor and those picks will likely be toward the back end of the first round, so there’s not much of a chance they’ll turn into players of significant value.

Adding a veteran player to push the team toward championship contention is necessary for most clubs looking to take that next step. However, sometimes it’s the move that a franchise doesn’t make that becomes the reason it succeeds. The 1992/93 Rockets nearly traded Hakeem Olajuwon to the Heat but ultimately decided to stand pat. Houston would win two NBA championships in the ensuing years. In 2009, the Warriors almost traded Curry to the Suns for Amar’e Stoudemire. Golden State decided to keep the No. 7 overall pick and ended up with a superstar to build around. Last offseason, the Warriors were in talks with the Wolves about trading for Kevin Love. Initially, it seemed like Curry’s backcourt mate would be headed to Minnesota, but the front office said Klay Thompson was off the table and the deal never happened. Thompson and Curry turned into arguably the league’s best backcourt and the team has been hitting on all cylinders since.

Myers was faced with another tough decision during the 2014 offseason. Coach Mark Jackson reportedly clashed with upper management, but he took the team from lottery-bound to playoff-bound and was well-respected by his players. Replacing Jackson after a 51-win campaign was a risky proposition. Myers tapping Steve Kerr, who did not have any NBA coaching experience, as the next coach may have been a riskier move. Kerr, who has innovated with the team and is a candidate for the Coach of the Year Award, has proved Myers right.

The Warriors rank first in defensive efficiency and second in offensive efficiency this season and the roster construction of the team can be credited for the success. Myers has surrounded his superstar, Curry, with the supporting cast needed to win a championship. He should take home the Executive of the Year honor this season, but the award isn’t just for the moves in the past year. It’s recognition for all of the moves that he has made and the passion he exhibits for his position. “My love for the NBA started with this team,” Myers said when he was promoted to GM. “It’s more than just a job.” Myers has excelled and his dedication has given Warriors the ammunition necessary to win the 15 playoff games still standing between them and the Larry O’Brien Trophy.

Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.

Western Notes: Rivers, Cousins, Ayon

September 6th, 2014 at 12:45pm CST by Eddie Scarito

Austin Rivers believes this coming season will be his breakout year, John Reid of the Times Picayune writes. The Pelicans guard said, “I was constantly working the entire summer. I gained 10 pounds and I’ve got stronger in my upper body. This is my year. But I think at the end of the day, I think we all now understand we can only control what we can control. At the end of the day, we let all of the guys in the front office do their jobs. We just stick to what we do. We play.” Rivers has career averages of 7.0 PPG, 1.8 RPG, and 2.2 APG. His career slash line is .390/.346/.601.

Here’s more from the west:

DeMarcus Cousins tells Chris Kudialis of The Sacramento Bee that he hopes Team USA experience for him and Rudy Gay will pay dividends for the Kings this coming season. “My thing is just taking in as much as I can from this experience and taking it back home,” Cousins said. “I’m being led by some of the best players in the league here, and I want to use everything I learn to make myself better.”
With the Warriors signing GM Bob Myers to an extension recently, Lang Greene of Basketball Insiders looks back at Myers’ biggest moves since arriving in Golden State.
Gustavo Ayon prefers to play in the NBA next season, but the offers he has received from European teams have been more lucrative to this point, Marc Stein of ESPN.com reports (Twitter links). Stein believes that Ayon, whom the Spurs recently expressed interest in, will head overseas unless the offers improve. Ayon played in 26 games for the Hawks last season, averaging 4.3 PPG, 4.8 RPG, and 1.1 APG.

Cray Allred contributed to this post.

Warriors, GM Bob Myers Agree To Extension

September 4th, 2014 at 9:45pm CST by Charlie Adams

The Warriors and GM Bob Myers have agreed to terms on a three-year contract extension, a source tells Tim Kawakami of the Mercury News (Twitter link). The new deal will keep the 39-year-old Myers at the helm of Golden State’s basketball operations through at least the 2017/18 campaign, since his current pact with the club spans through the completion of the upcoming season.

Myers took control of the Warriors’ basketball activities in late of April of 2012, as Kawakami details in his full piece. Along with co-owner Joe Lacob, Myers was an instrumental part of the decision to dismiss Mark Jackson in favor of bringing in neophyte coach Steve Kerr. The second-year GM’s reluctance to include Klay Thompson in a deal for Kevin Love kept the W’s from obtaining the All-Star forward, a decision illustrating on the how highly Myers values Thompson.

No mention has been made regarding the financial terms of the deal, but it’s reasonable to speculate a price tag somewhere closer to the $3MM average annual value Raptors GM Masai Ujiri earns rather than the $12MM annual salary Knicks boss Phil Jackson gets. The latter is a record number for an executive, so I would be surprised to see Myers approach such a figure.

In Myers’ first two full years heading the Warriors, the team complied a record of 98-66. He was responsible for drafting Harrison Barnes in 2012 and signing Stephen Curry to a very team friendly extension worth $44MM over four seasons later that year. Kawakami downplays any reports suggesting there was tension in the front office during the heavily drawn out Love-saga and insists Myers was on good terms with ownership throughout the process. Whether or not there were ever any hard feelings, the new deal will have the two sides working together going forward.

Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.

Bob Myers Press Conference Notes

June 20th, 2014 at 7:08pm CST by Eddie Scarito

At his pre-draft press conference today, Warriors GM Bob Myers addressed a number of rumors regarding his team’s efforts to obtain a pick in this year’s draft and the trade rumors swirling about the franchise. Tim Kawakami of the Bay Area News Group transcribed the session. Here are some of the highlights:

Without any picks right now, how likely do you think it is that you’ll end up with a pick or two by Thursday?

“You know what? About a week before last year’s draft, I said it was unlikely and we ended up with one. I think it’s going to be harder this year because we don’t have a second-round pick and we don’t have the $3.2MM to spend on a pick. It’s possible. I think unlikely is how I’d gauge it. But everything’s pretty fluid so I never want to rule it out. I think it will be difficult to get one this year.“

You have zero to spend [on purchasing draft picks]?

“We don’t have any to spend, not until July 1st. And unfortunately the draft’s before July 1st, so we don’t have a ton of tools to obtain a pick.”

There was a report that you guys were looking at [Doug] McDermott and [Nik] Stauskas. Is that just due diligence, or is there some hope you can get that kind of pick?

“When I was an agent, it’s hard to get your players to the teams that have picks. It’s hard to even cover the range of picks you might be in. So for us, a team without any picks, the only option for us to go see players is to go see them, wherever they are. So we spent a good portion of May seeing a variety of players. But we did end up seeing most of the guys that are in the top 20. We actually sent a scout to the workout you might’ve been referring to. That’s the only way for us to see guys. And you never know on draft night, what may or may not occur. But what you can’t do is sit there and get presented with whatever pick it is and say, well, I haven’t seen that guy so I can’t make a decision. You have to make a decision, and that means you have to cover your bases the best you can.”

Not trying to make you address a specific trade rumor, but how much does this team value Klay Thompson? What is his value to the team?

“To the team? It’s extremely high. And well-deserved. I think his value to the entire league is very high. I ran into J.J. Redick after our series with them, and when you play against somebody in a playoff series, you really get an appreciation for him. We saw each other seven times. And he walked over to me and he said, you know, Klay’s a pretty good player. So that… I think respect from your peers is almost the most important thing as a player. He certainly has it. We think he’s been great. And the best thing about him that we’ve seen is improvement. I think everybody that watched him last year saw him, especially near the end of the season, really take a turn as far as getting to the basket and expanding his game. So he’s highly valued within the organization and within the team.”

What are the chances of you guys making a big trade from now until draft night?

“I’ll tell you this, I think probably right now unlikely. Best I can do for you. But I will say this, if you asked me last year at this time would we be in a situation to grab an Andre Iguodala, I would’ve said the same thing. I know it may be hard to believe, but I could get up from this little caucus and five minutes later my phone rings and it’s a deal that I hadn’t thought of, nobody had thought of, and all of a sudden you’re going down that path. But right now, I think it’s unlikely. Right now, today.”

More Fallout From Mark Jackson’s Firing

May 7th, 2014 at 10:30am CST by Chuck Myron

Mark Jackson said in a radio appearance this morning on The Dan Patrick Show that if the Warriors hadn’t fired him, he would have resigned or demanded changes, as Sports Xchange notes. Here’s more on the reaction to Jackson’s ouster in Golden State:

Former assistant coach Darren Erman was worried that Jackson was speaking ill of him behind his back, Grantland’s Zach Lowe writes, which suggests that was the reason that Erman reportedly taped the conversations of other coaches. The Warriors are investigating allegations that another assistant coach was also recording conversations within the organization, Lowe reports.
Warriors co-owner Joe Lacob doesn’t think that the decision to fire Jackson will cause Stephen Curry to sour on the organization, and Lacob says he took the star point guard’s support for the coach under consideration. Lacob made those comments and more to Tim Kawakami of the Bay Area News Group, Rusty Simmons of the San Francisco Chronicle and Monte Poole of CSNBayArea.com, and Kawakami provides a transcription.
Lacob also told the reporters that GM Bob Myers made the decision to fire Jackson, though he admits that he had the power to overrule him. Myers said he didn’t consult with Curry before he pulled the plug on Jackson, reports Diamond Leung of the Bay Area News Group.
Criticism that the team should have given Jackson an extension last summer is “unfair,” in Lacob’s eyes. Still, it appears the dissolution of extension talks proved pivotal to Jackson’s future with the Warriors, Kawakami tweets.
Lacob told the reporters that he didn’t require Jackson, who commuted to his job from Southern California, to move to the Bay Area, but he thinks that he’ll insist that his next coach live close to work. On-court expectations will be high for the next coach of the team, Lacob asserts.
Lacob suggests that while Jackson succeeded in connecting with his players, the coach could do a better job of “managing up and sideways,” seemingly pointing to Jackson’s tension with management and much of the Warriors organization. Still, he insists his relationship with Jackson was generally friendly.
Jackson and Kings coach Michael Malone, Jackson’s former assistant, used to share the same agent, who negotiated the title of Warriors associate head coach for Malone behind Jackson’s back, according to Kawakami. When Jackson found out, he took the title away and changed agents. That begat the tension between Jackson and Malone, Kawakami says (All Twitter links).

Western Notes: Warriors, Young, Lakers

April 10th, 2014 at 5:54pm CST by Ryan Raroque

Warriors co-owner Joe Lacob told reporters that he, coach Mark Jackson and GM Bob Myers all get along, refuting reported dysfunction within the team, as Diamond Leung of the Bay Area News Group transcribes. Lacob referred to the re-assignment of assistant coach Brian Scalabrine and the firing of fellow assistant Darren Erman as “minor setbacks.” A little over a week ago, Myers gave Jackson a public vote of support, saying that he’s done a tremendous job; however, we’ve also relayed the belief from some writers who think that Jackson’s future in Golden State could be tied to how the team fares in this year’s postseason.

Here are a few other notes to pass along out of the Western Conference this evening:

Lakers swingman Nick Young is “very confident” that he’ll reach an agreement to remain with the team beyond this summer, reports Mark Medina of the L.A. Daily News. This isn’t the first time that the Los Angeles native has gone on record saying he’d like to stay, but he also hinted that it could be difficult to pass up a hefty pay raise somewhere else if the opportunity presented itself.
Some members of Lakers brass are high on the idea of bringing in a young, up-and-coming head coach who wouldn’t command too much money, making him cheap to get rid of if he doesn’t pan out, according to Bleacher Report’s Kevin Ding.
In addition to making the argument that Dirk Nowitzki ranks among one of the NBA’s 12 greatest players, Mavericks head coach Rick Carlisle thinks that Dirk – currently the 10th highest scorer in NBA history – has plenty left in the tank to surpass a few more names on that list: “He’s got a lot more good basketball left in him…A lot more great basketball. So I think he’s going to pick off a few more guys going up the ladder” (ESPN’s Marc Stein reports).
The Kings have assigned Willie Reed to their D-League affiliate in Reno, according to GM Pete D’Alessandro.
Former Spurs training camp invitee Courtney Fells has signed a deal with Bucaneiros de la Guaira in Venezuela, reports Emiliano Carchia of Sportando. Fells played in 47 games for the Spurs’ D-League affiliate in 2013/14, averaging 20.5 PPG, 6.1 RPG, and 40.4 MPG.

Chuck Myron contributed to this post.

And-Ones: Jeanie, Celtics, LeBron

March 18th, 2014 at 10:16pm CST by Ryan Raroque

Lakers president Jeanie Buss appeared on TWC Sports Net in Los Angeles tonight, addressing today’s most popular topic: “it was clear that (Phil Jackson) wanted to go back to work, but there was no role for him with the Lakers…He was not offered an official position… There (was) no role in the front office for him.”

As Jackson’s fiancee, Buss said that she recently met with NBA Commissioner Adam Silver to discuss a potential conflict of interest now that Phil is running the front office in New York. With regard to the Buss family’s ownership of the Lakers, Jeanie asserted that they aren’t going anywhere soon: “This is the family business and the family is going to own the team for as long as the family is together” (All Twitter links via ESPN LA’s Ramona Shelburne).

Here are more of tonight’s miscellaneous news and notes:

Celtics co-owner Wyc Grousbeck recently hinted at major roster changes this summer, telling Baxter Holmes of The Boston Globe that there could be “fireworks” this June, as Holmes notes within a story on the challenges of playing for a team with so much uncertainty,
LeBron James sidestepped a question about a potential return to the Cavaliers earlier tonight: “For me to take my mind somewhere else when I know what’s on its way [postseason] is almost impossible” (Ira Winderman of the Sun Sentinel via Twitter). Tonight marked LeBron’s final appearance in Cleveland before he can opt out this summer, and the Heat superstar didn’t count anything out: “Only time will tell” (Sam Amico of FOX Sports Ohio relayed on Twitter).
Though Mark Jackson has been a target for ridicule in Golden State, the missteps of Warriors owner Joe Lacob and GM Bob Myers can’t be ignored either, writes Ric Bucher of the Bleacher Report.
Bucher adds that it was Lacob who made the call to amnesty Charlie Bell‘s $4MM contract so the team could pursue then-free agent Tyson Chandler, who never planned on playing for the Warriors. Additionally, top management – whether intentional or not – provided the grist which brought forth questions about Jackson’s job security this year, specifically when Lacob expressed disappointment about certain losses and Myers suggested that Jackson has been given all he needs to succeed. The team is currently sixth in the Western Conference and holds just a three-and-a-half-game lead over the ninth-seeded Suns.

Warriors Owner On Jackson, Thompson, Barnes

February 12th, 2014 at 8:36am CST by Chuck Myron

Warriors co-owner Joe Lacob didn’t necessarily expect to contend for a title this year, but he did envision the team becoming a “serious competitor” for a top-four finish in the Western Conference, as he tells Tim Kawakami of the Bay Area News Group. Golden State is in sixth place, four games back of the Clippers and Rockets, who are tied for fourth. The Warriors are just two and a half games up on ninth place Memphis. It’s left Lacob a “little disappointed,” but “not overly concerned yet,” he says. With plenty of trade rumors surrounding the Warriors, Lacob had much more to say to Kawakami, and while the entire piece is worth a read, we’ll share the highlights here:

On coach Mark Jackson:

“Of course there’s pressure on him. Just like there’s pressure on the players, there’s pressure on Mark, too. There’s on me, pressure on (GM) Bob Myers … and you know what? We should all be happy we have that pressure, because the truth is that means we’re relevant. If there’s no pressure and no expectations, that means we’re in rebuild mode and still coming. I don’t think that’s the case. We’re good. Whether we are achieving our expectations or not, we’ll look at the end of the year and see what we did. Maybe he is feeling it a little and he should be feeling pressure. That’s a good thing. I feel the pressure for this team to perform. We’ve invested a lot of time, a lot of money, a lot of thinking, a lot of effort, and we’re going to continue to do so. I certainly feel pressure and some weight of expectation and I’m very happy to feel those things because it means we’ re getting somewhere.”

On how he’ll assess Jackson and others:

“I think you’re always evaluating everybody, whether it be the players, the coaches … it’s hard to know, if you don’t quite win a few games you should, is it the coach’s fault? Is it the players’ fault? It’s hard to say. I think we’ll have to look back on a body of work at the end of the season and look at that and make an evaluation. I do think our coach has done a good job; we have had some big wins, a lot of wins on the road, and that’s usually a sign of good coaching. But some things are a little disturbing; the lack of being up for some of these games at home, that’s a concern to me.”

On the team’s approach to the trade deadline:

“Very aggressive. I don’t think I would answer that differently any year. Honestly, I don’t even know how you think about it any other way. You should always be very aggressive, should always be looking to improve your team. Now it’s not clear we’ll be able to do that. There’ve been a lot of discussions, that’s what I hear around the league, but we’ll just have wait and see. We’re not going to make a move just to make a move. Certainly there are certain parts of the roster that we’d like to improve. No matter how good we are, we’d probably have that attitude. There’s no real limit on what we can do. Bob Myers has the ability, he knows, to propose anything to ownership, even if it means going into luxury tax, if means using those trade exceptions. We’ll consider all things.”

On the assertion that everyone except Stephen Curry and Andrew Bogut is available for a trade:

“That specific statement has been out there. But I think we’d be very reluctant to trade any of our core pieces; we like our core. And our young core players–Curry, Klay (Thompson) and (Harrison) Barnes — a lot of teams like them because we’re getting specific trade proposals on a daily basis about those players. We are not anxious nor are we likely to make a move involving those players. Everyone wants what we have, young pieces. And we also have some important veteran players in our core and you need a mix of the two. … It’s obvious we need to get a little better, need a little more bench production and we need to jell a little more. We just haven’t quite hit our stride. Hopefully we hit that; we’ve got 30 games left to do it and make a strong run to the playoffs.”

Warriors GM On Iguodala, Bogut, Potential Moves

January 28th, 2014 at 9:36pm CST by Cray Allred

In part two of an interview with Nate Duncan of Basketball Insiders (part one was released yesterday), Warriors GM Bob Myers discussed the decision-making that led to the current Warriors roster, the team’s solid performance this season, and their championship window. The whole thing is an interesting read, and here are some of the highlights:

On Andrew Bogut‘s three-year extension, which is one of just two non-rookie extensions to be signed under the new CBA:

“In this day and age in a new CBA, a player that’s playing well likely will opt to wait because they can add years. Had he waited until this summer, he can get a five-year deal. The way that we structured it in the extension, all we have to give are those three years. From the player’s side, a lot of players don’t want to come to the table and discuss the extension because they’re forfeiting money in the future. But Andrew understood that this is a place he wanted to be, and he obviously wanted to get a fair deal. I felt like we offered a fair deal, obviously he did too because he accepted it.
…there are always variables that play into it. Some financial, some situational; injury plays into it to some extent, age plays into it, whether that player feels like he can get another deal, happiness, how happy is the player in that market, on that team with his coach and his front office. A lot of things have to line up and that’s why I think you see few of those types of deals.”

Going to the Andre Iguodala sign-and-trade, at what point did the thought of opening up the cap space over last summer kind of come into focus for you guys?

What started as a seed from our side in the situation, we felt like this would be a great guy to add to our roster, was cemented when we met with him and he echoed the same sentiments. From that point on, it was full steam ahead to try to find a way to do it. Even after that, though, my personal belief was that it remained a long shot. Just because we wanted to do it and he wanted to do it, that was nice and made us feel good about it, but you’d still put low odds on it – less than five percent. We had to find multiple trading partners taking a lot of money; it had to fit what they were trying to do. It really came down to the last 30 minutes, where his agent had said to us, ‘Look I’ll let you guys try and try and try, but you have a deadline now.’ He was very fair about it. So that really came down to the wire, and fortunately for us the league is comprised of 29 other teams and if you’re really motivated to do a deal, you can usually find a partner – sometimes you can’t and thankfully we did. I think it fit what Utah was looking to do, and it all lined up.

On the possibility of further moves:

We feel like we’re going to give this core and these players a healthy amount of time to see if it works. We also believe that we maintain now and believe in the future a healthy amount of assets on our roster. We’re very attractive, we have a lot of talent. It allows you to have flexibility should you want to make moves.