Bob Myers Rumors | Hoops Rumors

Warriors GM Bob Myers On Game Plan, Jackson

January 27th, 2014 at 8:15pm CST by Zachary Links

Warriors GM Bob Myers sat down for a wide-ranging interview with Nate Duncan of Basketball Insiders. In part one of the two part chat, Myers spoke about his approach in building from his hiring in 2011 to their 2013 playoff success. The whole thing is certainly worth a read, but here’s a look at a few of the highlights..

What is really the goal of the organization? Is it being a contender, is it winning one championship, or is it winning multiple championships?

Well it’s the right question. I think winning consistently is the goal of any organization, it’s certainly the goal of ours and when you say winning, you mean winning at the highest level, winning championships. That’s the goal here. We think we’re in a market that can be attractive to players. We know we have ownership that supports spending in the right ways and we’ve got an unbelievable fan base, so we’re set up and positioned to be what we consider a championship contending team if not now, in the future.

That’s what we’re building towards, whether it’s incrementally–we don’t set a timeline as to when it will happen. The way we operate within our front office and ownership, it’s always trying to get better each and every day, and sometimes things happen sooner than you like and sometimes they happen later than you like, but the end goal is and will always remain winning championships and doing it over as long of a period of time as you can. I think that’s the goal of anybody and we’ve seen organizations that have been able to do that, and we would like to become one of those.

Is there an understanding though that certain moves, obviously to contend now, may have a detrimental effect later on and make it harder?

Yeah, you always have to balance, you have to be realistic about where you are as an organization, where your team is. Sometimes organizations can get in trouble when they overreach and make a play that is perceived to be a play towards a championship, but in hindsight you look back and it’ll be looked at as, instead of a play towards a championship, a short-term move that cost you in the future. So you have to be smart. You’d really like to have a roster that’s balanced with youth and veterans so you’re always having players in the pipeline as your organization grows, and having those young players around veterans also helps them develop. But you don’t want to get into a situation where you have an entire roster that’s aging. You also don’t want to be in a situation where it’s all young players. So some type of mix of that is essential. You’re right though, the challenge is to make moves that are prudent and fit your timeline. You have to be realistic about what your timeline is and we think we’re building in the right direction. We don’t think we’re anywhere near where we need to be, but we think we’re going in the right direction.

How did you know Mark Jackson would be a success as coach despite having no previous experience?

Yeah, well it’s hard. It is hard to evaluate anybody, players, coaches, any hires you make are difficult. But in Mark we saw immediately, Joe [Lacob] as well as myself and people in the front office, immediately his ability to lead, his presence, and we think that’s invaluable in the NBA. It’s a long season, it’s a grind, and we knew immediately after talking to him for five, 10 minutes that he would capture the minds of the players. And we also knew that it was rare to find somebody that had the skill set he had in that he could lead and also had tremendous experience within the NBA as a player, as a broadcaster, at the point guard position. So we saw a lot of qualities that really endeared us towards him.

NBA GMs Discuss Offseason, CBA, Free Agency

August 22nd, 2013 at 2:52pm CST by Luke Adams

Bob Myers, Dennis Lindsey, and Masai Ujiri are each relatively new to their current jobs, having taken over as their respective teams' general managers within the last 16 months. Myers, a former agent, now works in the Warriors front office, Lindsey is the GM of the Jazz, and Ujiri was hired earlier this summer as the head of basketball operations for the Raptors.

All three GMs have made interesting moves this offseason, with Myers and Lindsey completing a blockbuster three-team trade that sent multiple expiring contracts to Utah along with a few of Golden State's future draft picks. Meanwhile, Ujiri dealt former first overall pick Andrea Bargnani to the Knicks, and shored up Toronto's bench by signing Tyler Hansbrough and D.J. Augustin.

Myers, Lindsey, and Ujiri each spoke to Jimmy Spencer of Bleacher Report about the offseason and how the NBA's Collective Bargaining Agreement dictates what teams can and can't do. The entire piece is worth reading, but here are a few of the more interesting quotes from the three GMs:

Myers, on how team-building has changed within the last year or two:

"I think people are being more fiscally responsible and maybe a bit more conservative. Teams were not as aggressive on spending. The top-of-the-line free agents weren’t able to demand high-level compensation, though some of that middle class did get compensated as normal. Overall, though, I think a pretty decent portion was paid less than in the past."

Lindsey, on the effects of the league's new CBA:

"Whenever there is a new collective bargaining agreement in any league, teams, capologists or lawyers are trying to get their arms around the rules. Mechanically, what’s different on a micro level? On a macro level, certainly the tax system and aggressive penalties have come into play within teams’ long-term planning and short-term planning because of repeater tax issues. Many teams were anticipating a set of rules with the new CBA and did some real pre-CBA planning. It’s more than a one-year thing; several teams have planned for this."

Ujiri, on whether he feels like he knows the CBA inside and out:

"You try to study as much as you can. In my mind, I think I know it all, but you never do — that’s the truth. You keep trying to learn and learn, and to be honest, there is so much to learn. We also all try to figure out ways to gain advantages through the language of the CBA and going around it. I used to always ask [former Nuggets assistant GM] Pete D'Alessandro: 'Can we really do that? Call the NBA and ask, make sure we can really do that.' It always happens, we are all so happy in thinking we have gone around it, and all of the sudden you can’t."

Myers, on whether certain types of players were undervalued or overvalued this summer:

"It’s in the eye of the beholder like anything; this is an art as much as it is a science. I tried, personally, not to speculate and make knee-jerk reactions to free-agent signings. You don’t know, to be honest, whether it’s your own player or any player assigned to any team, how that contract is going to play out. I can tell you most of the time it’s going to be different than what you envisioned. Whether you are going to get a great deal or a less-than-great deal, you don’t know. There’s a human element to this. It’s hard to say what contracts are good or not; all you can do is make the best judgement call you can and try to be fiscally responsible."

Western Notes: Mavericks, Warriors, Dragic

April 9th, 2013 at 8:33pm CST by Michael Pina

A few notes from around the NBA's Western Conference on this Tuesday night.

Dallas Morning News reporter Eddie Sefko believes the Mavericks need to target a big man with their cap space this summer. The wish list includes Dwight Howard, Al Jefferson, Andrew Bynum, and Nikola Pekovic.
MercuryNews.com columnist Mark Purdy writes that Warriors general manager Bob Myers is always thinking about the future as much as he's thinking about the present.
The Suns are headed for what will likely be their worst record since their very first year in the league, back in 1968/69, but last summer's major free agent signing, Goran Dragic, has been a silver lining for the team, writes Paul Coro of the Arizona Republic.

Western Notes: Warriors, Lakers, Davis

September 27th, 2012 at 9:39pm CST by Ryan Raroque

Marcus Thompson II of the Bay Area News Group summarized Warriors GM Bob Myers' meeting with the local media today, and writes that the team has very important decisions to make in the near future. Thompson mentions that Golden State has the ability to significantly be under the salary cap in two years, but will also have to deal with the possible contract extensions of Stephen Curry and Andrew Bogut in addition to deciding the futures of players that are still on their rookie-scale deals. "The players can stay as long as they want if we win…but if we don't win, maybe some things do get turned over," said Myers.

With that being said, we have a few more links to share with you tonight out of the Western Conference:

Andrew Bogut is on schedule to play on opening night and possibly in some pre-season games, although the Australian center has not yet been cleared for five-on-five scrimmages yet, writes Rusty Simmons of SF Gate. GM Bob Myers also talked about Festus Ezeli, adding that he is a "team-first" guy who gives multiple efforts make him a quality prospect. Myers chose to remain neutral on Andris Biedrins not showing up for voluntary pre-training camp workouts, but added that he will have the opportunity to compete in camp and that his role will ultimately be left up to head coach Mark Jackson.
Arash Markazi of ESPN Los Angeles thinks that the last three roster spots on the Lakers will ultimately be decided between Andrew Goudelock, Darius Morris, Darius Johnson-Odom, and Robert Sacre (Twitter link). In another tweet, Markazi says that Goudelock seems to be the odd man out at this point.
Hornets rookie Anthony Davis spoke about what he took away from his experiences at the Olympics, teaming with Robin Lopez this season, and head coach Monty Williams' expectations (Jimmy Smith of the Times-Picayune reports).
Aaron J. Lopez of Nuggets.com spoke with Nuggets assistant coach Melvin Hunt to evaluate Jordan Hamilton's rookie season and what he was told to work on this summer.

Warriors Name Bob Myers General Manager

April 24th, 2012 at 3:42pm CST by Luke Adams

The Warriors have promoted Bob Myers to the general manager position, the team announced today in a press release. Larry Riley, who had spent the last year as the team's GM, will remain in the organization as the team's director of scouting.

Myers joined the Golden State front office last April as the team's assistant general manager after serving for over a decade as an agent. Warriors co-owner and CEO Joe Lacob praised Myers in the team's statement, calling the 37-year-old the ideal person for the job.

"We’re extremely pleased to announce Bob’s promotion as we conclude the 2011/12 season," said Lacob. "We are confident that he is the right person to guide our Basketball Operations Department into the long-term future and, similarly, through a very important time for this franchise as we begin to prepare for next season. As we acknowledged a year ago, we think his potential as a young executive in this business is outstanding and that intuition was certainly confirmed during his first year with the organization."