Joe Lacob admits that Warriors spending is not sitting well across the NBA

[FAH1223]

The Warriors haven't been shy about spending money in order to maintain the roster that has won four NBA titles in the last eight seasons.

Putting money into the roster has been one of the main calling cards for Warriors owners Joe Lacob and Peter Guber ever since they bought the franchise in 2010.

But in order to field a championship-level roster, the Warriors have had to go way over the salary cap and luxury tax thresholds. That makes the roster very, very expensive.

During the 2021-22 NBA season, the Warriors had just under $176 million in taxable salaries, per Spotrac. That works out to a luxury tax bill of an additional $170 million. So the cost of the 2022-title winning team was north of $340 million.

The Warriors are playing by the rules, though, in order to keep their own players. They are just paying the steep price.

Lacob made an appearance on The Athletic's "TK Show" with Tim Kawakami on Thursday and got into a back-and-forth about how much the team could end up spending in the years to come, while also acknowledging that other teams and the NBA aren't thrilled with the Warriors right now.

​

Kawakami: "Is there a number that you put up there for Bob? Or do you guys have a number, like 'We can't go over $420 [million], you know, total commitment, $450 [million]?"


Lacob: "You're really good at reporting. You're one of the smarter reporters out there but I'm going to tell you, you're numbers are kind of messed up. I will just say that. You were throwing numbers out there like $400 and $500 [million]."

Kawakami: "The multiples go crazy."

Lacob: "Those numbers are not even remotely possible. They're just not. I'm already in trouble with the rest of the league. We are in trouble for being where we are. In fact, Vegas, I'll be at the NBA Board of Governors meeting Tuesday, let me tell you. They're not happy. It's not just us. Other teams are going into the luxury tax now as well. We kind of blew a hole in the system and it's not a good look from the league's perspective. They don't want to see it happen. And there are limits. I'm not going to say what they are but there are limits to what you can do. You've said we bring in a lot of revenue. We are very successful at generating revenue, Brandon Schneider and his group and you are correct. We had a terrific year, revenue wise. We went to the Finals. That's obvious. But I can also tell you the expenses are incredible, all-time record. Not just player salaries but everything else. So it all adds up. We spend everything we make. We don't take any distribution [money]. Never taken a dollar. None of our partners have taken a dollar. We just pile it back into building an arena, which we did for five years. We were making a lot of money in Oakland the last few years. We piled it into this arena without public help. And now when we're in a stage where our players have gotten ... been with us longer and they make more money and we want to retain them, we want to continue going for championships, it's piling all that money into player salaries. And that's what we've done here last year and the last few years and we'll again do this year."


The Warriors' tax bill might not be as high for the upcoming 2022-23 season, depending on how they fill out the roster. But in the coming years, with looming extensions for Andrew Wiggins and Jordan Poole, the bill could go through the roof.

It was the luxury tax implications that forced the Warriors to let Gary Payton II leave in free agency rather than match the offer he got from the Portland Trail Blazers.

And if the Warriors eventually have to sign Jonathan Kuminga, James Wiseman and/or Moses Moody to extensions, the bill could get even higher.

​

For now though, Lacob and the Warriors' ownership are willing to foot the bill in order to win as much as possible while Steph Curry, Klay Thompson and Draymond Green are in their primes.

 

[Rice N Beans]

Owners seem incredibly stingy most of the time. I don't see many of them following the Warriors FO in the willingness to spend on keeping a Finals team.

At the least the Warriors group recognizes the positives in paying for the group to stay together. How many FOs would let some of them walk and try to catch a vet with lower value to fill the role? These guys pay up and they are in the hunt every year.

 

[LeftCoast]

wish these 2 cacs owned the Lakers instead of Jeanie cheap ass.

 

[Anerdyblackguy]

Have nothing but respect for The Warrior ownership group

 

[ryderldb]

The repeater tax needs to be revised. The warriors aren't like the Yankees and just putting in the highest bid for the top free agents (not like you really could do that anyways in the NBA). They're spending money retaining talent that they've drafted and are getting penalized for it. They need to to revise the repeater tax to not count salaries paid for players drafted by the team or change the multiplier for drafted players or some shyt.

 

[Hersh]

already setting up the narrative of "warriors barely breaking even".. stop it slime.. owners always ALWAYS will cook the books

 

[dora_da_destroyer]

Lacob be talking like he’s one of the deep pocketed owners in the league. Ballmer worth ~50x more and wants to win…yea you got misers who don’t want to spend but let some of these owners worth $15B+ decide to play this game and it’s a wrap

 

[ryderldb]

already setting up the narrative of "warriors barely breaking even".. stop it slime.. owners always ALWAYS will cook the books

I don't think they're barely breaking even, but I do believe him when he says they're spending a lot of money too. They privately financed that stadium, the debt service on that can't be cheap.

 

[William Heavy]

I ain't mad at them. Other owners don't like it, too bad. Lacob and Guber were minority owners of the Celtics, it should of been them to own the C's. Instead we got a couple penny pinchers acting like our team is some damn midwest small market team. For years a lot of our fans would be like "but but the tax!!!"

Finally we became a tax team after a decade.

I agree with what someone said earlier that the league should lower the tax on teams paying the players they drafted.

 

[Primetime]

Lacob be talking like he’s one of the deep pocketed owners in the league. Ballmer worth ~50x more and wants to win…yea you got misers who don’t want to spend but let some of these owners worth $15B+ decide to play this game and it’s a wrap

Yea, Ballmer owning 334 milly Microsoft stock at $264 a pop. That’s $88 billion right there… there was that meme saying Balmer would lose more money with a 2% drop in MS shares than Lacob’s entire net worth (1.5b).

In other words if LAC ever finds a core that wins him a ‘ship, there’s no telling the spending fukkery Balmer would be down for to keep the ‘ships ‘shippin.

 

[Tony D'Amato]

 

[Hersh]

I don't think they're barely breaking even, but I do believe him when he says they're spending a lot of money too. They privately financed that stadium, the debt service on that can't be cheap.

breh.. they own the Golden State warriors.

 

[MJ Truth]

The repeater tax needs to be revised. The warriors aren't like the Yankees and just putting in the highest bid for the top free agents (not like you really could do that anyways in the NBA). They're spending money retaining talent that they've drafted and are getting penalized for it. They need to to revise the repeater tax to not count salaries paid for players drafted by the team or change the multiplier for drafted players or some shyt.

Why?? It’s the same difference whether you drafted them or traded for them.

 

[inndaskKy]

Aha. So Steph's first ring was because of injuries, second and third was because of KD and the fourth was just a bought ring.

When's this bus rider gonna win a fair one?

 

[BigMoneyGrip]

Warriors are being penalized for drafting well… NBA need to rework that repeater tax if teams draft a player who stays with the team then his contract extensions shouldn’t count against the repeater tax.. it’s like the warriors are gonna be forced to give up Poole Kuminga, Weisman and moody at some point because they won’t be able to keep all of them and that’s beyond bullshyt..