Bob Myers' phone should be buzzing all week.
With the NBA trade deadline rapidly approaching, the Warriors' general manager has until Thursday at noon to decide which calls and texts he actually wants to answer.
"We try to do our work early," Myers said at a press conference last week. "Every team does. If you don't have to make a move, it means you've maybe got some things right. It doesn't mean we won't. I don't think we feel urgency, but we're always listening and talking and seeing if something comes up."
Myers will undoubtedly pick up the phone when other executives dial, but this year, he's clearly operating from a position of power. Following the Warriors' 110-98 victory over the Oklahoma City Thunder on Monday evening, Golden State is 41-13 and in second place in the Western Conference.
Entering the season, the Warriors hoped to reestablish themselves in the upper echelon of the NBA. With nearly two-thirds of its games in the rearview mirror, Golden State is now seen as a legitimate championship contender.
Not everything has gone according to plan — Draymond Green remains sidelined with a back injury while James Wiseman has yet to make a season debut — but Golden State doesn't have reason to overhaul its roster or make a blockbuster move at this year's deadline.
It's likely any maneuvering in the trade or buyout markets will be described as "tinkering."
"If the question is, 'Have we seen enough to stand pat?' I mean yes and no," Myers said. "If something came along that was so good that we thought is better than the current version of us, then we would do it. But as far as feeling a pressure and a mindset of this isn't good enough, we don't feel that way. We don't look at the roster as deficient."
How did the Warriors arrive at this point?
The team that chose Wiseman second overall in the 2020 NBA Draft and held a pair of lottery picks in the 2021 draft has emerged as a title threat thanks to a long line of prudent decisions. It's possible none would matter if the Warriors didn't have Stephen Curry leading the way, but the 33-year-old remains one of the league's most dynamic players and has overcome rare shooting struggles to make MVP-caliber contributions to one of the NBA's best teams.
Curry has helped wing Andrew Wiggins play the best basketball of his career, assisted in Klay Thompson's successful integration back into the starting lineup following an extended injury absence and helped motivate several emerging members of an inexperienced, but promising group that includes Jordan Poole and rookies Jonathan Kuminga and Moses Moody.
Drafting Kuminga, a 19-year-old native of the Democratic Republic of Congo, has paid recent dividends for a Warriors team that's been short on frontcourt depth without Green and Wiseman. Under different circumstances, it would be easy to envision a scenario in which Myers was fielding daily calls about Kuminga's availability via a trade, but the Warriors are not only convinced he's a critical part of their future core, but a key piece inside their current championship window.
"I'm so excited for JK's future," Thompson said recently. "He has an incredibly high ceiling and one day down the line it will be his team, or he'll be a huge part of this team. I see him being one of the better players in the league one day."
Moody, who was selected 14th overall out of Arkansas, hasn't played as much as Kuminga in part due to the Warriors' depth at the guard positions, but the rookie made six 3-pointers and scored a career-high 20 points in a comeback win over the Spurs last week.
Any trade package involving a combination of Kuminga, Moody, Wiseman and future draft considerations could potentially net the Warriors another star, but salary cap and luxury tax ramifications coupled with the promise each of the young players has shown in the earliest days of their careers will prevent Golden State from seriously considering those kinds of transactions.
Instead, Myers and the rest of the front office will likely scour the buyout market for an additional big man who might represent an upgrade over an offense-first player such as Nemanja Bjelica.
"We're lucky that we think all 15 guys have value in different ways for this team," Myers said. "It takes something more than 'So and so is available and we might as well'. I think we'll be more cautious or focus a little bit more on who we're adding and why because we have 15 that can help us."
In the span of two seasons, the Warriors have transformed from an injury-riddled team that traded six players at the deadline to a franchise that's now evaluating potential upgrades at the margins of its roster.
The change can be credited to key stars such as Curry and Thompson returning to action, but also to a series of moves such as trading for Wiggins, drafting promising rookies in Kuminga and Moody and developing versatile talents such as Poole and Gary Payton II who have turned Golden State back into a force to be reckoned with.
Myers sees a path to a title for the current roster in the immediate future, but also ways to ensure the Warriors remain a contender for years to come by keeping much of this year's team intact.
That's a position most executives envy, and one that should free him from the immense pressure general managers typically face at this time of year.
