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00:00us. Right now is the Executive Vice President of Basketball Operations, Kirk Laker, joining
00:07us. Kirk was a special request of mine last night. So Raymond Ritter coming through. Welcome
00:13Kirk, how you doing man? I'm good, how are you guys doing? Hanging in. We're good. And
00:18we are talking about this game tonight. Let me ask you this Kirk, because I know you guys
00:25got here in 10 or 11. What do you remember about meeting Klay Thompson? Because you were
00:30part of the organization that drafted him and you and your dad had just gotten here
00:36or were a year or two in at that point. Meeting Klay, I mean the whole first few interactions
00:42with him are very memorable. Love Klay. I remember watching him. I was in college at
00:47the same time for the most part. I was I think one year ahead of him, maybe two. And I remember
00:52watching him and hearing things about him from people I knew. And then obviously I
00:56got here and we went through the draft process and we all fell in love with Klay. That was
01:01probably the easiest draft pick we've ever made to be honest. I think that was completely
01:06unanimous across the board. And it ranges from the Jerry Wester where he walked in and
01:14saw Klay for five minutes and walked out and said, that's the guy we need to draft. But
01:20ultimately, the thing I remember most is we drafted Klay and he flew here as rookies
01:25do and we took him out to dinner. And the dinner was me and Larry Riley and Klay and
01:32his parents. It was just the five of us at Pecan, which was an old kind of Southern restaurant
01:38in Oakland. And we sat there and Klay didn't speak a word, maybe three words. I think it
01:46was three or four words in 45 minutes. Michael Thompson, his father spoke the majority of
01:51dinner. Very entertaining. Michael's a great guy. And then at one point, Julie, Klay's
01:57mom just nudged him and said, Klay, can you say something? I just started laughing. And
02:03so that's like the memory, first real memory I have with Klay. But I spent a lot of time
02:08with him his first two summers. We had our player development group. And I will never
02:14forget he told me, I left school a year early so I don't have to read books. Why are you
02:18asking me to read a book? Wow. And he's now, I mean, he's a voracious reader now. Yeah.
02:24And we wrote a book together as a group and he really loved it. It was about a kid, Demetrius
02:28Walker, he grew up with. And I set him up to meet with the author afterwards. And so
02:32I remember these early years with Klay. He's always been a really good personal friend
02:37of mine and just an amazing character. Wow, that's good stuff, Kirk. I was asking Stani,
02:42you know, Klay coming out of college, could you predict what he is? And, you know, he's
02:46on his way whenever that day comes to the Hall of Fame. And just hearing you talk about
02:50obviously we liked him, Guru, we drafted him. But I mean, just talk about how far he's exceeded
02:56your expectations and the defensive end, the ability to come down. I've seen you ball,
03:01you know, you know what it takes. But for him to do that, you know, against the greats,
03:07how far has he gone past your expectations? I mean, look, if you knew you were drafting
03:12a Hall of Famer, you should not wait until the 11th pick. Man, you're trading up. So
03:19obviously we thought he was going to be a very good player. We thought he could be a
03:21starter in this league. Thought he could be a great match with Steph. And he exceeded
03:26all our expectations. And that's on Klay. I mean, he worked so hard. And I think the
03:32thing that people missed, and this is an easy thing to miss, just didn't know how competitive
03:37he was. We thought he was competitive. We thought he loved to play. But he was a killer.
03:42And he put the work in. He really did. Those first couple summers, he was told you can
03:48really shoot, but what else can you do? And he took that to heart. He worked really hard.
03:53He was in the gym every single day working on defensive slides and understanding rotations.
03:57This stuff doesn't happen by accident. When did you guys kind of figure out that he had
04:03an ability to stay in front of ones, point guards, particularly the guys, James Harden,
04:10I'm thinking back to those Houston series. When did you guys realize we can be completely
04:15comfortable putting him on one of those guys and just letting him do his thing?
04:20I think it was kind of trial by fire. They just said, hey, let's try this out. He's done
04:27a really good job working in the summer and in practice. He's shown a competitive streak.
04:31He says, I want to guard these guys. I don't remember. I'm not in the coaches meetings
04:35all the time, so I can't remember exactly the point at which they tried it. But I know
04:39he wanted to take that on. And he proved people wrong very quickly. People said he had slow
04:44feet or he was too big. And he took that as a personal affront. I've described him before.
04:52It's like you put a tennis ball in front of a dog, he's going to get it. You put someone
04:58with the ball in front of him, he's going to guard them. And that's going to be his
05:02sole focus that night. He's going to put all his energy to that. And yeah, it just kind
05:07of happened, I think, organically. And then they gave him a shot at it and he did such
05:11a great job. It was kind of off and running from there.
05:13Kirk, it's so funny with social media and what we do. We're taking calls and people
05:17are Clay should do this. If I were Clay, this is how we should react from the Clay Thompson.
05:23You know, how do you feel? What do you think's going through his head tonight? Just about
05:27all the attention and what tonight means with him coming back to the Bay.
05:32Oh, man. Going into Clay's head's a dangerous place.
05:35Wow.
05:37Yeah, I really don't know. I don't know. I will tell you what I want is for him to be
05:43happy and feel appreciated. That's what I want.
05:46Wow.
05:47I really care about this guy a lot. I love him. He's a great person, was a great Golden
05:54State Warrior. I mean, one of the best there will ever be. And so I just hope that he gets
05:59the reception that he deserves. And I hope he feels fulfilled and I hope he feels the
06:03love. I don't know how he feels going into it. I really don't. But I hope that he comes
06:09out of this feeling loved.
06:11Let me ask you this. And we're joined by Kirk Lacob, Executive Vice President of Basketball
06:16Operations for the Golden State Warriors. Just looking at this team, your team right
06:20now, it's eight and two. You're off to a real good start. What do you make of Steve
06:27wanting to play 11 or 12 guys? Is it sustainable? And I'm starting to think that it may be the
06:35perfect time to try it because of how much load managing is going on throughout the league,
06:41that if you can somehow get 11 guys night in and night out, maybe that's the way you
06:46get through the regular season on a real positive note.
06:49Well, I think Steve is doing a tremendous job coaching. You know, this is what coaching
06:53is about. You have a roster in front of you and you do the best that you can with that
06:57roster. And he is he's the one who coined strength in numbers. And so we're taking it,
07:04you know, all the way now. No, I mean, look, there's no rule that you can only play so
07:08many guys. And I think generally more good players is better than less good players.
07:13We've talked about this in various summers with Steve. You know, how do we want to do
07:18this? Who can we bring in? And it certainly feels better when you have options than when
07:23you don't have options. Now, it doesn't mean that it's not hard. We're making his job hard,
07:26but it's what he gets paid to do. This is what he signed up for is to coach the team.
07:31And I know he's really happy with everybody in the rosters. Probably the first time he's
07:35ever said, I feel comfortable playing every single person any night. That's a great thing
07:40to hear. Now it makes his job harder because he's got to figure out how to keep guys happy
07:43and keep them engaged. But he's doing it. He and his staff are doing a tremendous job here.
07:48And look, it's the right thing for this team right now. And we're going to see where it
07:53goes. It's working right now. Strength in numbers is back. Let's keep it rolling.
07:57We saw you in the summer and, you know, you mentioned Wiggins was going to stay in town.
08:02He kind of was working on his game per se. And you had mentioned the word connectivity.
08:07And right now everything is just gelling. I shared with you, I can't get past the play and
08:11lost the sack. I'm still watching it. And now all of a sudden, these acquisitions,
08:16everything is just coming up roses. But Buddy Heald has, how do I ask it? Has he surpassed
08:23the fit that you thought when you identified him as possibly coming to the team? Because he's been
08:27a godsend and almost like perfect. We thought he was a good fit. It turns out he's a great fit.
08:35We're really pleasantly surprised. I think Buddy's always wanted to play here,
08:39is what I've heard. He's always wanted to be a part of this. I think he fits so well on the
08:45court with his movement. I know he studied Steph and Clay over the years. I've heard that from
08:50Chris DeMarco, who obviously coached in the Bahamas. He studied the way those guys play.
08:54So he was ready for a system like this. I think the part that we really didn't know the answer
08:58to is how is he going to fit outside of the on-court spot? Man, he might fit even better
09:03in the locker room than he does on the court. This guy is just fitting seamlessly. You know,
09:08one of Steve's core tenets is joy, and nobody ever has been able to embody that better than
09:15Steph Curry. But Buddy comes close. That guy never has a bad day. He is smiling, joking around,
09:21having fun every day, and it is infectious, and it's been great. Kirk Lakob, joining us on 95.7,
09:27The Game, Executive Vice President of Basketball Operations for the Golden State Warriors.
09:32The one thing you guys have talked about, Steve's talked about it, Mike's talked about it, is
09:37the way the roster sits right now, you've got flexibility. If something presents itself,
09:44it feels like you guys are poised to jump on it. My question would be, if things continue to go
09:50as well as they're going, does that make it more or less likely that you might make a move?
09:59Well, that's a tough question to answer. I think it depends what's out there.
10:02There's always context to this. Obviously, if we are the top team in the NBA, yeah,
10:08it seems hard to want to break that up at all. Maybe we'll try to add some small piece. I really
10:15don't know. We've got to just see how this plays out, I think. Look, we're always opportunistic.
10:20We're always making sure we know what's out there, what's available, what's coming next.
10:25That's part of our job, to know what the possibilities are and what that could ultimately
10:31cost us. Then we ultimately have to weigh whether there's an opportunity that can make us better or
10:36not. I don't have an answer for that today. We're barely in November yet. We're 10 games in. Really
10:43want to see how this team continues to come together and just kind of enjoy it.
10:46Well, speaking of which, and I know it's early, you guys have said as much, but that road trip,
10:51I mean, there was a slip up or the hiccup in Cleveland, but outside of that, Kirk,
10:55I got to believe you guys are sleeping good at night, knowing, like you said, it's early.
10:59But man, you played some heavyweights on that trip and did well. Can you understand fans being
11:04excited? Oh, yeah. Yeah. I hope they're excited. I mean, man, look, the point is to win games,
11:10you know? And these were really good teams. Really, really good teams. And we were tested a
11:15little bit already. Steph missing some games. DeAnthony's missed some games. A couple other
11:19guys have been, you know, nicked up here and there. But I think what I've noticed is just
11:25this is a resilient group so far. They really like being around each other. It's a competitive
11:29group. We've seen that on the defensive end. Defense has been swarming, really aggressive.
11:36I mean, we're finally taking it to people on the defense, something we've been lacking the last
11:40few years. And that's really, you know, that's at the core of a team. Like, do you have that in you
11:46or not? So we're no longer just defending. We're like coming at you on defense. I see it. And
11:52they're more on point. I think it's been everybody from Steph and Draymond on down.
11:57They're really focused. And Steve and his staff have done an absolutely phenomenal job.
12:02So we just got to try to continue to keep it rolling. Vibes are good. Vibes being good is
12:08always a good thing. And we're going to hit some tough periods. Someone's going to get
12:12hurt for a period again. But can we have the resilience? And right now the answer is yes.
12:17So yeah, look, I'm excited. I'm a fan too. Don't forget that. I hope everyone else is with me.
12:22Yeah. Appreciate it. Great start for the Golden State Warriors. They're eight and two.
12:26Kirk Laker, Executive Vice President of the Golden State Warriors joining us. Thank you so much.
12:31What's coming up on the game is presented by Fremont Bank celebrating 60 years of full
12:35service banking with no compromises. Thank you, Kirk. We'll be right back.